chinese oral

We've (okay, I) have been industriously reading chinese story books to my little one in the hope that she'll be able to be bilingual/won't fail kinder-chinese. So far, while the little lass is keen, she is none too impressed with my reading capabilities, which goes something like blah blah blah..skip, blah, skip, blah..blah, skip etc.so obviously, the story doesn't make any sense and i get regular heart palpitations and awful flashbacks of chinese oral exams. Little one rolls her eyes at me (she knows) and says, "mummy, the pause means you don't know the word right? Shall we ask someone else to read it instead?" The cheek!

Had an emergency conference with my long-suffering chinese tutor (who had to endure me for 7 years of her life while I pawed my way to a pass) who reminded me that i will kill all love for the language the way i was going. "just look at a picture book without chinese words and talk about it!" says the wise one. Theoretically, that sounds good and even doable, for me! But in reality, when little wise-ass asks, "what's this mummy?", what's that?" and points to a gazillion things on the page which for the love of God, i have no vocabulary for, i still break out in cold sweat. Despite this, I persist. Hubby on the other hand, smiles warily and tells me, "don't worry, there's chinese B, besides she only needs chinese if she's in a local school. who knows where we'll be in a few years."

I soldier on because I don't want my children to suffer what I've suffered, that is, to actually have recurrent nightmares of chinese spelling, dictation, oral, and I do so because, some part of me, actually likes the language (although my love for it is sadly unrequited). So next time you hear Maeve trying out mandarin, don't say she sounds ang moh ok?