Ping-Ping Post

A friend has asked for news on Ping-Ping, so here goes:

Our daughter is doing very well. She has settled into her routine. She plays nicely with her brothers (though they feel she’s a bit rough). She looks after Roland. (John worries that we should have named him something that didn’t have two letters she has trouble saying. I pointed out that she says R perfectly well and can say l when she tries…beside, there’s more to names than being pronounced by your sister.)

She makes dinner once a week. Some hot, spicy stuff for her and Baba (Daddy) and I and something milder for her brothers. She loves movies and anime. She laughs and laughs at funny shows…she is very LOUD.

 

Until recently, however, she showed no interest in English. So much so that we had to limit how much she was listening to movies and songs in Chinese and chatting with her Chinese friends. Then, she met a lovely young woman who substitutes at the public schools. She is Chinese America, speaks Mandarin rather well, and tutors. Ping-Ping asked to sign up.

Now she is working hard on her English. Spending time with her dictionary and her translator box, finding the spelling for words she wants to know. Then, she comes and finds me and we work on pronouncing them together.

There was a time when I really wondered if we should have pushed her harder, but perhaps not. Getting settled and then being able to concentrate on English seems to have worked for her.

Which is great, because we are all eager to talk with her when the time finally comes.

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