Growing Up Bilingual

A few of Kira's videos have Chinese dialogue; I'm going to try and find some time to subtitle as many of them as I can for readers' benefit, but also for Trevor's benefit.  He doesn't speak the dialect of Chinese that I'm speaking with Kira, namely Toisanese.  It's very similar to Cantonese, the dialect with which Trevor is more familiar, but some Cantonese-speaking people find it very difficult to understand.  I grew up speaking both Toisanese and Cantonese, and in my mind, there is a consistent transfer of syllables and tones between the two; thus, I'm one who finds the two dialects very similar.

I chose to speak Toisanese with Kira because I know more vocabulary in Toisanese than in Cantonese.  Both my parents are of Toisanese decent, and before our grandparents passed away, my sisters and I spoke Toisanese exclusively with them.  My mom grew up in Hong Kong and she inadvertently exposed us to some Cantonese.  Living in Boston during the 80s also exposed us to a lot of Cantonese, as many immigrants from Guangzhou arrived during those years.  Eventually, I want to introduce Cantonese to Kira.  It is more useful in life than Toisanese because the latter is known more as a home-spoken language rather than one spoken in modern society (e.g., job interviews, restaurants, shopping, etc).  Once my brain starts thinking in Chinese again, it will be easier for me to incorporate Cantonese than it is now while my brain still thinks more proficiently in English.

So far, raising Kira bilingual feels like swimming against the tide.  As mentioned, my brain thinks in English, and if I don't make a conscious decision to do otherwise, my conversations end up in English.  Furthermore, since Trevor doesn't speak Chinese, on days my parents don't visit and Trevor and I are the only adults around, I'm not really motivated to speak Chinese just for Kira to hear it.  Despite these obstacles, I still want to speak Chinese with Kira because I think it will help her develop active thinking and creativity.  I read that bilingual people easily think outside of the box because their brains know that there is more than one set of rules for communication and more than one word for any given object.  Plus, the ability to speak multiple languages may someday help Kira make the most of her education and career.

Earlier this week I went to see my chiropractor.  He speaks Cantonese.  I thought it would be easier speaking with him than before because I've been speaking a lot more Chinese than I normally do, albeit Toisanese.  Surprisingly I found myself stuttering a lot because I was confusing Toisanese tones with Cantonese ones.  I'm finding it hard to retrain my brain!!  Maybe I should start introducing Cantonese sooner than later, before I'm stuck thinking/speaking Toisanese.