Chinese heritage language’s culture learning: from the angle
of four-word Chinese idioms
Bing Wu
S3753484
MA in Multilingualism
Faculty of Arts
University of Groningen
Supervisors:
Charlotte Gooskens
Abstract
This paper reports the four-word Chinese idioms learning and usage among the second generation in the Netherlands. four-word Chinese idiom is an important and unique language use in China. Its proper use can represent a person’s Chinese cultural level. Thus, the research on the second generations’ four-word Chinese idiom level can also show their comprehension of Chinese culture. The study will reveal in what way and to what extent Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) learners can comprehend Chinese culture.
The factors that would influence the second generations’ four-word Chinese idioms use were also researched. Based on He’s (2006) hypothesis of the factors that would influence CHL learning, family language plan; family language environment; family contact frequency with China; parents’ education background; immigrants’ year and children’s self-identification would be analyzed to see if they can influence CHL learner’s four-word Chinese idioms use.
The interviews are semi-structured, 15 families, a headmaster, and a teacher in Netherlands Chinese school conducted the interview. The analysis of the interview shows that family language environment; family contact frequency with China; immigrants’ year and children’s self-identification would influence CHL learners’ four-word idioms learning. Also, the heritage culture is not just inherited by the second generation, culture transmission and integration also happen in CHL learning. Key Words: CHL (Chinese as heritage language); Chinese idioms; heritage language culture learning; Chinese immigration language
Contents
1. Introduction... 1
2.Background...1
2.1 Immigrants family in the Netherlands...1
2.2 Chinese as a heritage language...2
2.3 Four-word Chinese idioms... 4
2.4 Chinese school in the Netherlands... 7
2.5 Research question...8
3. Methodology...9
3.1 Interview 1...9
3.2 Interview 2...14
4.Results...14
4.1 First generation language four-words Chinese idioms level ...15
4.2 Family language plan ... 16
4.3 Family language environment ...18
4.4 Family contact frequency with China ... 19
4.5 Parents’ education background... 21
4.6 Immigrants year...25
4.7 Self-identification...26
4.8 Leeuwarden Chinese School... 28
5. Conclusion...30
6. Dicussion...32
References... 35
1.
Introduction
In China, the four-word idiom is a unique idiom form with distinctive national features. four-word idioms “carries and inherits the Chinese historical and cultural tradition in all aspects” (Lu, 2008). It is frequently used in people’s daily conversation, newspapers, and all kinds of literature (Shi, 1979). It is also an essential part of China’s Mandarin education (He, 2017). So, people’s four-word idioms level can represent a person’s understanding and comprehension of Chinese culture. Being able to recognize and use four-word idioms is common in China, and the four-word idioms choices and correct usage can show their literacy standard.
However, I observed that some second-generation Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands could use Mandarin in daily conversation fluently, but they cannot understand four-word Chinese idioms. Thus, in this research, I try to find out what is the second immigrants' generation’s four-word Chinese idiom level. The result can also show how well the second immigrants' generation can comprehend Chinese culture.
In addition, I am also going to find out what factors would influence the second generation to learn four-word Chinese idioms. Chinese is heritage language learning for them. Based on He’s hypothesis (2006) of factors that can influence Chinese as heritage language learning, I interviewed 15 families’ family language plan; family language environment; family contact frequency with China; parents’ education background; immigrants’ year and children’s self-identification. Besides this, a Chinese school in Leeuwarden has been observed and the headmaster and teacher conducted an interview to see how the Chinese school works in the Netherlands. The parents will evaluate the four-word Chinese idioms score for the second generation and the data will be analyzed to see what factors would influence second generation’s four-word idioms learning. The reason will also be generated based on the semi-structured interview with the families.
2.Background
2.1 Immigrants family in the Netherlands
By the year 2018, there are 92,644 immigrants come from the People’s Republic of China in the Netherlands, according to Statistic Netherlands. Chinese in the Netherlands are a relatively large immigrant group on the continent. The Chinese immigrants’ group in the Netherlands has a lengthy historical background and shows diversified ethnic features in terms of “spoken language, migration history, and social-economic situation.” (Pieke and Benton, 1998)
then was not very concentrated because people tend to choose the place that has less competition in opening Chinese restaurants (Pieke and Benton, 1998).
After the 1980s, the Netherlands became a popular study place for Chinese students because the Netherlands has a friendly study policy, suitable tuition fees, and good education quality (Li, 2002). From 2000 to 2007, the study occupied the largest proportion of motivation for Chinese immigrants to come to the Netherlands. The growth of the figure shows very clearly during this time. Working is the second largest immigration reason for the new Chinese immigrants, and this motivation also shows a significant increase over these years. Asylum was once an immigration motivation for lots of Chinese families but this immigration reason has been decreasing a lot after the 2000s. (Jérémy, Sonia,2015)
After the 1990s, in the Netherlands, there was a lingua franca being popularly used in the Chinese immigrant community: Cantonese. (Pieke and Benton, 1998). But the Wenzhounese (a city in the south-east of China, near the east coast) community, insists on using their dialects even though their working environments have requirements for Cantonese (Wolf 2011:33). The Wenzhounese is a southern Chinese Wu dialect, its pronunciation, vocabulary and syntax are incomprehensive from Mandarin (Chi, Wang,2004). Wenzhounese community occupied a quarter of the Chinese immigration back then (Pieke,1998:323). This might influence the language situation for Chinese communities in the future. According to Gijsberts (2011), by this period, “currently 20% of second-generation Chinese speak no Chinese”. Parents show a positive attitude to support their children to learn Dutch (Van den Berg en Pieke 1991). Dutch, Cantonese and Wenzhounese dialect (for the Wenzhounese community), is the preferred language choice for them.
But things changed in recent decades, for there are more new immigrants coming from Chinese areas that speak Mandarin (Sybesma,2017). Mandarin transfer to one of the most important languages for the Chinese community, by 2009, 48% participants say they know Mandarin, 42% know Cantonese and 7% use Wenzhounese (Gijsberts,2011). This can also be related to China’s Mandarin promotion language policy. Moreover, according to the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, overseas Chinese education has been taken seriously by the government in China after the 2000s and overseas Chinese education institutions has been established by 2004. These new policies can somehow explain that Mandarin’s status has a big difference compared with before.
