[richard p.]

Great thread. I kind of chuckle when when I read about people questioning whether we are allowing our kids to learn Chinese-as if it is something you can pick up in a few months. My oldest daughter took both Cantonese and Mandarin for about a year each. Both times we were told that unless we got a full time tutor she would be lost in class. Both classes were geared towards children who had Chinese parents in the home and were used to hearing the language. The language is very very difficult and very tonal, so it is not something you can just read about and learn from a book. She had a great time but got bored and frustrated with it. We did not push her to continue. Looks like we all agree that teaching our kids about their rich and wonderful culture is very important and probably more important than learning the language. My wife, daughter and I have many Chinese friends and I can tell you that most of their kids do not speak Chinese. The few that do speak, speak because they were born in China or because there are grandparents in the home and the kids go back to China to visit for extended periods of time.