Cynthia Simmonds (December 8, 2011)

I've written about phonemes before, more than once. Suffice it to say that I find them fascinating. More specifically, I find it fascinating that, as an English-only speaker, I cannot hear many of the phonemes in Mandarin. Fascinating, yes, but also VERY FRUSTRATING!!

I am completely at peace with the idea that one day my children will be smarter than I am. What else could a parent want for their kids, right? We all want our kids to be more successful/athletic/popular (insert your own adjective here) than we were. However, I think few of us are prepared for that to happen when our children are PRESCHOOLERS!

Yes, it is true. My preschoolers are truly more adept at Mandarin than I. Which is okay, but at the same time frustrating to me, as a first-born perfectionist. For example, when I hear Katie singing her favorite song, "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes," in Mandarin, with perfect pronunciation and accent,

I get a bit jealous. It took me several years (and more than a quick look at the pinyin) to figure out the words to this song. I'm sure I still don't pronounce them all correctly.

One of the most poignant examples of my failing to hear "correctly" relates to the word for lemonade in Mandarin. I would have sworn (on a stack of Bibles no less) that the word for lemonade in Mandarin was "leemon fen," like lemon with a long "e." When my son came home saying (or so I thought) "Nemo fen" ("Nemo" like the famous fish in the Disney movie), I just chalked it up to preschool mispronunciation and figured he would correct himself eventually. I discovered while researching for my blog that the word for lemonade in Mandarin is actually "níngméng fěn." I'm sure that I hear the first part of Nick's word as "Nemo" because my English ear is attempting to make sense of his speech! It is really amazing to me (still) how I simply hear words incorrectly—again and again and again.

For example, I was in Parent-Tot classes for well over a year before I discovered that I was hearing the word for elephant ("Dà xiàng") incorrectly. Seriously—over a year! I would have sworn (again on a stack of Bibles) that the word for elephant was "Tà xiàng." You can imagine my surprise when one day in class the word was written out in pinyin and I discovered that what I had heard as "tà" for over a year was actually "dà." In retrospect, the use of "dà" makes sense because it means "big" and elephants are, indeed, big. Hindsight is 20/20.

So once again I am grateful that my children have the opportunity to learn Mandarin at a young age—from native speakers. And, I am also grateful that my own "mis-speaking" does not negatively influence their own use of the language. I guess, for once, I'm grateful they are not listening!

--Cindi