By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Father westerner, mother Chinese, what's the kid's mother tongue?
See question.
Unless the (Chinese) government has a law that dictates the definition of what the "mother tongue" is, there is no legal or universally singular definition of what a mother tongue means. In general, the mother tongue is the first, primary, or dominant language a person learns and uses from early childhood on, often not necessarily the language learned at school. The genetics and nationality of the parents are not determinative. A child born in Thailand to Chinese-Korean parents that is put up for adoption at birth and raised in New Zealand will most likely rightfully claim English as her or his mother tongue. As to filling out a form requesting a statement of the mother tongue--unless required to answer otherwise--use the language the child is most comfortable using at home.
From a social perspective, people are often curious to know what language a child primarily uses at home in a mixed-coupled or multi-cultural relationship. I won't say whether this is racism. It's one of those things that people use to understand which partner's culture is more dominant in the home, or which resident country has the most influence on raising a child. People will respond differently to this depending upon whether they think the inquiry is too personally intrusive, motivated by racism, an innocent curiosity, idle chatter between new acquaintances, for comparisons of how to raise culturally-mixed children, etc.
Depends on the parents, but both Chinese and whatever the father speaks I would imagine.
ciac:
Some Chinese say mother tongue means the language the mother speaks, so when filling in applications put in that language. Kind of makes sense but something not quite right.
Stiggs:
Yeah that doesn't seem right to me either.
If someone calls a language their mother language, to me that would mean the main language they speak, the dominant language.
I used to know a girl in NZ who was born and raised in NZ, her mother was born in China and moved to NZ later in life so obviously Chinese is the mother's first language but the daughter couldn't speak Chinese - she could mostly follow a conversation but didn't speak it at all. There's no way anyone could say Chinese is her mother language, but it was her mother's language.
ciac:
Good example, makes sense. I am wondering if this is a big thing in China, something to do with their 'your country is your mother, no country you cease to exist' PC thing.
Say you are a Tibetan or Xinjianger, you don't know one word of written or verbal Chinese yet you must claim your mother tongue to be Chinese.
icnif77:
All Uyghurs (Xinjiang) speak and understand Chinese. Their kids attend schools with only Chinese teachers, i.e. lectures in Chinese, only. There are no Schools in Xinjiang with lectures in Uyghur language.
It must be the same in Tibet ...
ciac:
So the new generation is using Chinese in school and at work while their parents or grandparents may not know it at all. Years ago some Chinese told me, " if you visit the temples there don't talk to the monks who speak Putonghua, they are CCP people placed there to monitor tourists".
Stiggs:
To be honest ciac, this is the first time I've heard this definition of mother tongue.
It seems overly simplistic, not based on realistic situations and reminds me of the people who are adamant that everyone who is ethnically Chinese is therefore 'Chinese' and traitors if they happen to be born in a different country, call themselves something other than Chinese and don't get hysterical and nationalistic about Chinese causes like wayward provinces and disputed Islands.
ciac:
Me neither. I am pretty sure no one in the States would think of telling the Cherokees to say their mother tongue is English. I agree, something is fishy here with this mother tongue and traitor thing. They are doing this to the HKers too, telling them Putonghua is their mother tongue.
“Say you are a Tibetan or Xinjianger, you don't know one word of written or verbal Chinese yet you must claim your mother tongue to be Chinese.”
There’s more than one “mother tongue” in China. I have lots of friends whose NATIVE language/mother tongue is Cantonese, Hakka, etc. Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese) is the national language but is NOT the native tongue of a LOT of Chinese citizens.
Just something to think about...
ciac:
A Guangzhou Chinese who uses Cantonese at home and with his friends tells me his mother tongue is Putonghua. He says most Guangzhou people would say the same. Ask your Guangzhou friends what their mother tongue is and see what they say?
Englteachted:
That's what they tell outsiders. If they see you as a genuine friend, they'll tell you their true feelings
Didn't realize I'm supposed to know the mother tongue simply from the term westerner
FFS, I have two kids here. My daughter is four and her mother tongue is Chinese. The reason being she has been brought up here and it is her dominant language skill. English (sadly) is her second language.
ciac:
Should they move to where you are from and switch to English as their dominant language, it would be interesting to hear their answer to "what is your mother tongue?"
mike168229:
You're right there. And seeing as we will be moving in about 18 months, we shall see.
ciac:
If they ask you "dad, what's my mother tongue?" what would your answer be?
Stiggs:
I find it really hard to imagine kids, or anyone for that matter asking something like that. Especially growing up in a western country.
mike168229:
@Stiggs, with you on that. As I told the missus (chinese) that anyone will assume you are British until you open your mouth. Asking someones mother tongue has never, ever happened to anyone I know and I seriously doubt anyone will ask my kids or my kids ask me. @ciac, what exactly is this hard-on you have for mother tongue anyway?
ciac:
Often they ask because they are asked by new friends and they don't know how to answer. I just came up with a humorous one, "I have two tongues, a father tongue and a mother tongue....." , that should do the trick.
Unless the (Chinese) government has a law that dictates the definition of what the "mother tongue" is, there is no legal or universally singular definition of what a mother tongue means. In general, the mother tongue is the first, primary, or dominant language a person learns and uses from early childhood on, often not necessarily the language learned at school. The genetics and nationality of the parents are not determinative. A child born in Thailand to Chinese-Korean parents that is put up for adoption at birth and raised in New Zealand will most likely rightfully claim English as her or his mother tongue. As to filling out a form requesting a statement of the mother tongue--unless required to answer otherwise--use the language the child is most comfortable using at home.
From a social perspective, people are often curious to know what language a child primarily uses at home in a mixed-coupled or multi-cultural relationship. I won't say whether this is racism. It's one of those things that people use to understand which partner's culture is more dominant in the home, or which resident country has the most influence on raising a child. People will respond differently to this depending upon whether they think the inquiry is too personally intrusive, motivated by racism, an innocent curiosity, idle chatter between new acquaintances, for comparisons of how to raise culturally-mixed children, etc.
my son speaks Chinese better than English,but his English is getting better.my wife speaks Chinese with him and I speak English with him.
at kindergarten he gets 2 20 min English lessons a week and everything else is in Chinese.
