I ? Origin
In 14 years, the child's father planned to visit the United States for a year in 15. At that time, the child was still young, did not show special language talent, and we are not keen to give the child early English enlightenment, so there is no let him "study tour" idea, and even have been sighing if the study tour program can be postponed for two years would be better. Until one day, the child's father said, a colleague's child stayed in the United States for six months, after coming back to the original cartoon can understand all, I was a little moved. So I discussed with my family, and after getting support from the elders, I started to apply for visas for the whole family, purchased air tickets, and planned step by step.
Two ?
My son's father started his visit at the end of October 15, and my son and I went there in January 16 (when my workplace was on vacation). Despite the delay of a few months, we still felt it was a better arrangement. Compared to going to an unfamiliar city as a family with jet lag, renting an apartment, and all the inconveniences that come with living there, my kids' dad had enough time after work to help us find a suitable place to live, and we were able to settle down as soon as we got off the plane. So, the little one who just turned 3 years old started his first long-haul flight.
Since the best way to learn a language is to get into an English-speaking environment, the best option for kids is to go to a kindergarten. Although there are many different kinds of kindergartens in the area, we still underestimated the situation of entering a kindergarten, and in addition, most of the foreign institutions need to book a long time in advance (which is also not our national habit), so entering a kindergarten was not smooth at the beginning. The father started looking for kindergartens near our place before we arrived and was told that they were all full, or that we had missed the enrollment period (usually kids start school after the Christmas holidays) and would have to wait for a place in June. We obviously couldn't afford to wait. After hanging up the phone in disappointment time and time again, we visited a few more kindergartens with a glimmer of hope, and then saw to it that he would get his vaccinations (it turns out that you don't need to get them at this age, the domestic vaccines are sufficient) and medical checkups (some schools require these documents, especially the public ones). Just when we were about to lose faith, a home-based private kindergarten called and asked if we would be interested in joining a kindergarten tour, which we immediately rushed to. The government has set a limit of no more than 12 children per time slot, and there were only two morning spots per week. although the cost was much higher than the 5-day program, time is more valuable than money, and we agreed without hesitation.
The children thus began their kindergarten life.
This is the first time I've been to a kindergarten in the United States, and it's been a long time since I've been to a kindergarten in the United States. However, except for the first day when he didn't want to go to the toilet, he immediately fell in love with the kindergarten and couldn't wait to rush into the classroom every time and couldn't wait to leave.
Two weeks later (after 4 half days of kindergarten), I went back to my home country because I had to go to work, and my child's grandparents came to the U.S. to "pick up the slack". This was the only way we could think of. Every time we video-chatted afterward, my main concern was how much English he was learning. My father's first feedback came a week after I returned to China, saying that the kids told him they ate "grapes" and "cracker" in kindergarten, which means he used English directly for things he didn't know. In the following months, he didn't seem to make much progress, and remained at the level of a few words, except for "Hello" and "Bye bye", and the most he said was "Stop it", which is a word used by children to grab toys. I was almost discouraged. I was almost discouraged, thinking that the results were not as good as I had expected. At the end of July this year, I came to the U.S. on vacation, and at that time, my child finished 5 months of kindergarten. We then stayed in the U.S. for a short period of time before returning to the U.S. for kindergarten in September.
Three ?
1. English: This is our biggest concern. During the month or so that we were in the US with our child, we clearly felt the progress of his language. From a little guy who can't say a single word, to a guy who can say some very simple phrases, his vocabulary has increased quite a bit, and occasionally he'll come up with a few unexpected words, and he can even say a bunch of words I don't even know about his favorite car. But I still don't think he can understand the original cartoons, but of course he hardly watches TV and there's no way to check. He doesn't know a lot of words, but the ones he can say are very well pronounced. When he meets a foreigner (well, we're the foreigners here), he speaks English on his own initiative. He also absorbs new English words and sentences quickly.
We would read him some picture books, and he would read them down the page according to his own understanding. But he has no concept of grammar, sentence structure is often incomplete, and there may only be words in his concept.
