They say it’s always best to learn a new language early on in your childhood. But there can be times when you find your child uninterested in speaking a different tongue that they lose the desire to learn. With this, local actress Xiang Yun takes to Instagram to share a tip of getting kids to learn Mandarin from her own experience.
But it apparently wasn’t easy for her two kids to start picking up the language. In her recent post, the celeb mum revealed how Chen Xi and Chen Yixin used to be “really resistant” to learning Mandarin.
Image source: Instagram / xiang_yun_
Xiang Yun Shares Instagram Post On How Chen Xi Came To Learn Mandarin
Xiang Yun wrote in her Instagram caption how her children only came to embrace the language when they were overseas, as per 8days.
The actress was in Shanghai filming the 1997 period drama The Royal Monk when her husband Edmund Chen and son visited her. It was during this trip that her son Chen Xi, who was then 8years old, started showing interest in Mandarin.
Image source: Instagram / xiang_yun_
Chen Xi, who was a Primary 2 student studying in Taonan School, met and befriended Chinese actor Cao Jun, who played Xiang Yun’s onscreen son.
Since his new friend Cao Jun spoke fluent Mandarin, Chen Xi started to “actively learn” the language to interact with him.
“My son, who very rarely spoke Mandarin, suddenly started speaking Mandarin. After returning to Singapore, he began actively learning Mandarin, and with the help of a very good Chinese tutor, [the language] was no longer a problem for him,” shared Xiang Yun, according to 8days.
Xiang Yun’s Daughter Yixin Also Became Fluent In Mandarin
Image source: Instagram / xiang_yun_
Since Xiang Yun was often busy with work when her celebrity daughter Yixin was younger, her daughter interacted more with their helper in English.
The actress also shared how Yixin rarely spoke a word of Mandarin. This made it challenging for her to learn Chinese when she entered school. But her “turning point” came when she was in Primary 2.
“At that time, the whole family went to Taiwan and chartered a vehicle for a tour. The driver-cum-tour-guide spent all 10 days enthusiastically introducing all the good food and fun tourist spots. When Yixin returned to Singapore, her fluent Mandarin stunned me. From then on, she was no longer resistant to learning Chinese,” Xiang Yun wrote.
Coming from the experience of Xiang Yun based on her Instagram post, one of the best ways to encourage your child to learn Mandarin is to have them interact more with people who speak it fluently. You might be surprised—this might spark their interest in the language.
Lead image source from Instagram / xiang_yun_.
Source: 8days
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