Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Working Through the Challenges

While celebrating Little Bun’s success, this year has been both rewarding and challenging for Little Bao. As much as I’ve celebrated his progress in Chinese reading in previous posts, his English reading and spelling continue to be a struggle. But it’s not the kind of challenge that leaves us feeling lost. After multiple conversations with his teachers and a thorough assessment, the conclusion was that he simply needs more time to develop his language skills — which I’ve also noticed at home, especially when comparing his Chinese progress to his sibling’s.

We’ve started reading more English books at home since we have fewer English books and less exposure to English entertainment. There’s progress, but it’s slow.

While we’re working on his English, it’s clear that he’s naturally talented in math. I’ve never had to worry about his math skills, and his love for math has helped him develop more interest in that area. I’ve even started exploring ways to integrate Chinese into math to keep up his Chinese learning. And maybe it’s that same math strength — he recently competed in a state chess tournament as a newbie and won three rounds! As a parent, I want to highlight and celebrate his strengths, and I’m so happy to see him thrive in areas where he feels confident.

I often think about Oliver’s daughters’ journey — how he pulled them out of school and homeschooled for 1.5 years to strengthen their Chinese/English skills. I wonder what he was thinking when he made that decision. We’re in a similar situation now, having created a gap between Chinese and English that we’re trying to close, but we’re not quite there yet. Since homeschooling isn’t an option for us, we’re doing our best to support Little Bao at home.

At the same time, I’m not giving up on his Chinese. His working memory has matured, and he can now memorize more Chinese characters. It would feel like a loss to give up on his Chinese now.

Balancing two languages is delicate — for Little Bun, it feels effortless, but Little Bao’s learning path is completely different.

To any parents out there navigating this bilingual journey — it’s tough, but I hope you keep going, just like we are. I trust that one day, we’ll all see the rewards of this journey.

Tags:

,

Responses to “Working Through the Challenges”

  1. KWu

    Oh nice!! I’d love to learn more details about your book club, been trying to get out of the house more and taking turns with my husband. Email might be easier? kwugirl [at] gmail

    Like

    Reply
  2. KWu

    I love this reflection and encouragement! I also feel that I can already see different temperaments for academic learning between my oldest and middle kids. This is a good reminder not to just assume that what worked once can just be rinsed and repeated with my younger kids, but likely I will need to adapt and be flexible with each one on an ongoing basis.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Grace – Bilingual Working Mom

      Thank you for your comment too! Sometimes I feel like we all talk too much about how great it is to be bilingual but not enough people talk about the real struggle. I hesitate to share the struggle because it gives doubts and anxiety for parents who are starting this journey and some parents may be glad they don’t have the same issue. However, each child’s journey is all different and we’re all aim for the final goal. Regardless the difference of our goal, I hope this bilingual community is supportive and let us all share our positive and negative experiences.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. KWu

        Yes, we have to remind ourselves to have a growth mindset about it all too, right? I find other people sharing their challenges and new tactics they’re trying out to be very inspiring. I can always use more ideas on how to keep things fun and interesting, since I don’t want to perpetuate a family culture of just grinding it out because the parents said so.

        Also, it’s interesting that you mentioned Oliver’s daughters’ journey as a point of reference. To be honest, I often have that (homeschooling to be able to increase Chinese input, aiming to be able to participate in Chinese debate teams) in the back of my mind as a tier of intensity that I know isn’t going to be my personal priority. But nonetheless, I’m very grateful for folks like Oliver and you and the others in the FB groups who have shared so many details of how all this bilingual language learning and support actually happens on a day-to-day basis to push myself to keep going.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Grace – Bilingual Working Mom

        I reference Oliver because that was where our journey started. I was pretty lost when kids were age 0-2 but after I read his blog, it gave me direction/instructions on what to do. But because the place we live and family resources, we’re unable to replicate exactly what they do but I’m trying to be creative and find ways on what works for us.

        I really enjoy reading your comments and found your comments on some of FB posts very helpful too. If you ever want to meet up, I host book club in NY and there’s one coming up.

        Ever since I start to share more of our journey, I actually made friends with families who share similar goals. Though we can’t always see each other, it is exactly like you said, reading what other people are doing that push us to keep going.

        Like

Leave a comment