The first phrase my daughter, Bella, blurted out in Mandarin was “pu yau”. She was declining something from me; it meant something like “don’t want”.
I was lucky that I understood her; I’m used to hearing my Chinese colleagues say it all the time. If not that would have ended up as another clueless-mommy moment.
Ever since, Bella has started mentioning more Mandarin words. Most of them are just simple phrases, like asking for the toilet or asking for a tissue to wipe her runny nose. The first time she mentioned new ones were always laughable, I’m pretty sure that I had a very funny face when I was trying to decode what she meant based on her gestures and all.
It made me realise that she has started to pick up the language – a good sign that she is receptive towards her multilingual learning environment.
When my husband and I first decided to send Bella to school, we wanted a place where she can be exposed to another language different from her mother tongue. Since English has already become very familiar to her (we converse in Malay and English at home), we decided to let her learn Mandarin.
We found a play school that offers all three languages as part of their syllabus and decided to enrol her. At a young age (she was two when she started), we think the most crucial part is getting her to be comfortable with the setup. Judging from the feedbacks from her teacher and her attitude at school, she seems to be progressing very well.
Some people asked why we decided to send Bella to a multilingual play school. Here are some our personal reasons why:
1. Teaching her the concept of culture and diversity
We do consider ourselves lucky to be living in such a diverse country like Malaysia, where we have so much culture to learn about. By putting Bella in a multilingual playschool she has already been taught to accept the uniqueness in people around her. I had come across a little girl who cried when she started her first day at kindergarten, just because she was afraid of her teacher who looked “different” from her usual crowd. Now that is something we want to avoid!
2. Widening her interest
By exposing her to multi languages we hope that it opens up her horizons on the many fields that she can pursue later in her life. She may just be a little girl for now, but we are pretty sure that what she learns now is embedded strongly into her foundations.
3. Adding an edge to her budding personal skills
It’s of no surprise that it pays to have that extra edge in personal skills nowadays. Universities and employers value multilingual abilities, so when Bella grows up we hope that her multilingual skill is something that she can leverage on.
4. Learning the language ourselves
Sometimes a child can teach us a lot as a parent. With Bella speaking a different language, it’s fun to learn new words from her and add it into our own foreign vocabulary.
Letting a child learn an additional language has proven to have it owns perks too, says the experts:
Boosting brain power
According to an article in The Telegraph UK, a study conducted by the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London suggested that “there are some evidences that learning several languages, in childhood, has advantages in other domains: it can lead to better ‘executive’ skills more generally, and to better working memory skills”
The study also concluded that learning second language could boost brain power by altering grey matter, the area of the brain that processes information. People who learn a second language in a younger age are said to have more advanced grey matter compared to those who learned it later.
Gaining native-like language proficiency
Another study carried out by researchers of Cornell Language Acquisition Lab in Cornell University suggested that the most effective way to learn a second language is to put the young children in a situation where the second language surrounds them. Apparently, children who learn language in such a setting (e.g. schools, playgroups) show an overall success rate of grammatical knowledge similar to monolinguals. The study also suggested that the earlier a child starts, the more likely they will attain native-like proficiency of the language.
Increased self-confidence
An article entitled Top 10 Benefits of Early Language Learning, published by Early Advantage UK (an independent educational program publisher) stated that learning a second language at a younger age may help to increase self-confidence. Based on a research report from the UK Department of Education, evidences have suggest that learning a second language “develops self-confidence, enthusiasm, curiosity for languages and an openness”.
–
Ayuni is a mum to an effervescent 3-year-old daughter. She’s currently juggling motherhood and a full-time job while trying to be the next domestic goddess. She blogs about life, parenting and her homemaking endeavours at Mommy Confessionals.
Image credit: SingaporeMotherhood
