Do Expat Kids Speak Enough Chinese To Go To The Market Alone?

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A couple of weeks ago, I set out to test my child’s independence by tasking him with going to the neighbourhood market across the street to buy a capsicum. This little mission opened a Pandora’s box of parenting questions, starting with “Can a 7-year-old cross the street in Beijing by himself? And should he?” 

Road safety issues aside, once my son made it to the market across the street, several new concerns rose to the surface. The language barrier was one of these because although our family are ethnically Chinese, English is the main language we speak at home. Would he know how to communicate with the seller?

Living in China has given us a vast array of opportunities, including learning the Chinese language in a completely immersive environment. After their daily Chinese classes in school, plus additional tutoring after school (which most of us have little choice about if we want our kids to get by in the subject), you sometimes just gotta ask, “How functional are our kids’ Chinese-speaking abilities?"

As I observed my son whole-heartedly try to complete his mission, other issues also caught my attention, from his ability to identify vegetables to social manners - I was a little mortified that he seemed to forgo all his Ps and Qs like basic greetings, until a friend explained how his mind must have been in "Fight or Flight" mode considering the stress of the situation for him, so anything unnecessary to his completion of the mission must have seemed secondary. His basic mathematics skills were also put to the test and let's just say we've got some work to do. We can only hope that this will improve as he gets more opportunities to go on these "missions"

Since my little experiment, several people have recommended the new Netflix show “Old Enough.” Although I have yet to watch it, I would definitely like to learn a thing or two from them in continuing with these missions for my kid.

Have you tried to put your kid’s life skills to the test through different errands and missions? Share them with us in the comments below, or tell us what tests you'd like us to do to see if our kids are old enough to accomplish them!

Images: Vivienne Tseng-Rush

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