My 2 year old overtakes me...

Wow! Thats amazing. There was a story in the interenet about a small child you knew like 4 different languages because his mom, dad, housekeeper, and grandma (?) all spoke different languages to him/her. They (children) pick up languages unbeliveably fast! I am trying to tell y brother that but he doesn't seem to be interested.

My 2 year old daughter has just started singing along to 月亮代表我的心. We aren't a bilingual family, but I listen to a lot of Chinese music when I need a break from Teletubbies.

The most funniest thing was: One day he came to me with that picture of a sheep and called it by its correct German name. Afterwards he went to my wife and said "la4". My wife corrected him: "羊， 小羊". But he insisted on that la4. The German for "sheep" is "Schaf " which is almost pronounced like "scharf" "scharf" means hot/spicy. Go figure.

We were out in public a couple of weeks ago and my son farted. While my wife was reprimanding him for his poor manners, just as she really got into the lecture he loudly said, shei2 fang4 pi4 le. Sadly, that's the only mandarin he has latched onto.

Henning, that's amazing. Thanks for sharing the story!

Kids can be just plain scary, can't they? Travelling in Laos years ago, I met a European woman travelling with her 5-6 year old daughter. The little girl was picking up Lao (more tonal than Mandarin), basically by accident, and she would translate for all of us adults. And if I remember right, the English that she was translating wasn't her first language either.

POOH PAH - Hey it took TWO years for the kid to only learn 'le' 了 and he only uses the past-tense variant, no present-perfect, future continuous, or modal emphasis, and I be he can't even write that simple hanzi! Dad, you're still way ahead of him, and if he ever gets cocky, just play basketball, he's got a while to grow to catch up there! I find it fascinating to hear about kids learning language, feel free to post more about it Henning!! Maybe lambs say in German "laaaaa"? What happens if you switch and speak to him entirely in Chinese one day and mom speaks in German...will he get all confused..?? heh...I would be a bad father. ;p

What I find amazing is how he switches language when he speaks to me and my wife. Sometimes he runs back and forth to first tell me the German name of that farm animal and then my wife the Chinese version.

That's a really great story, Henning. You've got a cool kid.

Henning, would you be willing to share with us a bit more about your language environment. I am curious if your son will speak more Mandarin around the house and family, or if he will speak more German(or a general balance). Is German the dominate language in the environment around him (ie dad, neighbors, extended family, little play mates, etc)? Do you think the primary care giver's language will be his most common choice of communication or?? I'm an educator and a father so I am weighing if their are tendencies that we can learn.

Lantian, it is not that easy. If you describe the picture of a book - do you do that in past tense? But the 了 is perfectly OK here. I might know a rule or two, but my son intuitively goes beyond the rules.

M2T, I speak German with my son, my wife Chinese. I am 4 days a week not at home though. As he is not yet old enough for Kindergarten, my son is therefore still mainly exposed to Chinese (that will be enforced when he will go to Beijing for 7 weeks in August/September with my wife).

Good story, Henning. Keep sharing them. And Scottyb, your son is awesome too. I think you can expect great things from him in the future.

My 6 year old niece seems quite interested in written Chinese.

I´m getting old is all I feel reading this (ok it´s 3:45 for me now but that´s not the (only) reason...)