Wen

@shiwen

57 Following

363 Followers

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Diwali soup dumplings with @jachian

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How my bilingual 2.5yo matches print to spoken language

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I don’t tell my toddler to “share”. Why? First of all, toddlers are just not developmentally ready for the concept of sharing. Even as adults, are we really cool with sharing??? @jachian one time got upset with me because I ate the top of a croffin that we were supposed to be “sharing”. 🤷🏻‍♀️ However, we hear these a lot: “You gotta share with your friends.” “Be nice. Share it with your sister.” Kids are being DEMANDED to share. If we tell them “sharing is caring”, then does “not willing to share” mean “not caring”? Does it make them bad kids? Not at all. I don’t want my child to take sharing for granted. Yes, it’s ok if you are not ready to share YET. Yes, it’s ok when someone else is not sharing. Yes, it’s ok to say “I prefer playing by myself”. Yes, it’s ok when someone says “no” to you. Yes, ALL of these are OKAY.

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Saturday morning dim sum ritual

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A daily conversation with my 2.5yo: 2.5yo: I want a lot of water! All water! (Right after her night bottle of 6oz milk) Me: You have two✌️options. One☝️ is to not drink any water and go brush teeth. The second ✌️option is to drink a little bit water before brushing teeth. 2.5yo: Two! ✌️ Sometimes clearly stating two options works (a known behavior management strategy). Sometimes. Last night, she wanted me to put on a bag and play with her. 2.5yo: Mama, you have two options. One is to put on this bag and play with me. Two is not put on this bag. Which one do you want? Me: Two. 2.5yo: No! You choose one! You want ONE!

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Higher athletics yoga challenge day 1 with @jachian

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Some people argue that Stephen Krashen’s comprehensible input theory emphasizes too much on the language environment. What if you want to raise a multilingual child, but you don’t have anyone at home who speaks other languages? Legit concern I feel very lucky and privileged that I am able to provide a Chinese language environment at home for my child. However, there will be limitations no matter what. Maybe his comprehensible input theory is still helpful even for monolingual parents. Just knowing the nature of language acquisition and making small changes to offer a language rich environment. As a parent sometimes I simply had to turn off the “concern section” in my brain and go with the flow. You can’t control everything and that’s ok.

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Wow! It’s cool to earn the $5 from my first few posts here. Just want to say thank you to everyone who welcomed me and shared your thoughts with me. I wonder…what about my posts that you find interesting/relatable? 😊

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Posting about my take on “learning” vs. “acquiring” a language reminded me of Stephen Krashen’s influential theory on language acquisition — comprehensible input. My first exposure to this theory was in grad school when I was studying Bilingual/Bicultural Education. When LEARNING a language, especially as an adult, we might rely on various external tools (dictionary, translation, teacher, textbook etc.). When ACQUIRING a language, all tools come from ourselves — our five senses, the will to communicate, and potentially the interests toward the topics being discussed.

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Here is my submission for the higher dance challenge!

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Our 2.5-year-old has been obsessed with a red-covered Chinese book (yes, “red” is the reason). This morning, she pointed to 蝴蝶 (butterfly) one character at a time and said: “butt-er, where’s fly?” Two things caught my eyes are: 1. She’s matching verbal language to print in Chinese and is attempting to do so in English, too. 2. She’s segmenting syllables in English words

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Raising our daughter bilingually has always been the default to me. Not because it’s more beneficial, but because it’s simply what’s natural to me and my family. There’s a difference between “learning” a language and “acquiring” a language. (掌握/身につける) No one feels like they “learned” their first language, because we all acquired it as we grew up. Things learned can be forgotten when not used. Skills acquired tend to stick for longer or come back easier. My hope for my child is not just about learning a certain number of Chinese characters or being able to hold conversations with grandparents. I hope it will be part of her life, and impact her life in a positive way, for as long as she lives. At the end of the day, my hopes are my hopes and her life is her life.

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👋 New to the platform. I’ll introduce myself with 2 truths and 1 lie: - Studied in Japan 🇯🇵 for a year and became fluent (somewhat) in Japanese - Met my husband @jachian when in grad school studying Bilingual Education in NY - Mother of a 2.5-year-old dictator in a tiny frame trying to survive day by day 🥱

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