dustee
first and foremost, greetings fellow insomniac.
secondly, about the chinese words thing. i am pretty sure i don't know 1,000 words. let's see... 1-10 is already 10. just 990 more to go...
At the back of my mind it's always "gotta teach poppy mandarin, gotta teach poppy mandarin". at the front of the mind it's always "ha! and you think YOU are good enough, miss F9?". (first time in my life to see the characters "pang xie" when i did this for her:
http://gingerbreadmum.blogspot.com/2011/02/who-am-i.html)
but here's the thing, i honestly thing it's exposure that counts more than anything. (but that's just me). so if i speak to her in mandarin, and try my darndest, then at least she wouldn't be one of those kids who doesn't know her teacher is calling her when her chinese name is called out.
i think it depends on your own expectations too. like i said, i'm miss F9. i don't expect poppy to be competing in any chinese poem competitions (but that'll be hilarious though), but i do hope she will be able to speak it better than me. at least more than just talking to taxi drivers and ordering fish ball noodles.
i read her brown bear brown bear in mandarin and she says "no mama, read! english!". and i think oh no am i already too late? but i persevere and a few days after, despite the similar level of (dis)interest, she can recite the sentences with little prompting.
jia you mummies!!!
ps another "let's freak out together" one: my friend's less-than-3-year-old girl saw the word 春 and said "mummy, it's 春! looks like 看 and 着!"
goodness gracious, great balls of fire. my jaw dropped