2.2 Chinese as a heritage language
The definition of heritage language has been a controversial topic. The controversial feature happens especially in Chinese as a heritage language because there is Mandarin, Wu, Min, Yue, Xiang, Gan, Hakka under the category of “Chinese”(Polinsky and Kagan,2007). These dialects are incomprehensible between
each other. Thus, the heritage language learner in this research will be broadly defined as “a language student who is raised in a home where a non-English target language is spoken and who speaks or at least understands the language and is to some degree bilingual in heritage language and English.”(Valdes, 2001) In the case of the Netherlands, the “English” term should be changed into “Dutch ” for Dutch is the first official language in the Netherlands. And the “heritage language” is Chinese. Moreover, heritage language learning is very different from second language learning: “be the heritage language learners is likely to be motivated by an identification with the intrinsic cultural, affective, and aesthetic values of the language.” (He, 2006:2). Based on the different Chinese immigrants' backgrounds, heritage Chinese language (CHL) can be very different for various families coming from different regions of China. The immigrants from mainland China use standardized Mandarin (Putonghua) and simplified scripts, it is the most commonly taught language in Chinese classes for CHL learning. Mandarin has also been called as guoyu in Hongkong and Taiwan. They use traditional Chinese scripts, and it is usually taught by CHL schools that are established by Hong Kongese and Taiwanese. There are lots of Chinese people who speak Chinese, both standard Mandarin, and other dialects.
CHL learning is a process to establish understanding for their heritage culture and community or to set a difference with immigrants’ mainstream culture. (He, Xiao,2008). But there are also those who argue against this opinion: “learning CHL means not merely to inherit one’s heritage language and maintain one’s heritage cultural identity, but also to transform the heritage language (in terms of changes in dialect, script, accent, discourse norms, etc.)"(He, 2006:7). Thus, CHL leaning would be transformed based on the learner’s social environment and their ideology.
In the book Chinese as a heritage language, several fundamental questions about CHL were listed. First, “ What does it mean to learn Chinese a heritage language? ” The author points out in the learning process, not only the grammar and vocabulary learning are important, but also “a set of norms, preferences, and expectations relating structures to context matters. (He, Xiao,2008)” Second, “how does Chinese heritage language relate to Chinese heritage culture?” Learners are associated with the Chinese people who carry Chinese social context and Chinese types of social events. Thus, the learners would be influence by these people and get to experience the heritage culture while learning them. Third, “what constitutes the evidence of CHL learning?”. The meaningful culture practices, e.g. festival celebration and history classes during the learning process, also need to be taken into consideration. Not merely the output
these questions in my research and analysis in the conclusion part.
There are multiple kinds of research have been done in different aspects. According to He’s study of the identity theory towards CHL, identity could be a vital factor to CHL development. The identity is defined as “a process that identifies what a person becomes and achieves through ongoing interactions with other persons.” (Ochs, 1993) She generates an identity theory of CHL development: “CHL development takes place in a three-dimensional framework with intersecting planes of time, space, and identity.” (He, 2006) The development of CHL needs to find consistency and cohesion in the multicultural communication environment to develop its “hybrid, situated identities and stances." She listed factors in the temporal dimension, spatial dimension, and identity dimension that could influence an individual’s CHL learning. Temporal dimension: the learner’s desire of rootedness with their heritage language; learner’s social and economic envisaged rewards and benefits from learning this heritage language. For example, if children get encouraged by talking to Chinese native speakers, they would be more motivated to keep CHL learning; learner’s successfulness in communication with this language from time-to-time. (e.g., the communication with CHL learners’ grandparents in China would make learners connected with Chinese culture more closely).
Spatial dimension: the majority community’s stance towards CHL, the attitudes of CHL learners’ peers towards this language would also influence their learning motivation. Also, the frequency of family use CHL by choice: more CHL usage would generate higher motivation; learner’s rich and diverse access to CHL. Moreover, to which extent the discourse (“ways of speaking, patterns in turn-taking, allocation of speech roles, preferences in conversational topics, etc.”) norms(ibid.). Identity dimension: to what extent the learner created a niche, a well-developed relationship (in linguistic, social and cultural aspects) in their living community, for example, the adults that established a good social net-working in their life would accept CHL language and culture more easily; how well can the learners manage the multiplicity of their identity; the transformation of heritage practice to the speech community.
By 2006, Xiao searched for the influence of home background on CHL learning. His paper states that oral home language cannot help with CHL learners’ reading comprehension, vocabulary learning, and character writing if the learners have not enough exposure to the Chinese script system. “Reading requires making three connections: sound-meaning, symbol-sound, and meaning-symbol.” (Koda, 2002: 242). But Chinese learners with Chinese home backgrounds did shows an advantage in listening and speaking and generally performed well in abstract grammar roles.
(Xiao, 2006) This research also shows that if a Chinese second-generation immigrant wants to learn Chinese reading and writing, home teaching and nature language exposure might not show enormous outcomes. School systematic teaching is necessary for CHL learners.
There is research about the CHL in the Netherlands, but it focuses on the grammar level and finds out that Dutch grammar would influence Chinese for CHL learners (Rint,2017). This paper focus on "aspect, classifiers, ditransitive constructions, motion verbs, and serial verb constructions." Different generation and location of these Chinese immigrants have been chosen to complete the study.
2.3 Four-word Chinese idioms
Definition of four-word Chinese idiomsfour-word Chinese idiom is a peculiar idiom category in Chinese idioms. Based on the
Chinese idiom dictionary (2013), there are over 50 thousand four-word idioms in
Mandarin, and 96% of them are structured in four characters. According to Modern
Chinese Dictionary (6thedition, 2012), four-word Chinese idioms can be defined as:
The fixed phrases or short sentences with simple form and incisive meaning, it lasts centuries-old and has been used by people idiomatically. This form of Chinese idioms is mostly composed of four words. These idioms generally have provenance. Some idioms are literal so it is not difficult to understand, such as ' 小 题 大 做 ' (xiao3ti2da4zuo4: This refer to a small thing for a large article, metaphor improperly deals with petty things as big things, with the meaning of intentional exaggeration.1). '
后来居上' (hou4lai2ju1shang4: The later one performs better than the previous one. It is used to praise upcomers as better than the predecessors.) and so on.
