Decision

Well, it didn't take long to decide that I'm going to just let my oldest go to the language school to learn Mandarin Chinese.  It's just too expensive to have all 3 kids go.  I know enough Mandarin that I think I can teach the younger kids at home.  I just need to be more diligent about it.  My parents said that while we are in Taiwan, they will help me pick out some books and cds for teaching the kids Mandarin.  I really would love for my kids to learn to at least speak some Mandarin Chinese so that they are in touch with their Chinese roots.  I wish I knew a good way to teach the kids Taiwanese too, but I think that is a language that is on its way out.  Few people speak the dialect anymore. It makes me sad to think the kids won't speak Taiwanese, but I just don't know an effective way to teach them.

DH and I stayed up last night talking about the best way to have the kids learn Mandarin Chinese.  The consensus is that to have them learn and retain any Mandarin they learn, they need to be immersed in it.  Short of moving to a Mandarin speaking country, the best way to do that is for me to speak Mandarin in the home to them.  It is hard for me to do that since English is my first language, but I am going to make a conscious effort to speak Mandarin to my children.  My youngest gets mad whenever I try to speak to her in Mandarin, but I guess she will just have to get used to it...ha ha.  I am determined that the kids will learn to at least speak Mandarin. Reading and writing would be great too, but I would be happy if they could at least speak conversational Mandarin Chinese.