Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Since the twins started second grade, their interests have shifted. Picture books no longer hold the same appeal, but they’ll devour a Dog Man comic in Chinese as soon as it arrives in the mail. Here are some things they’re enjoying lately, and I’d love to hear what your lower elementary kids are into!

1. Comics/Graphic Novels

Comics and graphic novels are their absolute favorites. We have a mix of both classic and modern series:
Manga: Doraemon, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Yotsuba&! (四葉妹妹), and Mirmo! (咪路咪路).

Graphic Novels: Dog Man, Billy and the Mini Monsters, and a simplified version of Captain Underpants we borrowed.

Most of these books are much longer than the picture books they used to read. Little Bun can read almost all the text and loves them, while Little Bao often focuses on the pictures, though occasionally he’ll ask me about a couple of characters to confirm if he read them correctly. It’s rare, but I appreciate when he makes the effort to try reading those tiny characters in the manga.

2. TV Shows/Movies
TV preferences have shifted too. Gabby’s Dollhouse used to be Little Bun’s favorite, but now they’re more into exciting shows like Hot Wheels, detective series like The InBESTigators or The Creature Cases, and their current favorite: Captain Underpants. They’ve been giggling over this Netflix series, even with the rapid-fire Chinese dialogue. Though I’m not sure they catch everything, it keeps them entertained.

As for movies, they’ve recently become hooked on Harry Potter with Chinese audio. We’re up to the fourth movie now—Little Bao is eager to keep going, while Little Bun gets a bit more hesitant. I’ve even used the next movie as motivation for Little Bao to finish his Sagebook quicker!

Recently, I also discovered all nine Star Wars movies on Taiwan Disney+ with Chinese audio (via VPN). Some might wonder why we don’t watch in English, but I figure they’ll eventually experience these in English. I’ve been introducing these popular series in Chinese first, like Harry Potter and Star Wars, so the twins can learn how certain characters and things are named in Chinese. Since these stories are widely known and loved here, I think they can spark my kids’ interest in Chinese too. I’ve noticed that while I’ve tried showing them Taiwanese shows, which are engaging during the moment, the interest doesn’t really last. I believe that’s because they don’t have peers here to share those experiences with. That’s why I think it’s important to consider the relevance of the entertainment—introducing something that’s already popular and culturally significant in their environment can create a stronger connection to the language.

Interestingly, after watching Harry Potter, Little Bao was able to switch between chatting with our Taiwanese friends using “佛地魔” (the Chinese name for Voldemort) and talking to his peers using the English name. It really shows what Guavarama talks about—the knowledge is there, and kids can easily switch between languages as long as they have the vocabulary for it.