Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

I’m officially entering the phase where my kids are following whatever their peers are into. In the past, I could introduce them to things I liked, and they’d follow along. But just this past summer, my son requested Titanic’s theme song, asked about Hannah Montana, and even mentioned Miley Cyrus. That’s when I realized I can’t compete with pop culture here.

What I’m trying to do now is find the Chinese versions of the things they’re into.

One recent success was getting the Harry Potter DVDs in Chinese—both kids were hooked! They started asking a million questions and are eager to watch all the movies (we’ve seen three so far).

Another win was finding Beyblade Chinese comic books. If your kids are into Beyblade, you’ll understand my excitement at finding something in Chinese for my son.

The latest craze came when my twins came home talking about Captain Underpants, which seems to be the new thing among their friends. I couldn’t find the Chinese translation of the books because it’s out of print, but luckily, Netflix has the cartoon with Chinese audio.

I’m not sure how long I can keep this up, but I’m trying my best to keep finding Chinese materials that keep them engaged.