After returning to China, he also spoke English with foreigners, but the opportunity to use it was significantly reduced. His favorite class in kindergarten was also English, and when he brought his English textbook home in the first week, he read it all by himself, flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures.
But for a variety of reasons, his exposure to the English language is still limited. The so-called "immersion" was only for 3 hours a couple times a week, and he was mostly "immersed" in his own world for those 3 hours.
2. Life: The air and water quality in foreign countries are better, which is undoubtedly, the sky is very blue, and the water tastes sweet and odorless. Fruits, vegetables and meat taste better. However, there are a lot of genetically modified foods in the United States, and according to local regulations, they do not need to be labeled. The advantage for us is that they taste better, but if we mind the GMOs, we will have to spend more money to buy organic foods. The good thing is that organic food in the United States is not as expensive as in the country, just a little higher than the price of ordinary food.
3. Kindergarten: Kids love kindergarten and can't wait to go to school. We guess it's mainly because kindergartens are free and have spacious places to move around (there are slides, small sand pits, small pools of water, small houses outside) and a wide variety of toys (we didn't bring any toys with us when we first arrived in a place). The kindergarten will let the children play some small experiments and observe the changes of plants and animals according to the seasons. There are not many teachers in the kindergarten, and the director is very experienced and sends us an email every month to inform us about the main activities of the month. In order to increase the communication between parents, the kindergarten will organize a potluck every month, and occasionally parents will invite their children's classmates to celebrate their birthdays with them and organize parties. I don't know what the difference is between domestic and foreign kindergartens, but after two days the kids were clamoring to go to a kindergarten in the US, so it seems that the beautiful scenario we painted at the beginning didn't work too well.
4. Playmates: Little kids like to play with big kids, but in China, big kids like to play with bigger kids, so the kids are often frustrated. Maybe it's because there are so many families in the U.S., but in stores and playgrounds, the older kids are willing to play with the younger ones, and some of the black kids even dance and tease the younger ones, and most of the kids are willing to share, so the kids are very friendly with each other regardless of race.
5. Public **** facilities: The United States is known as "children's paradise", with children really have a lot of convenience. Supermarket shopping, someone will let you check out first; airport security, there is a priority channel; bus, the driver will tilt the body to make it easier for children to get on and off the bus (for the disabled and the elderly is also the same); walking on the road, there will be people who take the initiative to greet the child and let the child play with a puppy; not to mention that everywhere you look at the library and children's playground facilities (although most of them are very simple), and occasionally there are street performers to play with the big bubble and so on tease the The occasional street performer playing with big bubbles and such to amuse the children. If you run into police or firemen, they will let your child see the fire trucks or other equipment, busy demonstrating and explaining, and then pulling out some stickers or plastic helmets to give to your child in a juggling act. We met a police officer with a loaded gun at the Washington D.C. airport who even gave his badge to the kids. This is a real one, not one of those plastic things labeled junior officer. There are also a lot of public **** facilities or exhibitions in the US that are free of charge for kids, and there are countless places to have fun and learn, so there's really no end to what kids can do.
Libraries and museums have excellent facilities, not only for children with a variety of reading activities, for adults and the elderly also have a variety of activities, such as reading exchanges, film and television appreciation, hand knitting, computer skills. Different library activities and time are different, and for different age groups set up separately, so in the children first arrived in the United States did not go to school days, we took him everywhere to mix the library. It is true that there is a library within a half hour's drive, and we had two libraries within a half hour's walk by bus, with different library systems. The libraries both have children's sections with countless picture books and decorations that are very much in tune with the child's psyche. The libraries are well-equipped, the computers are all touch-screen, and the leather sofas are just big enough for mom and child to squeeze in and read together. Books from the same library system can be borrowed and returned to each other, with any proof of identity you can get a library card (we used our passports), you can borrow more than one book at a time, and you can also renew your books online, which is very convenient. It is said that every year there is also a library book delivery day, American families often pull a cart to load books home. During our six months there, we were able to pick up a few picture books, but they were too heavy to bring back with us. The museums, not to mention the children's areas, are definitely places where kids can scream. All in all, the outside environment is very kid friendly.
