Translated…
I married a Cantonese man and we live in the Netherlands, for the Dutch, I’m also, a foreign-born bride, after my two kids were born, I’d become, a foreign born mom. Because I’m a full-time mother and housewife, most of the times, my kids would speak Mandarin with me, and I’d spoken Mandarin with my husband too, for a while, I’d worried, about my children’s understanding of the Dutch language, feared that they would have a difficult time as they are starting school, and I’d, stressed myself out over this too.
But, the Dutch government had, set my heart to ease, as my daughter was one-and-a-half, I’d taken her to the health center to get her shots, and, the health center not just took the records of my child’s height and weight, the officials there had shown a lot of concerns for the children’s family situations too, they’d mailed me a questionnaire beforehand, with sixteen questions, like, “Did something major happen in your household recently such as divorce, moving to a new residence, family members getting married, family members falling ill, deceased or changes in jobs?” one of the item had, “Do you have any questions regarding the language developments of your child?”, naturally, I’d discussed my worries with the nurse, then, the nurse took out a doll, through me translating, she’d pointed to the features, the arms, the legs, after my daughter answered the questions correctly, the nurse declared that I’d worried too much, that there was nothing wrong with the development of language in my child. He’d even suggested to me, that I must, continually, interact with my daughter in Chinese, and the manual clearly stated, that parents must communicate with the children with the mother tongue. As for the progresses of the Dutch language, after the child turns two-and-a-half, s/he can go to the preschools, for a couple of hours each and every week, to slowly get introduced into the Dutch speaking environment.
Afterwards, I’d started speaking in only Chinese with my child, and, the bedtime stories I’d read are all Chinese too. Later on, as we’d returned to Taiwan and China to visit our kin, my daughter not only had no difficulties communicating with my friends and families, she’d even, picked up on more vocabulary words too. As for Dutch, as we arrived in the local parks, I’d intervened, from time to time, as a translator, so my daughter has a chance to play with the other children. But, since my daughter was enrolled in preschool, she’d made progress, she’d started imitating others at first, and, started, speaking in complete sentences in Dutch! What’s more heartwarming was, a lot of the parents in my daughter’s class are very envious of how my daughter knew an extra language, and would laugh and joke on how they only know how to speak Dutch!
Recently, I’d met a Filipino mom, she, just like me, was also, a foreign bride, but worried that because her own language wasn’t mainstream, so she’d only spoken in Dutch with her child, but, she’d only started, speaking Dutch, learning from the very beginning, and in the end, her two-and-a-half year old still slurred in his speech right now, it’d made me feel bad, and I’m too glad, that I’d made the right choices. I want to use this opportunity, to encourage all the foreign moms in Taiwan, to NOT give up on your own language, you must persist, like I had.
And so, this, is one lesson in the learning process, because the mother is worried about how her daughter might not get caught up on the language spoken where they lived, so, she’d consulted the nurses, and, the nurses had given her the right methods, told her to continue talking to her young in her own tongue, that there’s no need to worry about her starting school, because, in school, the kid will naturally, pick up on the mainstream languages, and it showed, how this approach was correct.