Second Language

Most children have at least familiar with 2 languages - English as the international language and their mother's tongue i.e. Mandarin, Tamil, Bahasa Malaysia or any dialects. At the toddler's age, most of them are quick to absorb and pick-up language especially those that are familiar to them. Once they are given much exposure on the language, they will be able to use the language to the right context.

Maximus begins to pick up his language pretty-well too. Besides being able to understand English language, he also starts to grasp the Mandarin language too. He is able to apply the vocab in the right context too.

He know 3 vocab in Mandarin - zhi ge (this), na ge (that) and wo de (mine). Most of the time when he pointed at things that he wanted he will use the zhi ge or na ge depending on where the thing is. And each time when I told him not to play with my things, as I said "This is mummy-de." He will reply, "Wo-de" and put the thing on his chest showing that he own it.

I am sure that as he grows, he will have the opportunity to pick up his dialect Hokkien. Later in school, he will grasp Bahasa Malaysia too. It's really a good opportunity because our Malaysian children have a wide choice in languages since we are varieties.

Praise God for Malaysian...