My Bilingual Lina

Since Mommy went back to work full time, Lina<3 had been staying with grandma for three days a week.  It had turned out very well, because your grandparents speaks Chinese to her.

She had been speaking very well in Chinese (Cantonese), and it did not occur to me until Serena was born and grandma had spent time with us, I saw the interactions between the two of you.  Mommy is also speaking Chinese to you as much I can and know how.  Most of  Lina's<3 Chinese words and phrases are simple enough for me to engage her.  Lina<3 says many things like "pants (fu)", "wear pants (zoek fu)", "Lina<3 wear pants (Lina<3 zoek fu)",  "ma ma fu" all in Cantonese.  She can also name different things, and recognize it such as food, airplane, car, duck, to go out, and to go shopping... I can have a simple conversations with her, she answers back most of the time coherently enough that I understand and responses back.

Lina<3 also speaks so Mandarin from watching her favorite youtube video called Qiaohu (if the link does not work, just type "Qiaohu" in the search engine).  There are a lot of words that she picked up and words that I also know in Mandarin so I can repeat to her therefore teaching her more.  Last week, she counted in Mandarin, one to four, all by herself, out of no where - it made me realize that some of her speech is in Mandarin and not just gibberish or baby talk.  She counts with me, from one to ten, when she is in a good mood and wants to repeat after me. This past week, she started to say "love you (ai ni)" or "love (ai) " in Mandarin to myself and Daddy. 

It is one of the best feelings, knowing that Lina<3 understands us, knows that we love her very much, and that she is able to communicate with us better each day.  Do not worry my little Lina<3 may not understand all your Chinese, but he is getting there and understanding more when you speak in Chinese (yes, Daddy does not speak Chinese, just a couple of phrases).  I hope that I can keep up with Lina<3 and the development of the Chinese language.  We are definitely putting you in Chinese school later on!