Do you teach your adopted child their native language?
To all the parents who have done an international adoption do you make an effort to teach them their native language? Some parents only expose them to the culture: food, music, people, and history.
Just wondering.
Yes, my daughter is 2.5 and is already having lessons in Mandarin. I felt it was really important that she started learning as young as possible but beacause of her age we specifically chose a program that would teach in an age appropriate way (lots of songs, games and play) rather than the more formal classes.
Technically Mandarin is not my daughter's native language as the area she comes from spoke a dialect called Min (actually, a dialect of Min) however we chose to teach her Mandarin because:
a) We never would have found someone to teach her Min.
b) We don't actually know what the orphanage workers spoke to her as some spoke Cantonese, some spoke Mandarin and some spoke Min.
c) Most people in China speak some Mandarin even if it is only as a 2nd or 3rd language.
d) My husband's family (who are Chinese and speak Cantonese and English) strongly encouraged us to teach her Mandarin as they felt it was "the way of the future".
The down side of this is that we don't really speak Mandarin at home because my husband only speaks English and a little rough Cantonese and I only speak English. We both did a course in Mandarin before we adopted her but no doubt she will know more than us by the end of the year.
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