Learning Chinese is Hard - but it's not worth sacrificing your child's happiness

Yup, that's the bottom line. There is no escaping the need to apply yourself and work hard. I've heard so many parents try tricks and think there is some elusive, undiscovered "magic" method or pill they can get their hands on, that much time and energy is wasted missing the obvious.

Is the hard work worth it? I think so. I am so impressed with the ones who do it - especially the ones who don't come from a background that would make them do it otherwise. An entire world of wonder awaits you.

But you cannot escape the blood, sweat and tears. I know, your teacher didn't tell you. She didn't want to scare you. And you've got so many of your peers jumping on the Mandarin bandwagon that you think you must be missing out if you don't do it.

Learning to become literate in the Chinese language is even hard for native speakers of Chinese. I've noticed that some non-Chinese "American" parents seem to think that this only applies to native speakers who are uneducated or outright dumb and less capable than their very own brilliant little geniuses. Hmmm. Yah. Okay. Your kid is that much of a genius. Thumbs up. Keep at it... But don't say no one ever told you...

Think long and hard. If you do this, you will give your child a precious gift. If you don't commit, however, then you will have wasted his/her time when they could have been happier doing something else.

Teach your child the hard work early on. You will see how that becomes a life-long value that will carry him/her in so many other ways, including giving him/her the true "magical" insight into this amazing language.

Don't do it early enough - then if your kid doesn't develop a natural love for this, you will be sacrificing his/her happiness for something that you have to wonder if you really wanted in the first place.

A trend is still just a trend. Learning bad Mandarin is the equivalent of learning far less than a street ruffian. If all the other stuff is not in place - all the things that mean a "good" to "excellent" education in the language your child does, in fact, fully understand, then you are not giving your child a "good" education.