Reply to Yu Ying - Do/Can Non-Native Kids Actually SPEAK Chinese?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This conversation is already 21 pages long so I haven't read (and probably won't read) all that came before, just gonna give my experience.

My child is a 3rd grader now, so been at YY for 4 full years (PreK4 through 2nd), and now early in his 3rd grade year.  None of us are of Chinese origin, and none of us spoke Chinese before he started at YY.  He also gets no supplementary Chinese instruction or tutoring, we don't go to any weekend classes or other classes outside of his regular work at YY, and we don't have any nanny or au pair.

My experience with his Mandarin language skills is very positive.  Because this is DC, we have sought out and found several ways to throw him into situations where he's speaking Mandarin with natives, to see how it goes and what they have to say about his skills.  First of all, as early as the end of 1st grade there were very few things that anyone would say to him in Chinese that he didn't understand.  He wasn't always able to find the best words to answer, but even that early there was abundant back and forth and the people he was speaking to ALWAYS commented on how good his comprehension was, how great his tones are, and they can't believe he can converse like that.  And it's just gotten better since 1st grade.

Also, on playdates with other YY kids they will often on their own start speaking Chinese, although more often it's by a parent suggesting it.  But they really do do it on their own as well.

While I understand (according to many native speakers) that Chinese people are gracious and unlikely to say anything super-negative about a child's language skills in these kinds of contexts, it always annoys me when people dismiss the positive feedback some of us get as if NO ONE Chinese is capable of being sincere or clear about their impressions.  There is almost always clear surprise and clear appreciation for his skills, most people are very specific about what impresses them.

And most importantly, to the original question, his conversations are real conversations.  Not just broken "What you say when ordering at a restaurant".  At this point I can't remember the last time somoene said something to him in Mandarin and he didn't understand and answer, on his own, with no prompting.

So I don't know what's in these pages, but our experience at YY is far from unusual- it's very common.  I don't know any kids in his grade with poor or really incomplete Mandarin skills, although I obviously also don't know every single kid in his grade.  But the ones we do know, and the ones we see out and about in contexts where there are adult native speakers, do very very well and are always highly praised and we get lots of great feedback.  And it's not always the same - sometimes kids get different feedback on specific things, like tones.  But overall it's far far more advanced than cute little phrases or canned exchanges.[/quote]

We hope you're on the mark, but since you don't speak Chinese, who knows.  [/quote]

Not the previous poster, but I think the same thing about Spanish!  I don't speak it, so I have no way of knowing how well or poorly my DD speaks. [/quote]

That may be, but I find the idea that strangers on the internet think they know what a specific child's actual language skills are or are not better than the native speakers that the parents encounter in real life is absurd.  You don't have to take parents' words for their experiences, but the parents know what atual real life humans who interact with their kids say.  And those evaluation, as informal as they are (i.e. they don't come  with standardized language test scores), those are still more legit and real to the parent who meets those native language speakers over the years than your judgements of kids you don't know on a message board.

YY parents, don't take all this personally. If your experience is very positive, or if you're even a native Mandarin speaker who knows what you see/hear at YY and you have an opinion, cool, whether it's good bad or indifferent.  But this idea that a few bitter people who like to insult others actually are making valid points (when they clearly have an axe to grind) is such a waste of time.  YY is far from perfect.  But a whole bunch of kids seem to be learning very respectable Mandarin skills, and that is a very good thing, critics or no critics.[/quote]

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