Situation #1.8: I am afraid my child will get confused with learning both languages at the same time if she is switching back and forth in English and Chinese.Reality: There may be an initial threshold of struggle when your child is acquiring two languages at the same time in the beginning. You may need to be prepared to give extra support during that period. Research has recommended that a bilingual child should learn how to read in the home language at an early age, even before she learns English or enters school. This may be extremely difficult to achieve, especially when children are entering schools at a very young age in many countries today. Furthermore, most schools usually make no provisions to help and support your child in learning her native language. Therefore, home should become naturally the most probable place to nourish that learning. Time would only get scarcer as your child becomes more occupied with school work.

It is also beneficial to know that research has confirmed that a functionally bilingual child will have little difficulty learning to read two languages at the same time. Language mixing, a mixing of both languages unknowingly in the same utterance of a young child, should not be seen as confusion, but rather as a natural course of learning two languages.

Situation #1.7: My child is past the optimal stage of learning Chinese. I should have done it when he was much younger.Reality: In the child’s early years, the family may talk to him in Chinese, and English if desired, if that is what the family is comfortable with. Even before the child is born, research has confirmed he has already started to listen to the mother’s voice. It is definitely beneficial to begin these types of connection early on. Between birth and nine months of age, the child starts to acquire, rather than learn, the language(s). That is the first window of opportunity. There may not be any prevalent result at that point, but it will serve as a strong foundation later on when he does acquire the language(s). He will benefit much by having lots of human contact and verbal interactions with parents, siblings and primary caregivers at this time.

The second window of opportunity is between the age of four and seven to introduce a second language if your child is raised monolingually up until then, or a third language if your child has been bilingual. The years before that window of time, a child’s cognitive skills were in rapid development, which perhaps explains why he was mostly shaping the language(s) he acquired in the first window and could leave little room for another new language. The second window is also the time to start introducing and teaching reading and writing if biliteracy is in your plan for your child. Be aware though when your child should start writing by hand, however, due to individual development (see Situation #4.2). Another reason to start biliteracy is so that it is introduced prior to any formal schooling, so that he has a positive attitude toward his home language(s). You should try to use the child’s first language (i.e. Chinese) to provide academic content and real life experiences as long as you can prior to schooling as well. You can be sure that all these knowledge will eventually be transferred to the second language (i.e. English).

There is not a biological marker when a person stops being capable of learning a language. Different ages pose different advantages and disadvantages. It is never too late to learn. In all these windows of opportunities, you need only to provide your child a rich environment with an active approach to drive the learning.