Some idioms need to know the source or allusion in order to understand the meaning, such as ' 朝 三 暮 四 '(zhao1san1mu4si4: three in the morning and four by twilight, originated from Zhuang Zi, Essay on the Uniformity of All Things, 369BC. To deceive people by manipulating tricks. Nowadays used as a metaphor for a person who often changes his mind, being capricious.), ' 杯 弓 蛇 影 ' (bei1gong1she2ying, People mistake the bow shadow in the glass for the snake, originated from writing of Jin, 664AD. It is used to metaphor paranoia causes fear.) and so on.
In the Modern Chinese (Huang, Liao, 2007), the definition for the four-word Chinese idioms is: It is a fixed phrase and idiomatic idiom that has been reserved and used by Chinese people for a long historical time, and it has strong written language features.
The features, sources and structure of four-word Chinese idioms are also listed in
Modern Chinese.
According to Huang and Liao (2007), there are two features for four words Chinese idioms:
1) The holistic feature of meaning: The four-word idiom is different from the general phrase that only shows the ideographic meaning, its significance is often not a simple addition of the meaning of its constituent components, but a further generalization of the overall meaning based on the meaning of its constituent components.
2) The solidification of the structure: The structural form of the four-word idiom is generally varying and solidified. Its constituent components and structural forms are fixed, the word order cannot be changed or swapped arbitrarily, increase or decrease part of the four-word idioms is also prohibited.
Besides these features, there are other features observed by Wu (1995):
3) Broad understanding: four-word idioms are well known and used by the majority of the population in their daily life.
4) Diversity of grammatical functions: For grammar, four-word idioms are equivalent to a phrase in a sentence. The phrases can act as different components in a sentence, so the grammatical function of idioms is also diverse. But the four-word idioms transmit more rich and complete contents.
Also, in the other version of Modern Chinese, Qi (2012) refers to another feature of four-word idioms:
5) Style of elegance: four-word idioms usually come from ancient literature or colloquial expressions, so their stylistic style is solemn and elegant.
four-word idioms originate from myth, fable, historical story, poem, and colloquialism (Huang, Liao, 2007). There are also sources from other nations languages like Buddhist and modern innovation idioms (Chen, 2003). Some of the four-word idioms are directly quoted from sources, some of which have been modified. As for idioms derived from mythological fables and historical stories, they are mostly summed up in their historical plots.
Basically, all the four-word Chinese idioms are four-word structure, but there are three characters, five characters, till thirteen characters structures. (Huang, Liao, 2007) The English term “four-word Chinese idioms” does not exist before, I use it to differ it from other idioms in sentences forms.
One of the four-word idioms feature is that it originates from ancient classics. So, a large amount of four-word Chinese idioms are from Qin and Han dynasties (221BC-220AD) literature that have considerable impacts on Chinese culture. For example, the 1978 edition of Chinese Idioms Dictionary has 3128 four-word idioms from the ancient Qin and Han dynasties, occupied 68% of the four-word idioms that have cleared sources. The other 32% four-word idioms originate from the later dynasties. The later in time, the less four-word idioms have been generated (Xiao, 1987). It is clear that four-word Chinese idiom is the heritage of thousands of years of Chinese culture. “The Chinese idiom system itself is a unique encyclopedia of Chinese culture, which carries and inherits the historical and cultural tradition in all aspects. It contains a vibrant spirit of Chinese culture."(Lu, 2008). Lu also points out four-word Chinese idioms shows and represents Chinese cultural spirituality. The four-word idioms contain Chinese thinking mode and show its world outlook, values, and aesthetics. The structure of word idioms also shows typical Han nation’s features: The four-word structure of the idiom needs to be harmonious, balanced, symmetrical, and orderly. four-word idioms usually use a combination of symmetrical pairs of to make idioms show a balanced and smooth rhythm (Song, 2009). For example, certain amount of the structure of four-word Chinese idioms is “verb +noun + verb +noun.” The four-word idioms usage and education
The four-word idioms that are commonly used in modern Chinese are up to 3,500, and there are about 2,500 not used that frequently (Ni, Yao, 1990). That four-word idioms account for 20%-30% in colloquialism is a conservative estimate (Shi, 1997). There is no quantitative study of how frequently four-word idioms occurs in people’s language use so the conclusions might not be very accurate.
Through the analysis of Chinese Mandarin textbooks, it was found that there are 94 four-word idioms occurrences in the textbook for primary school grade 1 and grade2. By grade 3 to grade 4, there are 353 four-word idioms. 431 four-word idioms by grade 5 and grade 6, 564 for the whole junior high school. That is to say, if we remove the repeated four-word idioms, children can learn 1058 idioms (He, 2017) He also did the research of how many four-word idioms would the junior high school students use in their 500 words essays, n= 283 and 37.8% students use one four-word idioms; 50.5% students use 2-5 idioms and 11.7% use more than 5 idioms. These data show that four-word idiom is an essential item in Mandarin education, and it is commonly used in people’s daily life.
The first institution is "Confucius Institute".
According to the official website of “Confucius Institute”: with the development of China's economy and the increasingly extensive international exchanges, the demand for Chinese language learning has increased rapidly in various countries in the world. Chinese start to realize that it is crucial to promote Chinese and establish an institution for those people who want to learn Chinese. In order to promote the acceleration of Chinese to the world and enhance the influence of Chinese language and culture, since 2004, China has been exploring the establishment of a non-profit educational institution "Confucius Institute" with the aim of teaching Chinese and disseminating Chinese culture overseas on the basis of promoting the experience of the national language in other countries.
Over the past few years, the rapid development of Confucius Institutes has become a garden for people all over the world to learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture, a platform for cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, and a bridge to strengthen friendship and cooperation between the Chinese people and the peoples of the world.
