Growing Up Chinese-American
Where we live, there are precious few opportunities for us to expose our son to Chinese culture. It is more difficult for us since my husband's family (who would be the most natural ones to provide a Chinese context for our son) are all at least a 4 hours drive away. And my husband has been living in the States since he was 9 years old, so he considers himself pretty "Americanized." However it is still very important to us that our son grows up identifying with his Chinese heritage, so we try to be intentional about providing those connections.
We try to do something special on traditional Chinese holidays, like Lunar New Year or Moon Festival. Also we are working on using Mandarin in our everyday language. Our son can count to ten in Mandarin (and has pretty good intonation!), and uses some simple vocabulary (mostly food words). It is a challenge for us to speak to him, since neither one of us is fluent in Mandarin. But we try! We've used a few DVDs that use Mandarin and are toddler-friendly. Little Pim and Culture Cubs are our son's favorites. We also have an array of Chinese children's books (thanks, Koko!).
But onto the real reason for this blog. As I said before, food is a natural context for us to reinforce Chinese culture for our son. So a couple of weeks ago we took out Chinese food from one of the few authentic Chinese restaurants in our town and had a family-style Chinese dinner at home. (Yes, I know I should be cooking it myself if I really want to provide the real cultural experience for my son.) We had a lot of fun getting out all the rice bowls, serving plates and chopsticks . Yes, our son used his trainer chopsticks (somewhat successfully) for the first time! We're so proud of him!
Ooops! Using my hands is easier...
Got It!!
A delicious reward for all that work!
We try to do something special on traditional Chinese holidays, like Lunar New Year or Moon Festival. Also we are working on using Mandarin in our everyday language. Our son can count to ten in Mandarin (and has pretty good intonation!), and uses some simple vocabulary (mostly food words). It is a challenge for us to speak to him, since neither one of us is fluent in Mandarin. But we try! We've used a few DVDs that use Mandarin and are toddler-friendly. Little Pim and Culture Cubs are our son's favorites. We also have an array of Chinese children's books (thanks, Koko!).
But onto the real reason for this blog. As I said before, food is a natural context for us to reinforce Chinese culture for our son. So a couple of weeks ago we took out Chinese food from one of the few authentic Chinese restaurants in our town and had a family-style Chinese dinner at home. (Yes, I know I should be cooking it myself if I really want to provide the real cultural experience for my son.) We had a lot of fun getting out all the rice bowls, serving plates and chopsticks . Yes, our son used his trainer chopsticks (somewhat successfully) for the first time! We're so proud of him!
Ooops! Using my hands is easier...
Got It!!
A delicious reward for all that work!
Comments
I really should write a long email instead of just making a comment but I´d rather start somewhere. I miss you!!! I guess most years by now we would have had our catching up for the year talk which hasn´t happened this year yet :(. There´s so much I want to share with you. Maybe I´ll email or write you a letter.
Hey... on that note, too, Jackson is getting SO BIG!!! and so cute! I miss having seen him this year, too, seeing his growth. He´s getting big!
Well, a big hug to you, Allan, and little Jackson. Maybe I´ll have to start writing him letters to so he can remember me!
Love,
Me