Oh, no.
What you've seen is the tip of the iceberg.
Most kids born in China and related regions and moving to the West at around 3 are pretty much the same as most ABCs(America born Chinese, in US' case.) They share the same kind of knowledge, fashion, culture, etc.
I can name two members in here that are true to your scenario, but the other kids, born in China and in the West by 3, don't give a care of China at all. So you don't really get to see a good distribution for such people.
Kids who had same schooling in China forst is a totally different case, though.
(I belong to neither case, I am ABC, born in Vermont, but I did go to school in Hong Kong for some years.)
So does Spanish and German. In fact, I think English is one of the few that has a neutral gender.
Agreed. I've always seen myself as an ETHNIC American when I started living in Hong Kong. (I was a racist then....... Thinking China is evil.....) And now I am usually pro-China. (Well, Bush did help with that.) :rofl:
Yeap, I agree!
Try Ms. Kaiser(married a German.) I can guarentee to you after seeing Kaiser, Chan will seem a good teacher.
Well, if you learn Chinese as a 1st language, I'd say it's easy. Every kid can end up speaking Chinese with little grammar error.(Contrary to English, with its, to me, weird grammar, I see a lot of kids end up speaking ebonics when they are out of school or just don't speak proper English. No offence.)
But as a 2nd language when you are from the West(Well, Chinese is to the East as English is to the West: The East is filled with Chinese), it can be very difficult due to huge differences in function and grammar. And if you are learning traditional, the strokes can be a hazzle. The different dialects and writing can be a problem too, though not as big as India's I'll say.
I think pinyin is better though. For the same point. It sounds more like Chinese, though I've never actually touch juyin, only seen some of it, like tsa or chi. I mean, wouldn't such "cheat" help? If you use english in Juyin, it's not going to help much.
I don't think those help THAT much. People can speak it usually fluently though sometimes with a little local accent due to English exposure 1st. But writing? Doubt it. It's on weekends anyway.
Don't know about China, but it's here in San Francisco all the time, even in the newspaper.
What the? Did you go to Mandarin school on the weekend or something? Hong Kong didn't standardize Mandarin into fully public/government schools until I think 1997. And still then, it was not present in other schools (public chartered) like those Anglican or Buddhist schools.
Not trying to offend anyone, but does it get annoying to you when people start speaking your language with sounds available only in their language?
And does ebonics count as a language?