Confucius Institute targets on to enhance the understanding of the Chinese language and culture for people in the world, to develop friendly relations between China and foreign countries, to promote the development of multicultural learning in the world, and to contribute to the construction of a harmonious society.
The targets of the Confucius Institute show that the target students are foreigners who want to learn Chinese instead of overseas Chinese people. The impression of the Confucius Institute in China is also a school that serves people from other countries who are interested in Chinese and Chinese cultures. There are 2 Confucius Institutes in the Netherlands located in Den Haag and Groningen.
The second institution is “Overseas Chinese language and culture education."
According to the official website of this institution, the reason to found it is that by China’s reforming and opening up, the economic and social development has made remarkable achievements, the overall national strength has been significantly enhanced, and China’s international status has been increasing. The enthusiasm for the overseas Chinese community to inherit Chinese culture is unprecedented, so the domestic support for their needs carries out this Chinese education institution.
In April 2004, the "Joint meeting of National Overseas Chinese Education Work" was established in Beijing by a group composed of the relevant ministries of the Central and State Council, the National People's Congress and the National People's Association, Zhigong party, and China Overseas Chinese Federation. The document
the plan for overseas Chinese education in the 2004-2007 was formulated. The
So different from "Confucius Institute," the target students for this institution is overseas Chinese people and their children. This is the Chinese school that a lot of Chinese immigrants would choose to take. I got to observe class and conduct interviews for this “Overseas Chinese language and culture education” to see what kind of teaching modes they are following and what is their teaching objectives. It is worth to mention that these two institutions all teach standard Mandarin and simplified transcripts.
2.5 Research question
This research topic is generated because once I had a conversation with my friend, who is a second-generation Chinese immigrant in the Netherlands. I said a four-word Chinese idiom that is commonly used in our daily talking, but she did not understand the meaning of it. She has a pretty good Chinese level and has no barriers to communicate with other Chinese and me. So, this makes me wondered if the overseas Chinese teaching lacks culture transmission and if they take culture related things like four-word Chinese idioms a serious item.
As the literature review showed before, four-word Chinese idiom can represent Chinese culture: it includes Chinese history and national thinking modes. So, I think if Chinese culture outputs are involved in learning Chinese as a heritage language, four-word Chinese idioms sure will, too. The second generation is exposed to Chinese people and some cultural events in their families, so I wondered what their four-word Chinese levels would be. The level of their Chinese four-word idioms can somehow show their culture cognition towards Chinese.
So, my research questions are:
1) The four-word idiom level for the first generation and second-generation immigrants in the Netherlands.
a. Will first generation’s mother tongue steps back after their immigration? b. What is immigrant’s family’s attitudes towards four-word idioms? c. What Chinese level would the first generation expect for their children?
2) What factors would influence the second generation’s four-word Chinese idioms learning?
According to He’s hypothesis of the factors that may influence people’s CHL learning (see 2.2), I will collect the information about the immigration families’ family language plan; family language environment; family contact frequency with China; parents’ education background; family immigration year and second generation’s
self-I think these are the factors that may influence the second generation’s four-word Chinese idioms learning.
3.
Methodology
Based on the research question, I generated two interviews that separately focus on the immigration family and “Overseas Chinese language and culture education” institution.
3.1 Interview 1
ParticipantsFor the first interview, my target family is a Chinese immigration family in the Netherlands and the family have a child over 3 years old.
From 15th of May till the 23rd of June 2019, there were Open day activities at the Leeuwarden Chinese school and Delft Chinese School, so 10 of the families were interviewed at the Chinese school their children attended. Other interviews were conducted at the participants’ home and coffee shops. I have found these families through Chinese school and Chinese restaurants.
Initially, I planned to interview two generations in a family, but it was difficult to carry out. A significant amount of the second generation was too small and too shy to answer my questions. So finally, all the interviews were done by one of the parents. As can be seen in table 1, altogether, 15 Chinese immigrants’ families conducted the interview. Five families come from Leeuwarden; five come from Den Haag; three families come from Rotterdam and two families come from Delft, the cities are distributed in Randstad.
The highest academic qualification in the family was recorded because I want to look into if the higher education background the parents get, the higher language expectation for their children and a higher level of four-word Chinese idioms level the children get. Also, 4 of the junior college degree families come from Leeuwarden. For the immigration year, 60% of the immigration family have lived in the Netherlands for over five years. It is worth to mention that 2 of the families that are categorized in 1-5 years have 6 years in Denmark and 14 years in U.A.E. (United Arab Emirates) living experience.
Table 1 Background of the families Current
Address AcademicQualification Immigrationyear
degree Den Haag 5(33%) Bachelor
degree 4(26%) 5-10 years 4(26%) Rotterdam 3(20%) Master degree 2(13%) over 10
years 5(33%)
Delft 2(13%) PhD 3(20%)
In table 2, I listed the essential information for the second generation. There are altogether 31 children in these 15 families.
The age classification is based on the Chinese education system: 3-9 are kindergarten and primary school; 9-14 are junior high school student; over 14 are senior high school and undergraduate students. The majority of the children are 3-9 years old, making up 48% of them. Besides, there are a few more girls than boys in my data. Also, although there are more second generations born in the Netherlands, taking Dutch as the second generation’s mother tongue does not show a clear difference compared with taking Chinese as their mother tongue. Each of them occupied about half of the second generation’s mother tongue choice. There are three more numbers of votes for mother tongue because there are two families’ parents think both Chinese and Netherlands are their children’s mother tongue. The family who spent 14 years in U.A.E. have their children born in U.A.E., and their mother tongue is English. All the second generations are bilingual.
For the data I used for my research, I excluded one child from Family 3, who is three years old, so the children’s n=30 in my data analysis. The reason that I excluded her is that she is too young to get to know four-word Chinese idioms.
Table 2 Background of the children
Age Gender Place of birth Mother
tongue Language
0-3 1(3%) Boy 12 China 10(32%) Chinese 15(44%) Monolingual 0
The questionnaire
The questionnaire was written in English and then translated into Chinese; all the interviews were conducted in Chinese.
In the questionnaire, there are mostly 4 parts included.
