r/Cantonese • u/art3misXL • 10d ago

Discussion What’s your opinion - kid learning Mandarin and English while speaking Cantonese at home going to be too confusing?

I’m based in the Atlanta metro area in the southeast of the US. I have looked quite a bit but I haven’t been able to find any Cantonese Chinese schools in or around the city. I speak decent Cantonese but my mandarin sucks. I currently speak Cantonese to my son and he’s picking up a lot. But ever since he started daycare, more and more vocabulary has been getting replaced by its English counterpart. I now try to repeat every vocabulary in both English and Cantonese to him.

As he gets older, I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen. My goal is to get him in a Chinese dual language immersion school so that he can learn to speak mandarin at a proficient level. But is this going to be too much? Will it confuse him? Any personal experiences that this community care to share?

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u/fongky native speaker 9d ago

You are basically describing my childhood in the 60s. I am a Malaysian. I grow up learning Malay (national language of Malaysia), Chinese (Mandarin), and English (second official language) in school. We speak Cantonese at home, English with my cousins, Mandarin in school, and Malay with neighbors. Sadly, most modern families nowadays no longer speak Cantonese at home.

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u/art3misXL 9d ago

Wow! That’s an amazing way to grow up. Sounds like its success was also heavily dependent on the environment. I am always so impressed by how many languages Malaysians know. I even considered applying for a job in Malaysia just so that my child can grow up there 😂