Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

These are some thoughts sparked by a post I saw in a Facebook group, reflecting on why Chinese learning requires so much repetition. I think I’ve shared similar ideas before, but they’re worth revisiting. Taiwan’s education system and weekend Chinese schools in the U.S. are often criticized for their repetitive drills, which are seen as boring and a reason kids lose interest in Chinese. Most parents I know with school-aged kids don’t see the value in these drills, thinking they contribute to that loss of interest.

However, as my kids progress to an intermediate level in Chinese, I’ve come to realize that repetition is essential for reinforcing what they’ve learned. I’m not saying they need to write a character 10-15 times, but they do need to see that character about 10-15 times in various contexts to really remember it. If a Chinese learning environment—whether at school, at home, or through media—can’t provide enough diverse exposures to a character, then writing it repeatedly might be the simplest method available.

I reached this conclusion because my kids can now mostly speak and comprehend Chinese, but the next hurdle is increasing their character recognition and vocabulary. These are crucial for keeping up as their world gets bigger. But as they get older, their exposure to the world in English far outpaces their exposure in Chinese. I need to bridge that gap by helping them learn more characters so they aren’t stumbling over words or mispronouncing them when they read. And to be honest, I haven’t found many creative ways to make Chinese learning “fun” at this level because there’s just so much to learn.

Take idioms, for example. When I was growing up in Taiwan, I had to memorize them in school. I wasn’t great at memorizing, but quizzes forced me to try, and over time, some stuck with me. Now, as an adult, I use those idioms without even thinking about how difficult it was to memorize them. They help me understand a sentence’s deeper meaning, and when I write for a Taiwanese magazine, those idioms naturally come to mind.

Looking back, I see the value in those drills, especially now that I understand how much one has to learn to approach native proficiency in Chinese. I know many parents don’t have that level of expectation for their kids, but I’ve also heard from some who wish they’d had more Chinese practice growing up. They might not have had the time or energy to improve their Chinese as adults, but there’s that lingering hope that they had studied harder when they were younger.

I’m not asking my kids to write a character over and over again, but I do see that they encounter high-frequency words repeatedly from different sources—Mandarin immersion school, online classes, TV, and books we read together. Yet, I still wonder, is this enough?