I apologize for not posting on this blog for such a long time. We have been super busy with our music lessons, orchestra and a special trip we took to San Francisco so Chinese was on put on the back burner for a while. Now we are back and eager and ready to get back to studying Chinese!

Our recent trip to San Francisco actually centered around language. My husband was there taking classes at St. Giles (an arm of Cambridge) to receive a CELTA. With a CELTA he is qualified to teach English as a second language. For now, he will be using his training at his current job, but we do hope to use it in China some day!

On the way home from our month in San Francisco, he related some things that he had learned in his class about learning a second language.  Much of  the information we have heard,  about 2nd languages being difficult for  people over age 13 to learn, is wrong. It turns out that the key to learning is “listening” (in context).  If you think about how well most teens and adults listen, it makes sense that they are not learning as well as young children!   

This made a lot of sense to us, because that is what our adopted children have done. When we first received them, they all jabbered away in “baby Chinese.” After a while, they stopped talking all together and the first time this happened we were very nervous. Then after 9-12 months of near “language silence” they began to talk…and usually in full sentences! It was amazing for us to see and when Da heard about this in his class, it dawned on him that this is what happened in our own family.

So, with this in mind, we are planning on a lot more listening.  I will tell you more about our plans to incorporate more listening in upcoming posts!

Our family  has also been presented with another amazing opportunity that I will be posting about soon.  Keep your eyes and EARS open!

Note:  Chinese characters have always fascinated me.  There are sometimes many meanings in addition to the basic translation of the word.  Listen (聽)  has so much meaning that I am framing it and putting it above my desk as a reminder to “listen” to my children…with my ears, with my eyes, with undivided attention and with my heart! 

Here is the break down of the traditional character for listen (posted above):

The section on the left denotes the ear.

There are four sections on the right:

• the top one says you
• beneath that comes the eyes
• next is undivided attention
• at the bottom is heart