學中文對ABC孩子有幫助嗎?
在當今美國社會，許多移民家長在考慮孩子學習中文的時候，往往會從中文在美國社會的「實用性」來衡量這個問題。他們認為，如果中文對孩子的未來發展沒有太大的幫助，那麼就沒有必要花時間和精力讓孩子學習這門語言。結果，很多家長考慮放棄讓孩子學習中文，因為他們認為這對孩子在美國的生活和工作中幫助不大。
然而，許多家長忽略了不會說中文對親子關係和孩子身份認同的長期影響。我所認識的所有成年ABC都感覺很遺憾自己不能更好地說中文。這種遺憾反映了中文在他們生活中的重要性，其實已經超越了語言本身的實用性。
學習中文的重要性
保持親密的親子關係：當孩子進入中學和高中階段，他們的思維變得越來越複雜，並且會接觸到更多移民父母不理解的文化和新鮮事物。對於我們很多人來說，隨著生活變得更加複雜，我們接觸到的東西已經超出了父母的理解範圍，我們常常覺得很難用中文解釋我們的校園生活和社交生活。比如，我如何解釋什麼是”prom”以及上週學校發生的“prom-posal”？“Rap music”用中文怎麼說？我如何說服父母這不是“壞孩子”聽的音樂？我們無法解釋自己的生活，導致和父母產生情感距離，有些人長大之後還未能癒合青春期時與父母的情感隔閡。
理解自己的文化和身份：學習中文是了解自己文化遺產和身份的重要途徑。雖然很多孩子和青少年對“文化”和“身份”的問題沒有興趣，但我大多數ABC朋友在二三十歲時開始尋找自己的身分根源。有時候這意味著回到台灣或中國尋根，了解自己的來歷，或通過閱讀和觀看亞洲媒體來理解我們的原生文化價值觀。但如果不能流利使用中文，我們對自我的理解就會有局限。一個朋友曾經告訴我：“我能聽懂和說話，但因為我不會讀寫，我永遠無法完全欣賞或理解一首中文歌曲的情感。”就像翻譯的歌曲永遠不會像原版那樣動人，我們通過英語接觸到的東方文化總會有些局限。
將語言傳給下一代：隨著我們這一代ABC開始有了自己的孩子，我們很多人都希望自己的孩子能夠理解和說中文。為什麼？首先，我們希望我們父母能夠用中文自然地與他們的孫輩交流。其次，如上所述，我們的孩子將來更需要中文來理解“他們是誰“並且理解他們身上所傳承的華夏文化。然而，對於本身已經不能流利用中文表達的ABC家長來說，他們更加難以傳承中文語言給第三代ABC子女。
總的來說，學習中文不僅僅是為了未來社會的實用性，更是為了維護親子關係、理解文化身份以及為未來的家庭傳承語言和文化。因此，家長應該重視孩子學習中文，因為這對他們的長期發展和家庭關係都有著深遠的影響。
在我們接下來的幾篇文章中，我們將討論ABC在學習中文時面臨的挑戰，以及父母可以如何幫助他們。如果你想獲取這些文章的更新，請點贊我們的FB專頁或在thisabclife.com的頁面底部加入我們的郵件列表，並分享給您的朋友！
Does learning Chinese really help ABCs?
In today's American society, many immigrant parents often consider the "practicality" of learning Chinese when deciding whether their children should study the language. They believe that if Chinese does not significantly benefit their children's future development, then there is no need to invest time and energy in learning it. As a result, many parents consider giving up on teaching their children Chinese because they think it won't help their children much in their lives and careers in the United States.
However, many parents overlook the long-term impact of not speaking Chinese on parent-child relationships and their children's identity. Nearly all the adult ABCs I know regret not being able to speak Chinese better. This regret reflects the importance of Chinese in their lives, which goes beyond the practical utility of the language.
The Importance of Learning Chinese
Maintaining Close Parent-Child Relationships: as children enter middle and high school, they begin having more complex thoughts and running into more ‘unfamiliar’ cultural norms that their parents do not understand. For many of us growing up, as our worlds became more complicated and we were introduced to more that our parents didn’t understand, we often felt it was too difficult to explain what was happening in our school and social lives in Chinese. How do I explain what “prom” is and tell my parents about the “promposal” that happened at school last week? What is “rap music” in Chinese and how do I convince my parents that it isn’t what “bad” kids listen to? Our inability to explain our lives led to big emotional distance that some of us still haven’t closed with our parents.
Understanding Their Own Culture and Identity: learning Chinese is a crucial way to understand one's cultural heritage and identity. Even though many kids and teenagers have no interest in the questions of “culture” and “identity,” most of my friends do start to look for their roots in their 20s and 30s. Sometimes this means returning to Taiwan or China to understand where they come from, or reading and watching Asian media. All of these experiences help us understand “who we are” because they help us where the values that our parents passed on to us come from. But without fluency in Chinese, our understanding of ourselves has limits. A friend once told me, “I can understand and speak, but because I can’t read or write, I will never be able to fully appreciate or understand the emotions in a Chinese song.” Just like a translated song will never sound the same as the original, the parts of our “culture” we can only access through English will always feel limited.
Passing the Language to the Next Generation: as my generation of ABCs is starting to have kids, many of us wish for our own children to be able to understand and speak Chinese. Why? One, we wish for our parents to be able to communicate naturally in Chinese with their grandchildren, and two, because as mentioned above, our kids will one day need Chinese to understand “who they are.” However, for ABCs whose Chinese proficiency is poor, they are very worried about how to prevent the gradual loss of Chinese in the family, and often wish they were more fluent.
Overall, learning Chinese is not just about finding practical utility in American society, but also about maintaining parent-child relationships, understanding cultural identity, and passing the language and culture on to future generations. Therefore, parents should value their children's Chinese education, as it has profound implications for their long-term development and family harmony.
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