Parenting Guide

Parents as Mandarin Speaking Role Models

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Jan 23, 2015

Malaysia is a unique country with equally unique and colourful individuals. It is not surprising to see a Malay nurse speaking Tamil in hospitals, a Chinese engineer talking in Malay with a Kelantanese accent and an Indian school teacher communicating in Mandarin.Fluency in any language depends on many factors including upbringing, education opportunities and practice. Mandarin is different compared to English as it is a tonal language, which means pronunciation of certain syllables may change the meaning of a sentence altogether!

The 4 tones in Mandarin are:

• Tone 1: Level Tone (ping) –> —
• Tone 2: Rising Tone (shang) –> /
• Tone 3: Departing Tone (qu) –> V
• Tone 4: Entering/Stop-Final Tone (ru) –>

A person is considered fluent in Mandarin if they are able to read and speak 3000 different Chinese words as it means that the person can thrive in an all-Mandarin speaking environment. Writing may be a bit more difficult.Having parents that are fluent in Mandarin will definitely help children grasp the language easier. However this does not mean that parents who grew up in a non-Mandarin speaking environment, went to Malay or English medium schools, or had never given much thought about the language before are prone to bad parenting. Far from it!Some students were surprised that they become very adept at being multilingual due to having to translate their homeworks from Chinese schools to English and Malay when asking for help from their non-Mandarin speaking parents.

Parents' quotes:

“I may be a banana but does that make me less of a Chinese? I am Malaysian first but if my children want to study Mandarin, I think that's a great thing.”“Growing up in America, it is refreshing that we have a choice here in Malaysia to study the Chinese language and culture.”“Eventhough we speak Mandarin at home, I have never had a formal education before and it would be nice if they can also read and write in Mandarin.”“It's frustating to us both when she asks me to help with her homework, because we both don't understand anything!”“I don't understand why I need to send my children to Chinese schools when we already speak the language everyday. Even the kids in China are focusing on learning English.” Don’t forget to LIKEus on Facebook and receive updates and consultation on all matters related to Private and International schools in Malaysia.