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[quote=Anonymous]First, do not feel guilty. The situation is inherently difficult. I empathize. My kids understand a different version of Chinese, but they can't speak anything much.

I grew up with a lot of ABC kids. Most of them really are not fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, or anything else. Most do know the Cantonese words for common dim sum and have very limited Mandarin (often with an American accent). It is just a hard situation. As you noted already, written Chinese aligns with Mandarin, but does not really align with Cantonese or Hakka. Given the current state of HK, I would not recommend having them travel there for real-world immersion.

At HS age, an option would be the "love boat" summer trips to TW that many ABCs participate in. I suspect the kids speak English among themselves on those trips. TW would definitely be a good option for Mandarin immersion. (Singapore is wonderful, but has too much English to be a good immersion option.)

In college, an option is the Mandarin summer school at Middlebury. It is high stress full immersion, but a very good way to start learning Mandarin. [/quote]

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