(How can a kid not love a bookstore like this)
Four ? Loss
1. Economy: some may think it seems ridiculous for me to put this point in the first one. Nowadays, many families can spare no expense on their children's education, and it seems quite alternative for us to write this. The fact is that we rent in an area where consumption and taxes are very high, and the rent alone exceeds both of our monthly incomes combined, not to mention other food, clothing, and school fees for the kids. Therefore, we can only laugh at others who lightly say, "Why don't you buy a car?", "Yeah, go to the United States to buy a crazy" and so on. In fact, for Americans, the cost of basic necessities is not high, but compared to our income at home seems to be meager, and then everything is taxed multiplied by the interest rate, the cost is climbing.
2. Kindergarten selection: In general, we were a bit hasty in choosing a kindergarten, but of course there was no choice. This kindergarten has a large number of visiting scholars from many countries, and there is a great deal of mobility and language mixing among the children, and the whole kindergarten is very "ethnicized". I was told that our child played well with a Mexican child at the beginning, and when the child returned to his home country, he played with several Japanese and Korean children. It's natural for people to identify with the color of their skin. It also contributes to children not being able to maximize their exposure to English-speaking children. Other than that, we were happy with the kindergarten. But would this situation improve in a kindergarten with a majority of American children? We don't know.
3. Health: The support of the elders in the family is essential for the children to stay abroad for so long. For a generation that has forgotten all about English, it is not easy for them to live in an environment where they have no friends, no language barrier, and have to deal with all kinds of trivialities of life. And bringing up children is very hard work. If the elders are in good health, it's great, but if they are not, the high cost of medical care in the U.S. and the inconvenience caused by the language barrier and different customs are new challenges. At the same time, the children have been in the U.S. for a long time, and we are always worried about whether they will catch a cold or have a fever, or have any accidents. We could say that the health of the family was our biggest concern. As a matter of fact, the physical effort and psychological burden, all kinds of labor really more than in the country may have the load, even if I myself have to sleep in the children with the domestic to maintain no time difference between the work, the end of the trip we are very tired.
4. Parent-child separation: For a working mother, I was most torn between letting my child be separated from me for such a long time and exposing him to an English-speaking environment, and it was really hard to choose which was more important. It is said that half a month of separation is considered a serious separation, not to mention that it is almost half a year. I can't tell you how much my little one missed his mom, but I did go through a bit of an ordeal. But thanks to this very free time, I finally realized some of my own wishes, and also lived a very full life.
5. Cultural barriers: Half a year is not enough to really integrate into the local culture. Even if we are very receptive to Western culture, we can't help but think Eastern when dealing with some issues. Although there are many mass cultural and entertainment activities in each region, we were unable to participate in all of them due to the idea of temporary residence and various inconveniences. Similarly after returning home, we went through a process of acclimatization, the details of which will not be repeated here.
(Favorite bookstore)
V ? Reflections and Experiences
The following are all personal opinions, and the English learning experience is mainly for parents of preschoolers and those who have some basic English. Do not spray.
1. Is an English accent really that important?
Like most parents, we used to think it was very important. I'm not sure if I've ever heard of a native speaker, but I've been afraid to teach my children for fear of giving them a bad example and a bad start. However, after this experience, I personally feel relieved about this problem. On the one hand, it is hard to guarantee that we can speak Mandarin without a local accent, and sometimes it is more flavorful to listen to comedy sketches with a northern accent, so why not allow English to be spoken with an accent; on the other hand, when we come into contact with some locals in the U.S., it is hard to guarantee that they will not have an accent in their English (for example, the famous Texan accent). At home, we are okay with foreigners speaking Chinese with strange accents, so why do we think that foreigners can't accept us speaking English with an accent? Seriously, I think it is the Chinese themselves who are harsh on English accents: they worry that if they don't speak standard English, they won't be able to integrate into the local life and won't be accepted by the locals, and in recent years, the "cult of the accent" in China has been on the rise. In fact, as long as you can understand, Americans don't care about your accent. And Americans, a considerable part of the Chinese people have a good feeling, they think the Chinese people are hard-working and smart (met several children said they want to come to China to see, to learn Chinese), once you have trust you will treat you as a good friend, the accent will not be a minus for you; but for those who have a discriminatory gene in their bones, and then the good accent will not add to his goodwill towards you, at best, you are a The first thing you need to do is to get your hands on a new one, and you'll be able to do that.
