Chinese class

It's been a few weeks since we started Chinese class at Bibinogs at Serene Centre.

So far she seems to like it. Or so says Chris. Ok.. so she does seem to get excited and is more willing to get dressed for her twice weekly classes.

I am mixed about this. 75 minutes in a confined space with a bunch of other kids and their moms. All running amok and wandering while the 2 teachers are frantically trying to conduct the sessions. And the mothers trying to keep the kids in line and not fight over toys/books/music instruments.

Somehow though, I think the kids do pick stuff up. They participate in the song singing, clapping and jumping around, and when they turn up for the next session they seem to recollect parts of the class. Of course their favourite part is definitely either snack time or project making time. And the stuff they make is really quite cute. I would have never thought of making such simple projects, like a bumble bee from left over cardboard tissue rolls, drums with cardboard, paper balloons stuck onto straws. And the kids do their part by painting or sticking stuff onto the paper.

Mostly, I think Madison no longer looks at me funny when I try to read or speak to her in Mandarin. In fact, she can now say a few words with meaning in Mandarin. " Mao"-cat, "Xing Xing" - star, "an" -for good morning, "xie xie" -thank you.

This week was tough though. I had to go there for Saturday and today's session. Usually Chris does the Saturdays but he was on call this weekend. Thankfully, the mothers who attended the past 2 times have been nice. In fact we started chatting a little, but usually stop because we are supposed to be interacting and participating in the class. And seem terribly interested in the lessons! ( although I think most of us, in our sane past DINK life would've been in town/having brunch/at the gym or still in bed at that hour on a Saturday morning)

Today there were 3 new mother/child pairs. One was Indian too. Their kids were all close to 20 months. They were well behaved bunch, but by the end of the class the kids were all hankering to leave the room and the mothers all probably needed either a glass of wine or some paracetamol.

So I guess this means we should continue the sessions. Chris thinks twice is just right. If this saves her from years of struggling with the language later on, well then, it's a small sacrifice.

Xie Xie, Ni how.Zhai Zian le!