The Bub is a Potato No More!
The little Bub has always been most comfortable speaking in English, and there were many times that he expressed his disdain for Mandarin. He used to tell us that he is an “English people” and not a “Chinese people” to both our shock and amusement.
At first, we thought that it was a phase, but we started getting very very worried when he was continuously rejecting all forms of communication in Mandarin. We tried exposing him to Mandarin songs to pique his interest in the language but to no avail. We made it a point to speak Mandarin to him every day but he just was not receptive to the language and he made a conscious choice to reply to us in English. We were somewhat relieved that he understood Mandarin, but we just could not make him speak it.
Then out of the blue, the little fella shocked both Mama Lim and I, by randomly spewing phrases in Mandarin. AND he UPPED THE ANTE BY SINGING MANDARIN NURSERY RHYMES!!! (O_O) We were both happy and relieved that he was finally able to embrace speaking his mother tongue. Lots of credit has to be given to his nursery teacher, Ms. Zhao for instilling the interest in Bub and we are thankful for her efforts. 🙂
Yay!!! The Bub is a Potato no more! 😀