1) Family situation (see table1). Basic family information, like family immigration years and parents’ academic qualification, has been asked.
2) Information about the second generation (see table2). This part focus on the second generation’s language use, are they bilingual or multilingual, how many languages can they use are interviewed. Also, children’s mother tongue; how do their children learn Chinese and how much do they know about four-word Chinese idioms need to be discussed. The interviewee needs to evaluate their children’s four words Chinese idioms level. The level of it was divided into 5 situations: Do not know four-word Chinese idioms at all; know some but cannot use it properly; know some and be able to use it; know it well/ know it as their Chinese peers.
3) Other questions related to their attitudes of four-word Chinese idioms. Questions like their family contact frequency with China; attitudes for four-word Chinese idioms; the first generation’s Chinese level compared with before also needs to be discussed in the interview. Besides this, parents’ exception for their children’s Chinese level can also tell a lot about parents’ attitudes for their second generation to learn four-word Chinese idioms. So, the expectation of the parents for their children’s language level is also been asked in the interview.
4) A simple test of four-word Chinese idioms was designed into two forms to test the interviewee’s four-word Chinese idiom knowledge. First, I show the interviewee 5 four-word Chinese idioms and let them explain the meaning of it. Second, I add some four-word Chinese in my interview questions to see if they have obstacles to understand me.
Table 3 four-word idioms for the first language test.
9-14 9(29%) Other 3(9%) English 2(5%) Multilingual (3
languages) 7 Ove
r 14 6(19%) Multilingual(more than 3
languages)
four-word Chinese idioms
Pronunciation Translation2
五颜六色 wu3yan2liu4se4 describes complex colors, extended to a variety of colors.
一尘不染 yi4cheng2bu4ran3 Originally referred to Buddhists practice, eliminate material desire, keep the heart clean. Now general refers to abandon bad habits, bad atmosphere. It is also used to describe very clean places.
一马当先 yi4ma3dang2xian1 Originally refers the horse rushed in front in the war, now described as people’s leading ability.
亡羊补牢 wang2yang2bu3lao2 It's not too late to mend the sheep's gate after the sheep run away, metaphor as continued loss can be prevented if people find a way to remedy.
柳暗花明 liu3an4hua1ming4 to metaphor a turning point in difficulties., this idiom comes from a poem in Song dynasty (960- 1279 AD).
For the second four-word Chinese idioms test, the four-word Chinese idioms are added in the questions I ask.
Table 4 The second test’s four-word idiom’s pronunciation; translation and the questions that include the certain four-word idioms.
four-word idioms
循序渐进 xun2xu4jian4jin4 Translation: to describe study or work follow certain steps to get improved.
Question: 你觉得他们学习成语是一个循序渐进的过程么？
Question Translation: Do you think it is a step by step thing for
2The translation of the four-word Chinese idioms is quoted from Chinese idiom dictionary (2013) and translated
children to learn four-word Chinese idioms?
顺其自然 shun4qi2zi4ran4 Translation: Let things adapt and develop by themselves without interfering.
Question: 对于孩子成语的学习，您对他们有要求还是顺其自然 就好？
Question Translation: For children's four-word Chinese idioms study, do you have requirements for them or just let themselves decide?
可有可无 ke3you3ke3wu2 Translation: unnecessary
Question: 您觉得成语对于中文来讲是可有可无的还是重要的？ Question Translation: Do you think four-word Chinese idioms are necessary or unnecessary for Chinese?
耳熟能详 er3shu2neng2xiang2 Translation: Someone hears a lot about this, so he knows exactly what you're talking. Question: 孩子在家，是不是中文听多了，就耳熟能详了？
Question Translation: Do children know what you are talking about when you speak to them in Chinese a lot?
喜出望外 xi3chu1wang4wai4 Translation: happy and surprised
Question: 如果孩子会用成语/说了成语， 会不会有喜出望外的感 觉？
Question Translation: Will you be surprised and happy if your children can use/ says four-word Chinese language?
The four-word Chinese idioms I chose can all be commonly used in daily life, and the level is not high enough to tell a person’s literacy level. Interviewees did not feel weird or notice that I am testing their four-word idioms level. All the interviewees (the first generation) passed the test. No one had obstacles in understanding and had the interviewer tell the meaning of these four-word Chinese idioms.
3.2 Interview 2
The nearest “Overseas Chinese language and culture education” institution for me is in Leeuwarden, so I get contact with the headmaster and get a conversation with her. She also participated in interview 1, talked about the language situation going in her
family. Then we discussed the Chinese school in Leeuwarden and all over the Netherlands. The interview is semi-structured. Several points need to be addressed in our discussion.
1) The Chinese teaching source in Leeuwarden and Netherlands 2) What are the teaching aims for their teachers?
3) What textbook do they use in the school and her evaluation of the textbooks? 4) Students’ attitude towards Chinese learning.
5) What kind of Chinese level can these students get through attending the school? Would they learn Chinese as well as understand Chinese culture/ the four-word Chinese idioms?
After the interview, we settled a class observation on Saturday for the youngest children (4-8 years old). I observed the class and interviewed a Chinese teacher about the question listed before.
4.Results
4.1 First generation language four-word Chinese idioms level
All the participants think four-word Chinese idiom is vital for Chinese. It can tell a lot about Chinese culture, and people can use them shows not only for their Chinese level, but it also shows their understanding of Chinese culture.
Also, all the interviewees (the first generation) passed the questionnaire I designed for test four-word Chinese idioms level. They explained the four-word Chinese idioms right in the first test and have no obstacle in understanding the four-word Chinese idioms I put in the questions. Family1 do not even use Chinese in their family, and they seldom use Chinese in their work, too.
The idioms I choose for the test are not very difficult, but the outcomes are still astonishing that they can all understand the meaning of it.
