Now We're Back (from HK)!
Apologies for the silence as we were recovering from the 5 weeks in Hong Kong. We'd been battling with jetlag, teething (of course!), the many suitcases laying around...pfft. But now we're finally back on our normal routines and I'm back. Though the trip was very busy and very warm, it was also very rewarding. Here are what we've got from the trip:
1. Boosted confidence in Cantonese. My little girl's confidence in Cantonese has progressed in leaps and bounds after being immersed in an environment where everybody speaks Cantonese 24/7. Though I have been speaking to my children in Cantonese and English exclusively, my toddler always answered in Dutch only (occasionally mixing in a few Cantonese or English words). Since we got back, my toddler has been mixing in a lot more Cantonese words and phrases in her conversations. No complete Cantonese sentences yet, I know, but we've got to celebrate the small victories, right?
2. Heightened interest in Cantonese. Without any prompting, my little girl has been asking to learn more Cantonese. "What's this in Chinese?" "How does por-por call this?" When she was playing with her little brother, I overheard her teaching him Cantonese too. "This is a dog. It's called 狗仔 (Jyutping: gau2 zai2). Can you say 狗仔?" And of course, she prefers Chinese books over English during storytime.
3. Tons of fun Chinese books. I admit it, I went on many shopping sprees in HK. Instead of buying shoes in this famous shopping paradise, I went nuts on children's books this time. Here's just a glimpse of the books that we've got from Hong Kong. Another 20kg box is still on its way here.
My goal was to look for children's books written in traditional Chinese and preferably in (for the lack of a better expression) "Hong Kong Chinese". Many Taiwanese books are written in traditional Chinese but certain expressions are just different. So during this trip, I have discovered a few Hong Kong publishers that I really like. They are local publishers in Hong Kong so most of their publications are rather "traditional Hong Kong".
新雅 (www.sunya.com.hk) - My daughter is in love with their Disney book coolection - think Frozen and Sofia the First!
小樹苗 (www.sesame.com.hk) - Their books are attractive and quite cheap. A 30-page story book cost about 3-5 Euros only.
And here are my favorite book stores in Hong Kong:
商務 (http://www.cp1897.com.hk) - If you're in Hong Kong, you've got to pay a visit to their Kiddyland store in Causeway Bay. You can find their Facebook Page here. It's a spacious store dedicated to children's books and they have areas where you can check out books with your little ones.
誠品 (www.eslite.com) - This is a huge Taiwanese book store chain. Most of the books are written in "Taiwanese Chinese" but there are also quite some "Hong Kong Chinese" books too. And what's the best of all? They deliver internationally! I bet the shipment fee is cheaper than a ticket to Hong Kong.
4. Pretty Chopsticks! Okay, we've got some really cool learning chopsticks from Hong Kong. But that's not all.
We have decided to raise multilingual children, but more importantly, we want to raise multicultural children. We want our children to learn Cantonese and also Chinese culture. We wanted them to experience Chinese culture while we were in Hong Kong. So during our Hong Kong visit, my little ones ate mooncakes, played lanterns, visited the grave of their great grandparents, visited temples, etc..
If you know any other places where you can get cool Chinese books, share in a comment.
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