New Chinese mum thread 3

[trying2bgood]

Thought I would start it!

Sorry to interrupt, thought i'd answer Sunny Wong's post ..
What age is year 1? Is it the same as UK .. age 5-6?
I'm Hakka, and my parents spoke to us in Hakka, although i was born in UK and grew up speaking English.
They enrolled us to a local chinese school when we were really young (i was about 7yrs) but we were learning Cantonese.
Have to say i was a little confused .. didn't understand how cantonese fitted with Hakka .. thought maybe Hakka was our 'baby' language and would have to speak Cantonese as adults!
I was a top pupil at English School and my work didn't suffer there, but it was harder for me to pick up Cantonese.
I think after all the years it was a good thing, as i can understand and speak Cantonese now and get by in HK, although i can't read a chinese newspaper i do know most of the basics and have an understanding of the language.
I enrolled my oldest dd (then 6) to Mandarin school last year, but not this yr .. it was starting up and not busy enough to continue, but am still interested in her learning the language.
After all chinese characters can more or less be read in either Mandarin or Cantonese. I speak to them in Cantonese!!
Hope this hasn't been too confusing and is of some help

thank you breadgirl, or should I say mim-boa girl.

I think we will go the one on one route for dh and ds1. Ds1's concerntration is class is not the greatest and i don't want to overload him or turn him off study altogether

SW
dd1's concentration in school isn't the greatest either, but she enjoyed mandarin school.
I think my abilty to learn Cantonese was slow mostly because i was extremely shy and refused to speak it.
My cantonese has picked up lots since being married and wanting my kids to learn it.
My parents speak to them in Hakka.
Obviously it is different for you as you're not chinese, but ..
My younger sis, who probs had the worst chinese, went on to learn Mandarin in Uni and did a yr at Beijing Uni .. so it's not too late when they're older! .. her cantonese is stiff a bit iffy though

Merry Xmas everyone and have a wonderful New Year!

Autumnlover- Thanks, I will look at Petts wood. We are planning to move UK somewhere around March- April next year. Our budget maybe around
below £300,000. Do you think we can get something decent?

Snowmum - I went to Greenwich the last time I was there for holiday. I like the (river)? and the area is nice with shops, restaurants and cafe. ....but didn't like the other end of Greenwich, I find it abit scummy. Is that so?

Hi everyone

hope your christmas wasnt too stressfull and santa was generous

mints - u should be able to a 3 bedroom hse in petts wood for under £300,000. also in the uk, u pay stamp duty when u buy a property. £250,000 and under is 1% but anything over that its 3% - can make alot of difference.

hope that helps

Hello autumn, snowmum,

Hope you all had a good Christmas too. I cooked my first turkey and I'm not planning to repeat the experience. I can make it for Fri 29 Dec. Are we still having lunch at Ping Pong? Hope to hear from you by tomorrow.

Yeps i think so. definintely will not have any childcare problems this time!! i am looking forward to stuffing my face with all the dim sum - pregnant being the excuse.

to exchange telephone numbers, can u email me on haze1641atyahoodotcom. i dont think the CAT is working or at least my email account is not accepting it. looking forward to hearing from u

Autumnlover, snowmum, mellowchristmas - where do you live, are you located in central london? is everyone originally born in UK?

Im sorry I didn't follow this thread, just found this thread by accident and I am glad I have found this forum.

Autumn,
I'll send you an email with my phone number. I'll let Snowmum know about Pingpong tomorrow.

Hello mint,
I'm actually Malaysian Chinese and I live in far West London (and I mean far) near Kew Gardens so I can't help you with property prices in East London.

My hubby is English and my dd is 8 months so I would happy to tell you where the decent Malaysian food is. The Indonesian food I've found is pretty rubbish. There's quite a few Malaysian Chinese in London especially in Chinatown, not sure about Indonesians.

Autumn, Mellow, I'm still up for dim sum at Ping Pong tomorrow. Are we thinking of meeting at 12pm again? I also intend to stuff my face with food but unfortunately do not have the pregnancy excuse!

Mints, I'm UK born and bred and live in Richmond. Yeah, parts of Greenwich are a bit trashy but further out, on Greenwich Penisula its quite nice. My friend lives in Greenwich Millenium Village and loves it there.

