Learning English

I grew up in a Cantonese speaking home. Don't know which one Cantonese is? It's the louder one. In fact, one of the first times Bethany came over to our home back when we were dating, she heard my parents talking in the kitchen, and she said, "Woah, are your parents arguing?" I said, "Uhh, no... they're Cantonese. That's just how Cantonese sounds."

So, growing up, I got the basics of home-language-Cantonese. The standard, "Deen gai nei jung tai gun deen see ahhh?!" (Why are you still watching tv?) and, "Gum yut nei yau mo tan kum?" (Have you practiced piano yet today?) Most kids like me had to take Chinese school on Saturday mornings. Somehow, I got out of Chinese school after 3 months so that I could play AYSO instead.

All in all, my Cantonese is quite limited. It's just ok. I wish it were better.

This makes me wonder whether, 10 or whenever years from now, it will be like a bizarro world reversal for us and our kids when we live overseas. (No, we don't have kids. No, there are no kids on the way that we know of. This is all part of the just wondering bit.)

I wonder if my kids' Chinese will be awesome (or just, natural) because that's what they will have grown up hearing all around them. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to say things without an accent.

I wonder if it'll be a chore to try to get my kids to speak English in the home with us, where we'll ask them a question in English but they'll answer us in Chinese.

I wonder if we'll get fearful that our kids won't have a good grasp of English and so we'll force them to go to English school on Saturday mornings. And on the way to English school, they'll complain, "我不要去英文可！ 我想打足球！"

Well, I'll force them to go to English school anyways. They'll thank me for it later. I mean, hey, I haven't touched a soccer ball in 10 years... but I sure wish my Chinese was better than it is.