September 05, 2009

Is it Manglish? No, it's Chinglish

I speak to Yiu Yiu in English while hubby speaks to her in Mandarin or Cantonese. Nevertheless, she's still more inclined to use English in replying hubby despite being spoken to in Mandarin or Cantonese. When MIL was around to help with my confinement, Yiu Yiu had no choice but to speak in Mandarin or Cantonese with mah-mah. But her Mandarin vocabulary is clearly lagging behind her English. Here are some of her Chinglish sentences:

我 mummy 不知道 how to 放 (my mummy doesn't know how to put)
我要你冲凉给我 when she's supposed to say我要你帮我冲凉 (I want you to take bath for me)
等我,我要 tell you something (wait for her, I want to tell you something)
麻烦你绑头发给我when she's supposed to say 麻烦你帮我绑头发 (can I trouble you to tie my hair)

She's cognizant that her Mandarin is not so good, coz when we correct her, she says, 我会讲华语一点点only (I can only speak a little bit of Mandarin).

6 comments:

Liew said...

At least she is much better than Yi Hao. Yi Hao is so into speaking in English. Hopefully this will change when they go to school

Angeleyes said...

At least she knows how to defend herself! :P

BoeyJoey said...

Yiu Yiu is so polite! I love how she ask mah-mah to tie her hair... I hope my kids speak more Mandarin too :-(

A Mom's Diary said...

WK - both of them also same same la, speak Mandarin/Cantonese with an angmoh accent. Haha.

Angeleyes - yeah, good that she knows her limitations :-)

BoeyJoey - don't you/hubby/your mum speak to them in Mandarin?

Chinneeq said...

we speak even rojak at home, mandarin, english, hokkien, malay...hahaha

A Mom's Diary said...

Chinnee - children learn languages effortlessly. Good that your children are exposed to different languages.