But when the question “Do you think your Chinese level step backward in these years?” was generated, 12 out of 15 of the interviewee’s answer was “Yes." Since they all passed the four-word Chinese idioms tests and I didn’t observe any differences or imperfections in their Chinese communication, I asked them why do they think so and the reason for this. Most of them say they got the strong feeling that their Chinese level steps backward when they communicate with their friends in
that come into their minds are Dutch, and they need some time to think about “the Chinese translation” of this word. To explain this situation, the lack of the Chinese language environment is an important reason. The proportion for them to use Chinese reduced a lot, some of them only use Chinese in their families or when they are back to China. They are getting used to thinking in Dutch, so their Chinese get degraded. Three of the interviewees says their Chinese level “remained the same”. Two of them, family 9 and family 10 emigrated to the Netherlands separately 1 year and 3 years ago. They still keep high frequency to contact with China and use Chinese in their daily life. Besides, family 9 and family 13 interviewees love Chinese culture, and they have habits that keep their Chinese literary. Family 9 participants said he would recite poems with her daughter from time to time when they have after dinner walking. Family 13 participants say she loves Chinese culture and would read a lot of Chinese books, for the four-word Chinese idioms, she and her friends usually play a word game “Idiom Solitaire3” when they are doing the exercise. Among her friends there is
a reading activity called “share your book list," they would share the Chinese books and their review with their friends every week.
Thus, I think longtime immigration life would make the first generation’s mother tongue step back, but it is also possible to keep one’s mother tongue level by reading and think more in Chinese.
4.2 Family language plan
The participants have been asked if they have a family language plan and family language policies for their kids in their daily life. Family situations can be divided into three groups:
1) The family does not have a specific language plan and language policy, parents and children can use the language that they are comfortable with to talk with each other.
2) There are a language plan and language policy made for the family: father; mother and people who spend a lot of time with children every day, use particular different language for each of them to talk with children. For example, in family 5, mother only uses Chinese to communicate with children and father uses Dutch. Also, it can be that children only use the particular language that their parents use to respond to them. This kind of habit starts from children’s childhood, so the children are getting used to this bilingual language environment.
3) There are a language plan and language policy made for the family: a monolingual family language environment for the children. In this case, that is some
3“Idiom Solitaire”: first people say a four-word Chinese idiom, then the next person should say another four-word Chinese idiom that start with the same pronunciation as last idiom’s tail, then keep going like this.
families says Chinese is the only language that can be used in the family.
Based on the language plan and policy made by these three types of families, I assumed that monolingual family’s children might have a better score for the four-word Chinese idioms, at least they should have a better score than the bilingual.
Table 5 The children’s four-word Chinese idioms data with different family language policies (for the detailed family situation, see Appendix)
Family language policy Family number Four words Chinese idioms Average Score4
1) No language policy 9(60%) Family
1,2,3,4,6,9,11,12,14,15
2.73
2) Language policy: The bilingual/ multilingual
environment for children
3(20%)
Family 5,12,13
2.2
3) Language policy: The monolingual family language environment for children
3(20%) Family 7,8,10
2.5
The outcomes show 60% of the families do not have a language plan or policy in their family, but this group has a higher average score than the other 2 groups. But I do not think that this data means family without a language policy can make the second generation understand and be able to use more four-word Chinese idioms. These two factors are not really related to each other. The first groups include all the families that have limited immigration years (1-5 years). A certain amount of these children received a primary education background in China, so they have a higher evaluated score for four-word Chinese idioms. These families would still use Chinese in their families all the time, so in this case, families without language policies have higher average scores is understandable.
The other two groups’ means shows small differences. Each of the groups has few families. The families who choose the second language policy have lower average scores than the third group. The second generation in the third group would have more Chinese input. Also, the second and third group have different reasons for
4There are 5 scale for the second generation’s four-word idioms level: 1: Do not know about four-word Chinese
choosing certain language plans: for group 2(multilingual family environment), one of the parents is Chinese and the other comes from another country with different mother tongues. So usually, parents’ mother tongue is the first choice for their children’s language plan.
For the third group (monolingual family language environment), both of the parents come from China, so in their family language plan, Chinese is the only language that should be used in the family. But parents still think this is far from enough. According to the interviewee from family 8, “Although we insist on using Mandarin to communicate with our children, it is still difficult for children to understand culture things, like four-word Chinese idioms.” She also points out the reason for this: first, the time they spend with their children is limited. Second, the communication between them is usually daily talk, so the vocabularies are fixed and limited. Third, there is no social environment for them to understand Chinese culture things. Even though sometimes parents try to tell them four-word Chinese idioms stories and Chinese history stories, children can hardly be interested in it or understand it. So, although it seems that parents create a Chinese language environment in the family, the influence is undoubtedly insufficient.
There is also one problem that needs to be mentioned for the language policy: can parents follow their own language policy and request their children to follow the language policy all the time? A parent from Family 7 states: It is hard to keep children speak Mandarin all the time, the conversation between the children are usually Dutch; this might be a more comfortable language for them. So clearly the policy in the family is not always the real language environment in the family
So, in conclusion, I do not see an obvious tie between family language policy and children’s four-word Chinese idioms level. Language policy can certainly help parents make sure what kind of language they should communicate with their children. But for those families who do not have a language plan, they can create a similar language environment for kids. A strict policy might even cause children’s backlash and let them lose their interests in this language. So compared with home language policy, I think family language environments might be more related to children’s Chinese and four-word Chinese idioms level.
4.3 Family language environment
Compared with family language policy, I think the family language environment is a more critical factor that can influence the second generation’s Chinese language level and four-word Chinese idiom factors. Among all the families I divided them into two groups, the first is that Chinese is the only language that is used in the family, the second is that Chinese is one of the languages that is used in the family.
Table 6 The children’s four-word Chinese idioms data in different family language environments (for the detailed family situation, see Appendix)
Family language
environment Family number Fouridioms Average Scorewords Chinese Chinese only 10(66%) Family 2,3,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,15 3.1 Mixed family language environment 5(33%) Family 1,4,5,12,13 1.6
We can see that group one on overage have a higher score than that language is a mixed group. There are 10 families only use Chinese in their daily life. Other families use other languages like Dutch; English and Chinese dialects, too. So, of the 30 children, 20 accept the Chinese family language environment and their average score for the four-word Chinese idioms is 3.1/ 5. Besides this, 10 of them have a bilingual family language environment, and their mean score is 1.6/ 5.
