Bilingual children are often mistakenly diagnosed with early learning disabilities because the standardised tests for academic competence that we currently have were created based on data derived from monolingual children. In this TedTalk by Emilia Saenz Rios, she argues that the benefits of bilingualism are undeniable and that we need to persevere and be more patient. While the pace of language development may seem slower in bilingual children at first when compared to their

Did you know that Ping Pong originated from 1880s Victorian England? It was invented by the upper classes as an indoor alternative to tennis when it was too cold to play outside. Players would set up nets across their dining tables and sometimes even use stacks of books as nets, cigar box lids as bats and golf balls or rounded champagne corks for balls. As you can imagine, it caught on very quickly being a lot more accessible for people to play at home as they didn’t need a b

Numbers are surprisingly easy to learn in Chinese because they are simply logical. Once you have learnt how to count from 1 to 10 in Chinese, you can count all the way up to 99. Whereas if you were to learn to count in English, you would have to learn unique words for numbers beyond ten, such as “eleven” “twelve” and “twenty,” to name a few. To illustrate, when you have mastered numbers 1 to 10 in Chinese, moving on to double digit numbers would simply be putting two digits

Our children have started playing football matches in the local school league and as you can imagine it's now Eat, Sleep, Football, Repeat during game season. After match conversations have been liberally peppered with football terminology in Mandarin and English. Following some research we would like to share some of the common, general vocabulary that you can use when having a conversation about football in Mandarin. Firstly, let's start with the basics: Football: 足球 (zú qi

Learning languages can be easy as 1,2,3 if you break it down to simple steps.

The Chinese are thought to have used chopsticks as early as 1200 B.C., firstly as a cooking utensil. It was not until A.D. 400 that people began eating with chopsticks as they found them efficient. It subsequently spread to other parts of Asia. Since then different cultures in Asia have adopted different styles of chopsticks. For example, in Japan, the chopsticks are traditionally made of bamboo or wood and are often lacquered whilst in Korea, the chopsticks are metal. Chines

Our 7 year old son is obsessed with Nerf guns. He has been spending endless summer afternoons playing at Nerf gun wars with the other kids in the playground. As with any other child, there are never enough toys or nerf guns. He has been pleading and negotiating with me for a new Nerf gun that he really wants even though he already has three. I commented that if only he put in the same amount of dedication to his Chinese revision I might reconsider. He said that he is very dil

We have a house rule with our kids. Ever since they were of speaking age, we would not respond to them unless they spoke to us in Chinese. However, I do try my best to be less of a tiger mum in this approach. I consider my battle half won if they begin any conversations with me in Mandarin without me reminding them. I would encourage my children to try to speak as much as possible in Chinese and to use English where necessary for words I know that they have not learnt or ex

My son's favourite Bubble Tea is the classic Pearl Bubble Tea 珍珠奶茶 zhēn zhū nǎi chá. It is simply shaken milk tea with tapioca pearls. As a treat he is allowed to have one if he is able to order it in Mandarin Chinese. Watch this Youtube clip about how to buy Bubble Tea in Mandarin Chinese, including all those confusing questions about the sugar and ice content. Then when you are ready, challenge yourself and head to your nearest Bubble Tea shop (or if you are in the UK click

The single most important factor in learning a language is the amount of exposure that the child gets to it. This is not easy if you are bringing up your child to learn a language that is not your native tongue and not being in a country where it is not widely spoken. One avenue that has yielded results for us is internet. Now, I am not a fan of exposing children to tablets or phones but when used appropriately, technology is an amazing tool. As with all children, my son love

The World of DAVE. We chose this as our first blog post for two reasons. Firstly, my 5 year old son could not stop laughing watching this and he could actually relate to it and secondly this video really represents what we are trying achieve at bilingualbees. We believe that language is the most direct connection to other cultures. If you are able to communicate in another language, it exposes us to and fosters an appreciation for the traditions, religions, arts, and history