Interested in forming a Mandarin immersion playgroup?

[cirrus29]

I'm seeking other Mandarin-speaking parents/carers with children of pre-school age or younger to form a regular (perhaps weekly?) playgroup. I envisage a 30-60 minute long session with Chinese nursery rhymes, play-based learning and also the teaching of some Chinese characters to those ready to read/write. Mine are currently 3.5 years and 9 months respectively, and this is what I do at home with them, but I am struggling to stay motivated! We also admittedly speak English at home most of the time... Please reply or send a message if you are interested.

-Samantha

[icecreamcrying]

Hey Samantha, glad to see this message here! I'm a Mandarin speaker and my son is approaching 11 months now. He goes to nursery Monday to Wednesday so would love to attend the play group if it is on Thursday or Friday. I'll pm you my contact detail so we can stay in touch.

Thanks

Lin

[cirrus29]

That's great, Thursday or Friday would work for us too. Will wait to see if there's anyone else out there...

[gracey33]

Hi - I'd be very keen but work full-time. Would nannies be invited? Alternatively, would be happy with a playdate over a weekend. We are relatively new to the area and I think my kids would benefit from just being around other Mandarin or Cantonese speakers. They seem to think I am just making up my own language...

[joseba]

Mine are 14m and 3.5y. Would be nice to have something like that. The older one is going to nursery full time though so weekend is the only option for her.

[cirrus29]

Great to hear from you all! Maybe we could plan a tentative session for Saturday 28 Nov - I'd be happy to host it - and then see how it goes?

[joseba]

Sounds good. Would prefer afternoon.

[cirrus29]

Hello and thank you for your responses! Please PM me with your email address if you would like to join and I will send out an email to everybody so we can agree a time.

[minder]

Sounds great but just remember not to exclude anybody who is not fluent in Mandarin i.e. Mandarin immersion? They might be a grandparent or a carer not familiar with the language.

I was excluded from a group around 8 years ago for being "rather too English" even though I spoke the basic (and I mean basic) language!

[cirrus29]

Hi minder,

this is precisely why I need the help of other parents/carers! I too speak pretty basic Mandarin - it is very much my second language, and I am only *just* literate for all practical purposes, despite having studied the subject at school. I hope it will all come back once I have people to practice with/ am forced to speak it in an immersion situation - even if only at toddler/household vocabulary level! Anyone who can speak any Mandarin is welcome to join, but I think immersion is important - my daughter has already picked up the habit of replying in English - bit like history repeating itself as this is the same thing I used to do with my parents (they spoke to me in Chinese and I replied in English) from age 4-ish, resulting in my current lack of fluency... Who knows, perhaps this will prove futile - but I'm giving it my best shot!