My Early Start: Learning Chinese

Cultural Difference - Salad vs Cooked Vegetables

In our family, we generally have a salad on the dinner table every evening, regardless of what else we're having for dinner. This is due to the request of my husband, who is a firm believer that a salad each day makes everything come out well the next day. He's right, of course. But there's a definite cultural difference. When I was growing up, we were told not to eat any raw vegetables. They were considered unsanitary. Vegetables were better cooked. Not overcooked, but a quick stir fry. Even though sanitary conditions have improved greatly, I still prefer my vegetables to be cooked.

My husband insists that our kids have salad everyday. I'm not nearly so strick. When my husband is traveling out of town, I don't make a salad. I don't think the kids care. It's all the same to them since they still have to eat vegetables.

So while I'm happy to prepare a salad for my husband every day, old habits die hard. I'll stick to my cooked vegetables. The kids can have a variety. Maybe they'll eat more vegetables this way, both raw and cooked.

Feng Shui

We recently invited, or rather, hired a feng shui master to come to our home to perform a reading for us. It all started when I heard about a friend’s reading, and how the feng shui master gave her suggestions to solve a specific legal problem that had been troubling her for years. After diligently implementing the suggestions, her legal problem magically resolved itself. I didn’t have any specific problems I was seeking help with, but I was intrigued. After all, I have heard about feng shui all my life. I thought feng shui was a general set of rules around real estate and improving your finances. The rules I was familiar with ran the gamet from not buying a house with stairs that directly face the front door, otherwise all your fortune will pour out, to keeping eight gold fishes (one black, seven orange) in your house to improve prosperity. I’ve heard these comments so often that they are ingrained in my consciousness, even though I never thought of myself as a feng shui follower or believer. The idea of having a feng shui reading specifically tailored to me, to improve my living environment, and make me more prosperous and wealthy sounded great! It was definitely worth a try.

   

Master Lee started the session by giving us some background information on feng shui, which includes reading of your home or office environment, palm reading, and zodiac reading (Chinese zodiac). He provided a general reading for my husband and me about our character traits and tendencies based on our birthdates that I provided to him during a phone interview.   Master Lee then proceeded to go from room to room in our house with a large compass like wheel. My husband and I followed him around the house with a notepad, soaking in everything he said and jotting down as much as possible. He started from outside our front door. We have a set of stairs that directly face the front door. I was waiting for him to tell me how bad that was and that the only way to fix this problem was to move. But he didn’t. He said that because we have a gate outside the front door, it stopped the outflow of our wealth. Yeah! He did suggest that we use the front door more instead of entering and exiting the house through the garage, and to place mirrors on the inside of the garage door. Apparently, opening the large garage door was allowing all our money to pour out. So that’s where it went! The mirrors will also help reflect the money back into the house.  He also asked us to put up three work-related awards in the dining room directly across from a large mirror. Because my husband is in sales, he framed his three largest sales orders. Now these sales orders are the topic of conversation with every guest we have.

   

The list of suggested changes goes on and on, and there was something to do for every room in the house.  I would say we probably implemented 70% of his suggestions. One suggestion that we just were not able to implement was for my husband and I to switch the side of the bed we sleep on. We did try, but just couldn’t get comfortable. I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied to be a bit less prosperous than I otherwise would be. It’s interesting that I did not question what he said. I just took it at face value. The reading was geared 80% towards building and keeping our wealth, and 20% on our maintaining good health.

 

At the end of the feng shui reading, we were both encouraged by the fact that every “problem” had a workable solution. Master Lee did not ask us to knock down any walls. Some friends have commented that they don’t believe in feng shui and equate it to fortune telling or similar quackery. Some think it’s too fatalistic. Others feel that it’s simply a proactive way to manage your life.  What do you think? Would I do it again? I’m not sure.  Maybe because now we have taken steps to be more prosperous, we will be simply because prosperity is more in our consciousness. To think is to create, right? In the end, I agree with some of the basic concepts. It just makes sense that if your surroundings are uncluttered and pleasing to your eye, you can be more creative. In any event, it was an entertaining way to spend three hours.

Pretty Chinese Dresses

“Mama, can we go to Chinatown?” This was a question I heard from my four year old daughter recently. I was surprised that she knew of a place called Chinatown, since we haven’t been there in a while. I figured she must be learning about it in preschool. “Okay.” I replied. I proceeded to talk about the wonderful Chinese restaurants, tea shops, temples, and even the fortune cookie factory that we can visit on our next trip. She interrupted me several times, and clearly was not interested in any of it. “Why do you want to go?” I finally asked her. “I want a pretty Chinatown dress just like Beatrix has.” Ahh, I got it. Her interest has nothing to do with what they are learning in the classroom. It was her inner girly girl wanting to look pretty, to fit in, and to be liked by the coolest girl in class.

 

The “Chinatown dress” that she wanted is called xi pao in Mandarin Chinese, or cheong sam in Cantonese. It’s a narrowly fitted dress, with a Mandarin collar and frog clasps. The dress length can range from knee length to ankle length, with slits on both sides that reach mid thigh. I must say, it is very figure flattering.  

