Going Chinese

Living in the Chinese culture is truly a fascinating privilege and persistent challenge in our lives. I still get a kick out of looking out my kitchen window upon ladies doing tai chi next next to their round baskets of fish drying in the sun. Sometimes old Chinese ladies walk by my house adorned in conical hats and carrying poles over their backs hanging with baskets of clams from the beach.That’s just fun. And of course we enjoy the festivals, like the four day weekend where we celebrated the Mid Autumn Festival. Our kids know mooncakes and lanterns more than trick or treating and pumpkin patches. 

 Annette made the lantern and mooncake at school

 Jason took this photo from our balcony. It was cloudy the night of the mid autumn festival, so this was actually the following night.

But as our kids get older, the effects of being raised as third culture kids  (not belonging to the culture of their passport country or host country- but a created third culture) feels more complicated. Josiah is very aware of his minority status as the only white kid in his class this year (although his teacher is a blonde American). He is very sensitive and aware of communication differences in cultures. We kept reminding him that he has a special gift for making friends everywhere and now a month into the school year, he has made a “best friend” in the class. That is really an answer to prayer. 

And then there is Chinese Language. Sweet Jesus. In Hong Kong we (I include myself in that ‘we’ very loosely) speak Cantonese. In school the children are learning Mandarin, which is a very useful language that I would love for them to learn. I used to think that kids absorb languages like water into a sponge. That if you just expose them at the right age they will learn by osmosis. This has not been our experience. From day one Chinese class for Josiah has been like trying to drink out of a fire hose. So much, so fast that he began shutting now. Now that he is in P1 they have added reading and writing. Remember Josiah is in Kindergarten and is just starting to learn to read and write in English. On top of that, he is expected to read and write Chinese characters AND pinyin (the romanized transliteration of Chinese) with 24 vowel sounds in different tones. As a former kindergarten teacher who knows the blood, sweat and tears that go into teaching kids 5 short vowel sounds this is totally overwhelming to me. 

Josiah is giving an “all about me” presentation at school this week and he chose to include an American flag because he is proud to be an American. We are certainly proud of him and hope that his international childhood serves to enhance his life rather cause him to need future counseling. (: