i have an 8mth old at home, hub n i speak to him in english, where both side grandparents in mandarin & hokkien. Lately, hub's nephew who had attended childcare for a year only speak in english to everyone (including his china mum), and his english has a strong american slang while he cant even properly pronounce 1-10 in mandarin. Im thinking is it necessary for hub n myself to start switching to mandarin so that after attending childcare he will not just speak english? In my personal perspective it is more difficult to master Chinese than English thus im worried m

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This may seem like a cliche, but every child is different. What happened with your nephew may be worrying, but still, it may not happen to your child. That said, Singapore's larger environment tends to encourage English more. I would certainly speak more mandarin to my baby because this period is so crucial. For example, sing to baby. Mommy and daddy's voices are the most beautiful things in the world to them. I used to be able to stop my son's crying just by calling his name : )

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