Starting a new language at 3 years old? Is it possible?

Hi there,

And welcome to my blog!

I've recently decided to start teaching my 3 year old a whole new language, Mandarin, and I'm not sure what the journey will be like. Many people have expressed doubt at what I'll be able to achieve, but I just want to give it a go and see how far we can go. 

A little background - we have a 3 year old who is very fluent in English. We've been speaking to her a mix of English and Cantonese at home since birth. She understands both well, but most definitely prefers speaking English. She can be made to reply in Cantonese, but it does sound pretty accented and sentences are constructed simply. 

Over the last one year, I have been teaching her to read English at home. It has been a really rewarding journey and she is improving so quickly that I think she might be getting a little too far ahead. So I decided to try teaching her Chinese words. However, I can't read in Cantonese, and don't know Traditional Chinese, so am in a position where I think I need to teach her in Mandarin instead. Mandarin was my second language growing up, but now with so much Cantonese in my life I think it's been pushed to being my third best language. My Mandarin really isn't the best, and it has deteriorated from lack of use, but I still can read and speak a little. 

I'm thinking of introducing Mandarin to her, and at the same time brushing up my rusty Mandarin as well. Is it even possible? I'm not sure...

I've started in the last couple of weeks by switching my speaking language to Mandarin to her. She mostly stares at me blankly, and I can't really use it for things like instructions or explaining as I need to say everything I need to twice. And I only use it when it's just me at home. But at least for now she isn't resisting me too badly.

We have also started incorporating reading one Mandarin story book per day, which is honestly taxing for both of us. Me in decoding and reading every word, and her in keeping interest and staying by my side. But if she decides she wants to do something else, I just let her and end the story. I don't want to push her too hard at all. 

I've also been showing her a few characters. But the cheeky girl has memorised the numbers on the cards instead of the words. She also made a train of all the characters today, which was a funny diversion. 

Anyway I have also recently bought some graded reading learning resources, they are arriving soon! Let's see how this all goes 😊 Wish me luck!

YM