Christmas passed in a blur. DH got stressed cooking lunch for 12 people, the kids ran riot thru the house (on the upside DD had a ball and exhausted herself partying) and I ended up juggling the in-laws, trying to keep the peace and doing the washing up!

Still having broadband problems but (after a 1 hour phone call with BT this morning) we think the end is in sight. Fingers crossed but we should be reconnected next Friday! [praying emoticon]

Hello ladies, Hope you had a great xmas.

Mellow - I still have not had to cook a turkey although it is looking more likely that next year will be our turn! the thought terrifies me.

Mint - born and bred in london. My mum always says that I am a chinese girl with an english soul!

Have a great time tomorrow. Had some friends round today and brought in some dim sum from Hoo Hings which was yummy, although steaming it yourself is obviously not the same as being waited on!

Hi autumn and snowmum,

Should we meet at 12 pm at Ping Pong 45 Great Marlborough St?

Autumn,
I sent an email to your yahoo.com email account and it said that the email account has been disabled or discontinued. Have you used all the space for your mailbox? I couldn't receive any new emails in my yahoo.com email when that happened.

Please send me an email on sweehan [AT] officecreativedotcom so I can send you my telephone number.

Hi everyone

mellow - just sent u an email!!

its a date for tomorrow - dh are taking the girls and doing something 'fun'?!?!?!

looking forward to seeing you there ..... t2bg its a shame cant make it, maybe next time

Hi everyone

Have a good time tomorrow. Sorry I can't make it cos I am at work. What's Ping Pong like? I've read mixed reviews about the place that they don't do proper dim sum.

Mints, I live in Stevenage Hertfordshire but work in London. Born in the UK but also lived in HK for a while. Stevenage is crap for living, but house prices are bearable and have fast train service to London. Expensive train fares though. Have 3 DC, DD1 will be 13 on Sunday, DS2 is 3.75 and DD3 is 1.75. All from the same chinese father. Midwife and gp used to ask me if they were from the same father because of the age gap.

How did today go?

hiya ... yesterday went really well. we ate loads - definitely satisfied my dim sum cravings for the next couple of months

snowmum and mellow are lovely - had a good chat. snowmum's dd is so good. looking forward to the next meet up!!

I ate loads too. But I still came home and had a peanut butter sandwich.

It was great to meet you autumn and see you again snowmum. Yes, let's plan the next one for Spring time.

t2bg,
You should come next time. We're planning to go to Blue Kangaroo on King St? Right autumn?

Btw, can you recommend good Vietnamese restaurants? I love Vietnamese and I'm always on the lookout for a good one. We're going to Au Lac on Old St this weekend. Dh doesn't really appreciate my Vietnamese cravings as it's a long trek to East London from where I am.

Momontherun,
Ping pong doesn't have an extensive menu but what they had tastes okay. No noodles or rice though and they slap a 12.5% service charge on the bill as well.

Snowmum,
Before I forget, where can I get my hair analysed for nutritional deficiencies?

Had a lovely time yesterday. Don't think we ate that much! Lovely to meet Autumn and see Mellow again. Definitely up for the next one - Autumn mentioned Blue Kangaroo, would be great to have somewhere where the kiddies could play and leave us to natter in peace! Felt a touch ragged trying to talk and keep DD under control!

Mellow, the hair analysis thingy is \link{http://www.foresight-preconception.org.uk/here}. Don't know of any good Vietnamese restaurants I'm afraid.

Mints, Ping Pong wasn't bad but had a rather limited menu. No cheung fun, no noodles, no congee - all DD's favourites! What they had was lovely though.

Trying again....

here

Blue Kangaroo, why does that ring a bell with me? Which part of the world is it in?

Glad you ladies had a lovely time & hope you all have a great run up to the new year!

hello
you may have been following the tricky situation of one of our Far East Mners. Does the request in the /link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?rn=4355&topicid=1375&threadid=258034&redir=4355\OP} apply to anyone who could help?

/link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?rn=4355&topicid=1375&threadid=258034&redir=4355\OP}

right, bear with me while I crack this
OP

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Sunnywong, can you explain what that link is all about? I still work it out.

Snowmum, autumnlover & mellowchristmas, let me know if you are meeting again in central london and i will try to join you.

I met up with Champagne18 just before christmas and it's lovely see her and her DS. Seeing her DS is making me broody again.

Snowmum, are you planning to have baby 2 yet?