Losing the battle in teaching Chinese

Like many Chinese parents in Canada, we are trying to teach our kids Chinese. Like many parents, it is a difficult battle that is more often than not, a losing battle. There isn't a single kid I know who likes Chinese school. Most kids whose first language is Chinese decide to abandon it after discovering no one speaks it amongst their friends.

Chloe is no different. For the first 3 years of Chloe's life, we taught her only Chinese because we really wanted her to know her roots and speak multiple languages. All that hard work headed to the toilet after a few months of preschool. One day, she came home telling me "Mommy, stop speaking Chinese! I want English!" For the first few months of my maternity leave of my second child, she only wanted to speak English. I was thinking, "After 3 years of hard work and this is how it ends? I'm shipping you to China! That'll show you!" Now that I am less sleep deprived with the new baby, I am able to put the clamp down more and she is regaining some lost grounds in her Chinese. I have been telling her the value of learning Chinese because there are many countries out there where we don't know the language, but odds are that there will be a Chinese person she can ask where the bathroom is if she has to pee really badly. Also there will be a Chinese restaurant everywhere in the world so she'll be able to read the menu and order decent food.

I am hoping we can test this out by visiting all the Chinatowns in all the cities we go to in Europe. The kids are too young for travelling to China but one day we will make it there!

Why Travel with Kids

When we tell people we are taking our kids to France/UK for 9 weeks, the first thing they say is "Are you serious??" The second is, "You're nuts."

We want to take our kids travelling for many reasons. Here are some:

1. Value of learning languages (esp. Chinese)

I want to visit all the Chinatowns to show Chloe she can use her Chinese everywhere in the world. I want her to see us struggle with our crappy French to understand that there is a whole world out there where people don't speak English.

2. Understand other cultures

Bring on the culture shock. Different people live differently. Our way is not necessarily the "right" way. There are things that only exist on the other side of the world.

3. Get an appreciation for history

Yes, people used to live without TV and cars.

4. Discover new interests and new perspectives

Do things we can't normally do. Maybe we'll find new interests and new perspectives

5. Slow down and smell the roses

With kids you just rush around touring. We will need to live more like the locals. We want to see the wonder of the world through a child's eyes.

The Dreaded Speedo

There is a great scene from the original Meet The Parents movie that comes to mind.  Ben Stiller's character, Gaylord Focker, is at his fiancé's house prepping for a game of volleyball in the swimming pool.  He doesn't have any swim trunks and is offered a pair to borrow... which turns out to be a Speedo style.  He sits in the washroom for several minutes before summoning the courage to put them on to show he is a "team player".


Why is this relevant?


So while gathering information about our trip to Europe, Siew found out that the only acceptable bathing suit for men is indeed a Speedo style swim suit.  Not normal shorts/trunks that everyone in North America wears.  I thought this was her idea of a cruel joke, but it appears to be legit.  Before you shake your head, there is logic behind this that does make sense.  It comes down to hygiene.  They want to prevent people from wearing regular shorts that have been worn outside gathering dirt and instead wear something that is dedicated to swimming.  Moreover, a swim cap is also required for everyone to reduce the amount of hair in pools.  Apparently they've never heard of chlorine, but that is another story.


I'm not that anxious about it as Speedo's are nothing new to me since I was in a swim club for 6 years.  Things have changed a lot though, not only in technology but thank goodness in style.  Gone are the days where the only style available resembled an eye-patch.  They look like bike shorts - which is something I can definitely live with.

Painful times sending money abroad

It is so painful to pay abroad without credit card and PayPal.

Part I: Wire Transfer Nightmare

It was time to pay a deposit to our accommodations in Provence.

Armed with French account info I'm supposed to use to wire money into, I headed straight to my local bank teller. As soon as she saw the account slips, she raised her eyebrows and gave me a look like "What the....???"

"It's French", I explained.

"You're going to have to go to customer service."

I was thinking, what's the problem? I've seen movies from the 90's where bad guys make people wire funds from the laptop from some remote barn. Surely this should be routine work after 20 years of technological advances.

So I handed the bank info to customer service and asked for wire transfer.

"Do you have an appointment?" Huh? An appointment for a routine transfer?

"Did you fill out this form yet?" Fill out a paper form? You mean I need to use a pen? You mean this form that's been photocopied since the 90's? Where's the one button click?

Hmm. None of the fields on the form match the French account info. IBAN? BIC? How does that map to SWIFT, Routing Number etc? And why would you need their bank address, which I conveniently don't have?

"Could you help me fill out this form? All I have is this account info," I asked.

"Wow, it's in French. Sorry, I have no idea what this is."

"Um, can you at least tell me what information is missing so I know what to ask for?"

"Sorry, it's in French. Can't help you. Maybe you want to consider using bank drafts or head over to Western Union. Wire transfers cost $30 and if you fill any small detail wrong, it bounces and you lose your $30, then you need to pay another $30 to try again." Great, $30 per TRY.

Apparently in Europe, everyone uses wire transfers as it is fast, secure, traceable, and standardized. European Union countries benefit from low controlled service fees that are guaranteed to be no higher when crossing borders. In North America, it's rarely used... can you see why?

"OK, I'll try bank draft."

Part II: Bank Draft Nightmare

So I ordered a bank draft. No big deal -- send it and if it gets lost in the mail, I can always cancel it.

"Is this the receipt I use to cancel the draft if it gets lost in the mail?" I asked.

"Hmm, I think so. Let me double check with my manager," the teller said.

"Sorry, we cannot cancel a non-Canadian dollar draft," the manager said.

"What?? What if it gets lost in the mail?"

"Then you lose your $1000, just like cash. You can check with the post office to see whether there is a guaranteed delivery service."

So I went to the post office and asked.

"You can guarantee delivery by putting a tracking number so you know if it's lost. If it's lost, cancel your draft."

"I can't cancel the draft."

"What?? Really? Sorry we only insure up to $100. Try UPS"

Grrr. UPS is next door so I might as well ask, though I was pretty sure what the answer was. Their answer was: "A bank draft is considered a document and we do not insure documents. If you get your $1000 draft lost, you would get $17.50 refund for UPS service." Awesome.

I am not tossing $1000 cash into the mail. OK, it's only been a half hour, so maybe I can put this bank draft back in my account.

"I'm sorry, we cannot cancel this order once it is made. The only thing we can do is buy it back at a lower exchange rate." OK, can't be that bad, I thought. Maybe lose $10.

Make that lose $60. Now I know about their crappy exchange rates for drafts.

"I just bought this half hour ago! Can't you do something about it?" The teller was really nice and felt bad for me.

" I can give you $8 more using my staff discount!"

After some escalation to the assistant manager, then manager, I managed to recover most of what was lost and learned some valuable lessons.

Don't mail your bank drafts.

Part III: Wire Transfer Again

Luckily, I found a bank manager at our local branch who has been doing wire transfers for 30 years. She explained that the same wire transfer system in Canada has been around for about 50 years. She knows all the tricks around the system, like getting around the 24-character limit in the address field by using lower case letters, or taking out some spaces. When sending, they make you sign a 2-page form with legal jargon that makes you take the responsibility if the money bounces.

Well, there's no turning back. Wire payment's been send. I'm crossing my fingers.