I think little girls look quite adorable in the xi pao. However, I was conflicted. Is this the start of the endless requests for clothes? I thought I had a few more years before that started. If I get it for her, am I encouraging this need to fit in with the crowd? Will she feel entitled to receive everything she asks for? In the end, I relented after her repeated request, and took her to Chinatown. We went to several stores that had xi pao for little girls. She had a very clear idea about what she wanted. It had to be pink, and shiny.  I’m glad I can make her happy. We had a wonderful time in Chinatown. And she looks adorable in her “Chinatown dress.”

Learn Chinese-Five Ways to Encourage Speaking Chinese

Alright, I admit it, I don’t speak to my children in Mandarin Chinese as often as I should. Even though I send both kids to a Chinese immersion school where classes are taught in Chinese half the day, their preference is still to speak in English. On the playground, all the children speak English. At home, it has been a challenging and often frustrating struggle to squeeze out a few Chinese words and sentences. It wasn’t always that way. In the first couple of years of their life, I was fairly diligent about teaching them the language. It was relatively easy to teach them simple words and phrases, nothing out of my comfort zone.* Plus, they were frequently surrounded by Chinese speaking grandparents, nannies, and babysitters. So I think I gave them a pretty good start. However, as they got older and exposed to much more of the world beyond parents and grandparents, and their circle of friends expanded, they have spoken increasingly more English.  I suppose that’s just a natural extension of their environment, but I want them to be able to, and even want to, carry on a simple conversation in Chinese. 

   

Even though the level of my own Chinese is probably that of a third grader, I always thought I would maintain a primarily Chinese speaking household. That’s been more difficult than I expected. The main reason resides with me. It simply is easier to express my thoughts and feelings in English.  So when I am tired, or just not focused, English flows out. Interestingly, whenever I’m scolding the kids, it’s naturally in Chinese. Another reason is that we have a mixed household in which my husband doesn’t speak Chinese. At times, it feels like we’re excluding him when the three of us are speaking Chinese. But I am committed to raising children who are fluent in both Chinese and English. It is not realistic for me to enforce a Chinese only house, so I’ve come up with a few ways to encourage them to speak more Chinese. 

 

1. Set      aside specific times during the day or specific activities during which      only Chinese is spoken. For example, our morning activities from waking them up, eating breakfast, to getting out the door, are primarily conducted in Chinese. With practice, it has become a habit.
2. Make      it a fun game. My kids think it’s      funny to listen to my husband’s tortured attempts at pronouncing various      Chinese words. He simply cannot      hear the different tones much less pronounce them. It’s a regular dinner time activity for      us. Hey, whatever it takes. Just another reason to start exposing      your kids early to this tonal language.
3. Watch      videos in Chinese and listen to Chinese music. Of course, my kids are intimately      familiar with the Early Start Mandarin Chinese DVDs and also the Cooking      with Kids DVD since they were actively involved in the production. But we’ve also watched plenty of Disney      and other animated Chinese DVDs. Our recent discovery is Chinese pop songs. The music is very hip (hugely important      to the eleven year old!). Chinese      rap takes the language to a whole other level of coolness.
4. Greet      and speak to grandparents in Chinese. This is simply a rule that they must follow. I would say they do try their best to      comply. Therefore, they are quite      proficient at requesting their favorite foods and treats from puo puo and      gong gong.
5. Order      in Chinese when in Chinese restaurant. It’s not so much the act of placing the order, but when they do, this invariably starts a conversation with the waiter or waitress.

       

Obviously, these are just my attempts to increase the conversational fluency for myself and my children. I would love to hear what your thoughts are, and what you do in your home to maintain a second language. Like everything, I realize it starts with me. Even with all the challenges, I hold visions of my children speaking fluently in both English and Chinese with ease. Regardless of what you do, I think it’s important to keep trying.  Remember the old adage, practice makes perfect.

* I should clarify, my family immigrated to the

United   States

was I was ten years old. And yes, I should be completely fluent in speaking, reading, and writing Chinese, but I’m not. I did not maintain the level of fluency of a third grader, much less improve beyond that level.

Keeping Chinese New Year Traditions Alive

I'm a first generation immigrant from Taiwan. Since moving to the United States some 30 years ago, Chinese New Year celebrations have never been celebrated to the extent I experienced when I was young. Perhaps it's because I was young then and everything seemed wonderful. So when my son asked me about what it was like when I was growing up, it was hard to described the level of excitement and preparation that went into the holiday. It was unlike any holiday I've experienced in the United States. I remember my mom would clean the house for days leading up to new year. We cleared out our closets and got rid of many things we had accumulated during the year. Floors were scrubbed and windows were cleaned. Every nook and cranny was swept. I remember my mother constantly shopping to buy everything that was needed for the long holiday. Most stores closed during the holiday, so if you didn't stock up, you were out of luck. She would stock up on all the traditional sweet treats; candied lotus roots and seeds, red beans, cookies, etc. in preparation for the many visitors we would have over during the holidays.

