The benefits and humor of bilingualism

You know, I feel a bit bad about my previous posts on teaching my kids Chinese, as they have been somewhat negative and discouraging.  But really there are some great benefits and humor for having somewhat bilingual kids.  Here are a few examples

• talking about other people "behind their backs" right in front of their faces.  Really, most of the time this isn't done to be mean, but it does save me some humiliation as I try to explain that big bellied people aren't necessarily pregnant, talk about race, certain rules, etc. 
• It's fun to see people's reactions to a white girl (me) talking in Chinese
• You sometimes meet other people who speak Chinese who will talk to you who you wouldn't otherwise meet or talk to.  Good practice! 
• When Ariana says some things in English and some in Chinese.  She has her preferences for some words but she usually knows both.  She used to always say "shoes" and now she says "xie."  Today she tried to say "Goofy" and it ended up being something like GOO fers which sounded hilarious. 
• Ariana's little Chinese accent.  Who'd a thunk I'd have a kid with an accent???
• Sometimes when she speaks in English I don't understand her. Weird eh?
• Other times when she says stuff in English, Ariana and I both think that it's funny.  For instance, "Mommy" and "Daddy" both give us a little giggle (In chinese it's Mama and Baba). 
• When she spurts out a paragraph in Chinese, she'll sometimes put in a word in English.  Recently she was telling me about how she was going to put on her fairy wings and then she'd go outside the second story window and fly fly fly!!!  Every time she mentioned wings she said that in English while everything else was Chinese.
• When she says Chinese grammer or tendencies in English, it sounds pretty funny (like repeating words which is done a lot in Chinese, especially kids, but we don't say it in English)
• When she tries to correct me in English or Chinese.  At this point, I am still usually right (though that will probably change soon!)
• When she says a word that I don't know that she learned from Dora or other Chinese TV, it's pretty cool.  She taught us how to say "tunnel" in chinese one day when we were driving through a tunnel.
• It's easy to know where she learned her language.  If it's Chinese it's from Dad and me or her Chinese teachers.  If it's English it's from her friends.  That is pretty enlightening.

So raising a child in Chinese is pretty hard but also fun.  You should try it!