So based on the figures, Chinese-only family language environment is an advantage for the second generation to learn four-word Chinese idioms. This kind of language environment can certainly create an atmosphere that leads children to learn more about Chinese culture in the family. A parent from family 7 says she likes to use four-word Chinese idioms personally in daily talking, so from time to time, she would use new four-word Chinese idioms to talk with her children. Children will be curious about it, and they will actively ask what the meaning of the new idioms is. The second generation can learn new Chinese words and idioms through this kind of parental teaching. This mother says she tried home-teaching Chinese, but she failed, for the children cannot sit down and listen to her for a long time. She thinks she can teach them four-word Chinese idioms and new words through them paying attention to what vocabulary she uses in her talking with them, but what she can pass on is still far less than her expectation. “Systematic school teaching is necessary," she says.
Even though group 1 achieves a higher score, parents from group 2 do not have a positive attitude for their children’s future Chinese level and four-word Chinese idioms development. Parents from family 3, family 7 and family 11 all mentioned that sometimes children do not know the exact words in Mandarin to express themselves, and when this situation happens, they use Dutch. Parents say they can foresee that by their children grow older, more and more this kind of situation will repeat. Although these children learn Chinese and Dutch at the same time, because of the social environment and education they have every day, their Dutch grow faster than
communicate with others.
Besides this, family 2, family 8 and family 11 from group 1 noted that although they communicate with children in Chinese, the conversion between siblings is always Dutch, they seldom use Mandarin to talk with each other. So, we can see without parents’ insisting for using Chinese, the second generation might prefer to use Dutch in the family. That is the language that they are more comfortable and accustomed to using.
To sum up, I think a family language environment that uses Chinese daily can be beneficial to the second generation’s Chinese learning. They can get more exposure to Chinese and four-word Chinese idioms. Certainly, their level cannot be compared with students who get educated in China, but I think children in these families already have a good condition in learning Chinese compared with other immigration families.
4.4 Family contact frequency with China
Some interviewees think their children are not interested in Chinese and Chinese culture is because they do not have a social environment to get connected with China. The interviewee from family 8 says: “When my children learn Dutch history and culture things, teachers usually organize an excursion to the museum or the historical site, they are very interested in it and learn it quickly. But when we tell them the histories in the same historical period in China or some four-word Chinese idioms story, they cannot understand it and not interested in it.” So, I think the contact frequency with China might also influence for children to learn Chinese and four-word Chinese idioms. A closer contact frequency might lead children a sense of cultural identity and arise their motivation to learn Chinese culture and more specifically, four-word Chinese idioms.
Thus, I interviewed the parents’ contact frequency with China; it can be divided into three groups:
1) Over three years do not have a visit to China; contact online is also not very close.
2) Visiting China on average twice a year, contact online once a week. 3) Visiting China on average once to twice a year, contact online every day. Table 7 Different contact frequency group data (for the detailed family situation, see Appendix).
Contact frequency Family number The average score for four-word Chinese idioms
1) over three years/ seldom
online 2(13%)
Family 3,4
1.5 2) once to twice a year/ once a
week online 6(40%)
Family 1,2, 6,11,12,13,
2.2
3)Once to twice a year/
everyday online 7(46%)
Family
5, ,7,8,9,10,14,1 5
3.41
Most of the families have close contact with China, and even group two would go back to China twice a year. The two families that have the least contact frequency are in Leeuwarden, and both of the family have an immigration year over 15 years.
From this table, it clearly shows that the more frequent family contact with China, the higher the average score the second generation gets. The outcomes fit my hypothesis well. If the second generation has close contact with China, Chinese and Chinese culture, it would be a part that occurs in their life frequently and they will be willing to know more about it. Once they got the motivation to learnt Chinese and Chinese culture, it would be easy for children to learn them.
Also, according to the interviewee from family 14, these contacts can help the second generation make friends in China, they would be willing to keep up with their friends and learn a lot from these friends. When they play together, they would watch Chinese TV series and play Chinese video games, this can somehow expand children’s Chinese vocabulary, too.
Besides this, some parents in group three would take their children back in China on purpose for their language learning and culture study. The interviewee from family 10 indicates that she would take children back to China twice a year, and during this time, they usually travel around to see China’s historical sites and experience the social environment. She thinks enough language and culture inputs will benefit their language learning and culture identity feeling. But at the same time, she didn’t ignore their Dutch language and culture input. “Their teacher already did a good job of giving them Dutch cultural input and my children are surrounded by the social environment here. So, I should do something to let my children know where they come from and how are the language and culture is over there.”
think this is a language, nothing more.” But every time they go back to China, her children’s interests in learning Chinese will last for a while. The turning point that her children would like to attend Chinese school also happens after they come back from China. She thinks to have a close contact frequency is an excellent way to raise children’s motivation to learn Chinese, but they are way busy to have closer contact with China. She also does not want to push her children to study: “If they are interested, they will learn it.”
So, in conclusion, I think frequently connection with China would bring more language and culture to children, thus this is a good way for CHL learners to know more about the heritage language.
4.5 Parents’ education backgrounds
In this case, I’m going to discover if parents’ education background is higher, they would have a higher expectation for their children to learn Chinese. Also, the children’s performance in four-word Chinese idioms would be compared, too.
My hypothesis for this is that parents’ expectation for their children’s Chinese level would be higher. I think parents’ education background can influence their expectation for their children. Higher education backgrounds parents may have more plans and a higher standard of request for their children, so their children might have a higher level in four-word Chinese idioms.
The education background is divided by the Chinese education system for all the first generation to get their education in China. Based on their families’ highest education background, four different education backgrounds are divided:
1)College degree 2)Bachelor degree 3)Master degree 4)PhD
Parents’ expectation for their children ‘s Chinese level is: 0: no expectation;
1: be able to listen and speak;
2: be able to listen, speak, read and write;
3: be able to listen, speak, read, write and understand Chinese culture and history; 4: be able to have the same level as Chinese children who accomplished nine-year
compulsory education5.
Table 8 Different parent education background group data (for the detailed family situation, see Appendix).