My mom always made homemade Chinese sausages and cured meats. Yum! She had to hang them outside to dry. Thieves often tried to steal her sausages because they knew a good thing when they saw it. She would place empty bottles on the ground beneath the drying sausages. If thieves came, they would invariably stumble on the bottles and make a lot of noise, which would scare off the thieves and wake her up. Ingeniously alarm system! We would have a huge family meal with traditional dishes on new year's eve.

My sister and I had to get our hair cut and get new clothes made for the holiday. On New Years eve, I would be so excited that I could hardly fall asleep. The next morning, we would wake up early, put on our new clothes, then kow tow to our grandparents in order to collect our red envelopes. My cousins would all come over and we would play with firecrackers. It's a wonder that no one blew off any fingers or lost an eye! There was always unlimited candy to eat.

We visited many friends and family, and received many visitors in our home. It seemed like there were days and days of celebration with great food, candy, firecrackers, and just overall fun. I tried to recreate a bit of that in my own home now that I have children. Here are some of the traditions I hope to instill in my family:

Clean the house - I actually really enjoy cleaning out the house and getting rid of all the clutter. It feels great to purge all the unnecessary things we accumulated during the past year.

Decorate - I put up traditional Chinese good wishes printed on red paper throughout the house. I also put out many sweet treats and other symbolic foods such as tangerines, apples, peanuts, and pistachios.

Red envelopes - I fill the envelopes with some candy and money.  This is one tradition I'm sure the kids will remember.

New Year's eve dinner - I prepare a traditional meal with whole fish, dumplings, a traditional vegetarian dish, Chinese sausages, and many other dishes for family and friends. See recipes

I hope I create a festive and memorable Chinese New Year holiday traditions for my family.

Learning Chinese - Trying Afghani Food

My parents just took me to restaurant specializing in food from Afghanistan.  It's called Helmand Restaurant and is located in San Francisco. It's my first time trying Afghani food, and I think I like it. I discovered I like eggplant a lot. They first brought bread to the table, served with three dipping sauces. One was a white yogurt sauce, one was a red spicy sauce, and the last one was a green minty sauce. I thought the red sauce was a bit too spicy for me, but the other two were tasty. The menu had many names I did not recognize and could not pronounce. It contained many lamb dishes. Lamb must be very common in Afghanistan. All the dishes came with rice, prepared either of two ways. I got to try both, and really liked both.

I thought the food was similar to other middle eastern foods I've had before like kebabs. And the rice and smells reminded me a bit of Indian food. Afghanistan is a country that's a bit smaller than the state of Texas. The capital is Kabul. The country is mostly mountains and desert, and the climate is very dry. The main language is Dari, and most of the population is Sunni Muslims.

Overall, I thought the Afghani restaurant was great. There definitely are other dishes I'd like to try if we go back. I liked trying a new type of food.

Wes, Culture Detectives

Learning Chinese-Getting Ready for Chinese New Year

Hi there. We're two 6th grade boys named Wes and Nik, just getting into blogging. When deciding what to blog about, we thought we'd talk about something we have in common. That is, we are both learning Chinese, and we like to learn about different cultures. This first blog is about the Chinese New Year that's coming up on February 7, 2008.

Wes: We just went with our moms on a recent trip to San Francisco's Chinatown. The purpose of the trip was to buy some home decorations for the upcoming Chinese New Year, which starts on February 7, 2008. This is the year 4706, and the year of the rat in the Chinese zodiac. Both Nik and I are rats. Some of the characteristics of rats are that we are natural leaders, we're charming, smart, and hard working, which all sound good to us (Chinese Zodiac). My puo puo, or maternal grandmother, says that it won't be a good year for me or other rats. When I asked for specifics, she couldn't give me any, and just asked me to "be careful." She also asked me to wear a red string around my wrist from New Year's Eve through the whole next year to "protect" me, and bring my good luck from this year into the next. I'm not sure I'm going to do that, and I think puo puo would be satisfied if I wore it for a couple of days.

We bought the usual items such as red paper with good luck wishes printed on them , such as gong xi fa cai to tape onto our doors and windows. We also got some tangerines and plum tree branches for good luck. Most importantly, my mom bought some red envelopes! I hope she'll give me one with lotsa money! Oh yeah, my mom also had to buy my little sister a Chinese dress. You're suppose to wear a new outfit to bring in the new year.

Nik: I love going to Chinatown! Sure, it has plenty of Chinese restaurants and interesting stores, but it also has a lot of souvenir and knick knack stores for tourists. I can always find something cool!

We'll be coming back to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year's parade. It's not until February 23rd, and we'll blog about it. I love watching the dragon dance! At our school's Chinese New Year celebration each year, we have a lion dance too. I just love all the noise with the drums and cymbals! I think those guys carrying the lion head must be pretty strong.

Aren't we going to your house for new year's eve for a big feast?

Wes: Yup.  In our next blog we can write about some traditional Chinese New Year foods.