Mandarin: How early to start

[BabAndI]

Hello All,

I have a 15month old DS and wanted to ask if this is too early to start with Mandarin classes?
I found a Saturday school that offers classes from 1yr onwards. At this stage the classes involve signing, rhymes, activies for the toddlers.
The school is called the Link Chinese Academy ...has anyone had any experience with them ?

Thank you for any responses.

Are you a mandarin speaker?

at 18 months a language class probably wouldn’t be much use - no way would they sit through a language lesson unless it was a hands on toddler play session, and even then I am not sure a lesson a week would make a difference if not reenforced at home. children that age pick up language organically, so would be learning basic vocabulary from you or other caregivers.

if you are a mandarin speaker and trying to decide when to start formal learning, most of my mandarin speaking friends started sending their kids to Chinese school / summer camp around reception age. They would have had some basic language from home, but outside lessons helped broaden vocabulary and in time learn written language.

The earlier the easier to learn a new language. There is scientific evidence to support that. It is related to the brain development.

We speak one particular language at home (not English) from birth to create immersive experience and our DC pick up the language naturally (native-like speaking and listening). They take formal lessons for reading and writing at primary school age.

If you think this is going to be a priority going forward and something you'll build on continually, it may be worth it just because there is proven benefit to hearing the sounds that don't exist in English e.g. the "dz" sound, and the tones early, or they become harder to "hear" if you start older but I wouldn't expect too much from the classes.

My DC grew up in HK (not mandarin I know) and resisted all my efforts to make them learn formally, but even now they can "hear" the unfamiliar consonant blends better than teens who haven't had that exposure because they were just around people speaking Chinese languages.

But honestly, for any degree of competency you need a native speaker parent or major immersion (like move to Beijing and get a Chinese boyfriend who cant speak English- my friend actually did this and she's now fluent but she did marry the boyfriend so that helped!)

From birth really. When young, you start out with nursery rhymes, music in the language and perhaps some tv in the background so they can hear the pronunciation and get a part time native speaking nanny or au pair....then you also put them in classes when they are the right age. It is very difficult to get a fluent speaker unless you are fluent yourself or if they attend a school which is in the second language...and even then you still need support at home (we do this so I have a lot of experience).