Counting in Mandarin

English and Mandarin are both are spoken by most people in Singapore. We’ve talked a lot about languages with the girls over the last 6 months. Ms.E has become very interested in animals names in Mandarin and knows them best in our family. I can say my numbers to 12, and could get to 99 with some thought. Once you pass 10, it’s pretty simple. Twenty-six is said as two-ten-six; Twelve is ten-two. I was so excited the day I understood a small boy saying 14 in an elevator. I think I know how to write the Chinese characters 0-4 and some random others. I should probably work on that.

The popular game on the playground is Hide and Seek Tag. The kids cover their eyes and count in Mandarin. Where Ms.C had no interest before now she can count past 20. It took her about 2 weeks to be confident about it. It was funny hearing her begin to count into the teens; She would count as high as she could... ten-two, ten-two, ten-three, ten-whatever, but in Mandarin, and then run off to catch someone.

Ms.C wrote a letter to a friend and asked me write to write out the Mandarin characters to 10. With just that she was then able to write them correctly to 20 in her letter.  Then she surprised me again by also writing the year out in Mandarin characters.

Ms.E is working on counting to 5 in Mandarin at the moment. Then she’ll be able to count the animals and say their names in Mandarin when we’re at the zoo. Isobel is starting to sing our Mandarin numbers song.

Sounds like time for me to set up a Mandarin tutor. I’m hoping to get someone who can give us lessons as a family together. We got a tutor name from someone at Jonathan’s work.