Trilingual

These days we are trying to speak with Hooty in our native language ‘Sinhala’. She can understand what we say, but finds it hard to form sentences in Sinhala, as she is used to conversing in English.

At day care, she learns in English, but they have Chinese as a subject where her teacher only speaks in Chinese. Last week at the Parent’s teacher’s meeting, she told us that Hooty understands what’s been told and can follow all the instructions in Chinese. When Hooty comes home, she sometimes tries to teach Hubs and me some Chinese words. She would point to something blue and say, “Say after me Amme, ‘Lansya’.” (At least I think that’s what it sounds like). She would even sing Chinese songs to her self and gets highly annoyed when we don’t respond to something when she says it in Chinese.

Now I think she is highly confused about the two languages. When she wants us to tell her a word in Singhala, she says, ‘say in in Chinese Ammi.’
And yesterday when we spoke to her in Sinhala she answered back in Chinese!