Home Tuition in Chinese Mandarin.... by a Banana Mom

This is what gets said when I try to help my girl learn Chinese using our trusted Electronic Dictionary which also happens to be my birthday present ...... Usually I will ask my girl to highlight the words that she doesn't know than we'll go through them.

"Can you stop playing with the dictionary. Don't waste time!" ..... Mummy, let me find lah, I am faster than you...."

"Hmm... I can't find the meaning of this word. Nevermind we'll skip it. ..... But I want to know mummy...... Well, I can't find the meaning and I don't know it, so lets just move on, shall we?"

"Aiyoh! Why you highlight the whole line? You know these words already what. We don't have the time to check each and every word. Just highlight the words you don't know.......But I want to know the whole sentence... can or not mummy, can you write down the meaning of the whole sentence for me.....No need to be so detailed one lah.....as long as you understand roughly can already lah."

"Mummy, no lah, its not pronounced like that. Its...........Wuah, your Chinese pronounciation not bad already hoh. Much better than mummy's.....Beams proudly.....

"This word means......"indicate" in English......."What does "indicate" mean?" ..... Errr errrrr.... wait lah, I check the dictionary for you." (Replace the word "indicate" with any other difficult English words. It happens all the time to us. This is just an example.)

And then finally..........

"Hmm..... no more battery already. Wait hah, I charge the dictionary first."

You see lah? Cham or not, trying to teach your kid Chinese when you don't know Chinese yourself is really really tough. Sometimes the father comes in and asks us......

"Eh, how come you two studying like fighting like that one hah?"