The 'Chinese' issue rears itself every now and again. Surprisingly never from my mum or dad who being fiercely proud of their culture you would expect to nag me about heritage. No, I get comments from people like my chinese hair dresser or the old ladies in Chinatown who coo and aagh over Aimee and Dylan and then say why you no speak chinese to little one?
I did manage to get Aimee to learn 1-10 in chinese when she was quite young, I think maybe 18-24 months. She would mimic anything I told her so it was easy. It's much harder these days.
I don’t have the energy or will power. But hope is on the horizon. Most schools in London and maybe in Herts now offer Chinese as a language option for GCSE and maybe A-levels. I think you have to go to a specialist college for A-levels and it does depend on expert langauge staff, but it is something on offer that was never around when I was a kid. Heck, when I was at school, home computers were but a twinkle in Bill Gates's eyes and cookery and metalwork were 'important' subjects.
The environment in which kids grow up is different too.
Schools are much more multi-ethnic and politically correct, which reflects society at large. If Aimee and Dylan grows up not knowing any Chinese, then they'll probably not be alone amongst other BBCs (British Born Chinese) or half BBCs (HABEEBIES?). And it won't really be an issue as it was with me.
But with the internet, cheap travel, good teachers and other resources, if they want to learn Chinese, it will be pretty easy to do so in this day and age.