It's not your accent that really helps you integrate into American life, it's your way of thinking.
So, I think we need to put aside our cultural inferiority complex first. English pronunciation is really important, and it's great to have a pure accent, but if you don't have the conditions to learn a pure accent, try to pronounce it standardly, and it's acceptable to have a little bit of an accent.
2. Is it worth it? Not worth it?
After putting aside our obsession with accents, we also started speaking English with our kids, which made us think about whether the trip was worth it.
Whether it was worth it or not is really entirely a matter of personal feeling and personal ability. For example, neither of us knows anything about music, so if we enroll our kids in a music class, we'll think it's worth it. But we wouldn't consider an English class that can easily cost over 20,000 on the market nowadays, because we can talk to our kids at home, and with some free resources and software, it's enough for the current learning (without caring about the accent, of course). Similarly, parents who have a skill of their own may not invest too much in this area for their child's enlightenment, but may be willing to invest in other areas.
I've already analyzed many of the pros and cons of this trip, and I'm sure that in addition to the points above, there are deeper impacts on children, some of which touch us as parents, but it's just not appropriate to list them all in this post. Although these effects can not be shown now, but I believe that in the future will slowly appear.
3. Pronunciation? Accent?
If parents take their children to learn English by themselves, I think there are three levels that they need to go through for those who have some basic knowledge of English.
The first is pronunciation. In my opinion, for Chinese people who can speak standard Mandarin, except for a few consonants, we can almost all reach the standard of English pronunciation. Nowadays, there are a lot of English learning materials on the market, and you can also learn phonetics to correct your pronunciation.
Secondly, there are some habits of English pronunciation, which is the initial stage for Chinese people to break through the Chinese accent, such as legato, bursting sounds, turbidization, and so on. All of them are covered in formal phonetics books. By listening and practicing more, you will find the feeling and naturally speak it.
The last level is accent. It is difficult for non-native speakers and requires a lot of practice. But I don't think it's a necessary part of the process anymore, so if you do the first two levels, you can have a conversation with your child without worrying. Children's tongues are softer than adults' and their ability to mimic is stronger, so they will find a pronunciation they like better.
4. Experiences
a. If you want your little one to study abroad, you need to plan at least half a year in advance, look for suitable schools through the Internet, and submit an application, otherwise it will be difficult to find a SPOT in a country where it is all about making appointments (this is our experience, we don't know if it's suitable for other regions).
b. If you can, it's best to have someone at home to fight the battle ahead when you go to a new place, after all, there are many inconveniences with children.
c. From personal experience, don't expect your child to learn English by watching original cartoons. When watching cartoons, children will only pay attention to the plot, and the absorption rate of English is actually not high, unless an episode is watched over and over again (the same applies to adults watching American dramas).
d. If you can, don't just throw your child into an English-speaking environment without knowing any English at all. That's the lesson we learned, or at least I've always thought that he would learn more efficiently if he knew some English before he went to school.
e. Don't expect your child to be able to speak after 2 months of learning (except for some linguistically gifted children). We met two parents in Washington, D.C., who brought their children to kindergarten in the summer, and were very anxious when their children refused to speak after two months. In fact, we have also experienced this kind of anxiety, the children only began to speak more slowly after 3-4 months, but they are still stuck in the word-based stage. So, the accumulation of time is important. Parents also need to be patient and persistent (P.S. The Washington Museum is stormy and really great for kids with some basic English, and it's not too much to stay for a month and take your time. I hope to find a group of like-minded moms and dads in a few years).
f. And don't expect the program to dramatically improve your child's speaking skills in 2 classes a week. That's an intensity that won't last more than 3 hours a week, and the commitment is just too low. Parents must be involved in their children's English learning, and conversing with their children in their normal lives, whether intentionally or unintentionally, will help them consolidate their English, and the children will really use it.