Parent education background
Family number Average Expectation for their children’s Chinese level
Second generation’s four-word Chinese idioms average score College degree 6 Family 1,2,3,4,11,13 1.9 2.0 Bachelor degree 4 Family 6,10,14,15 2.7 3.2 Master degree 2 Family 5,9 3.6 4.3 PhD. 3 Family 7,8,12 2.16 2.16
As we can see in the chart, there are 6 family’s parents’ highest education backgrounds are a college degree, 4 of the families come from Leeuwarden. Then the Bachelor degree, Master degree, and PhD degree family are separately 4, 2, and 3. We can see a clear expectation score’s increasing from the college degree to a Master degree. The average score for their children shows the same trend: they get gradually increasing from 1) to 3). But for the Ph.D. families, the expectation level and idioms score are in between college degree and Bachelor degree families. This is small sample research, and I cannot say that this tells a lot about how parent’s education backgrounds influence their children. But I can try to explain why the figure goes like this in this case.
To begin with, the college degree families in Leeuwarden all have immigrated years ago so now they fit in well in the Netherlands, and they do not have a strong sense of responsibility that their children have to learn Chinese. Besides, Leeuwarden did not have a proper Chinese school until half a year ago. Before this Chinese school opened, all the Leeuwarden Chinese immigration families taught their children Chinese at
home. Two of the families in Leeuwarden, family 1 and family 4 have their own restaurant business, the parents are too busy for actively teaching their children Chinese. Their children can understand and speak Mandarin but their vocabulary is limited, and they cannot read or write in Chinese. But once they discovered the Chinese school opened in Leeuwarden, they send their children to learn Chinese immediately. They also said they are satisfied with the current Chinese education resource right now in Leeuwarden. Through the interview, I did notice that they do not worry a lot about the second generation’s Chinese learning; it is more like an interest’s course for their children.
Also, the mother from family 3, group 1(college degree) says: “When I had my first kid, I do not have any experience in parenting, teaching or planning for my kids, I think parents with higher education backgrounds will have a better plan for their children, we just let them grow up.” She points out the opinion that parents who have a higher education background have the capacity to provide children more learning resources.
For the master degree group, two of the families says a lot about their plan and what they did for their children’s Chinese language learning. The first one is family 9; his children’s four-word Chinese idioms’ score is so high is because they just stayed in the Netherlands for one year. Before immigration, his children were educated in China. He told me the Chinese textbooks that are used by Netherlands Chinese schools are too simple for his kids. But he will continue to let his children attend the Chinese school for they can have a familiar environment and make friends here. But he also says he wants to find a way for his children to keep up their Chinese level with her peers in China, especially the big daughter. He told me: “I love Chinese culture and poems; it is gorgeous and I do not want my children cannot appreciate it.” He said he wants to sign up for online Chinese courses if his daughter is willing to do so. The other Master degree family, family 5, the mother achieved a dual Master degree in the Netherlands. She lives in Leeuwarden, and after she had her kid, she found out there is no Chinese school in Leeuwarden, so she decided to organize a Chinese school to let her child and the Chinese immigrant families in Leeuwarden are all able to learn Chinese from school. Her expectation for her kid is that she hopes he can understand a certain amount of Chinese culture and be able to read Chinese novels in the future. “It is impossible for him to understand the Chinese culture as we do, he grows up in a different environment, thinks differently, so my expectation for him is just that he can read Chinese novels in the future and maybe he can develop his feelings for Chinese by himself.” She prepared a lot for her son’s Chinese learning, from character cards to history stories.
Master degree parents show a noticeable difference compared with college degree parents; they pay more attention to children’s Chinese learning and provide their children with more learning sources.
For the PhD group, family 7 and family 8 parents concerned about their children’s language learning. The mother from family 8 says her expectation for her children is also that they can read Chinese novels fictions by themselves. They also did a lot for their children’s Chinese learning: “We brought lots of Chinese books, stories from China; take them to China to experience Chinese culture." says the mother from family 8. “But there is still a culture gap for them. When we took them back to Beijing, the taxi driver recognize that my children are foreigners through their accents. My children get an outstanding grade in their Chinese courses, but when they are back in China, their good grades don’t mean anything compared with their peers in China. The things they learned here is still very shallow.”. These parents tried their best to provide their children with all the teaching sources, but there is a clear limitation they can see in their children’s Chinese language and culture learning. So, their expectation for their children is not very high. Besides this, they also mentioned that they are too busy, so lots of language plans cannot be useful.
The other family from group 4(PhD.), family 12, the mother says the kids are just not interested in Chinese, and she wants them to grow up happily, so there is no pressure or high expectations for them to learn Chinese. She would use Chinese to communicate with them, and children can understand well, that is enough for this period. “Chinese might be hard for them. I hope they can learn a certain amount of Chinese characters in the future.” So, despite the education background, different parents get different ideology. This leads them the way they educate their children. Thus, to sum up, I think there is no direct association between parent’s education background and their expectation for their children’s Chinese level. The relevance between the educational background and second generation’s four-word Chinese idioms level is also not that significant. Parents with higher education backgrounds can provide children more education resources and effective education plans, so, the average score differences from college degree parents to Master degree parents shows differences. But the data for the PhD parents indicate that parents’ implementation capacity, teaching ideology would make a big difference for the results.
4.6 Immigration year
When parents have immigrated longer ago, their family would be more adapted to Dutch society. Their connection with China would be looser, so I assumed that if an immigration family live in the Netherlands for a long time, their children’s Chinese education would somehow be taken not that seriously. If the family started to stay in Dutch in recent years, children’s Chinese and four-word Chinese idioms level would be better. So based on the family’s immigration year, there are three compare groups: 1) 1-5 years
3) Over 10 years
The outcomes can be seen in the chart. There are 2 families in my interview have short immigration year in the Netherlands, but they have an extended period experience living in other countries: Family 6, 6 years in Denmark, family 13, 14 years in U.A.E. I want to test the relevance of immigration year with children’s four-word Chinese idioms level, so these two families are assigned in group 2 and group 3 separately.
Table 9 Different immigration year group data (for the detailed family situation, see Appendix).
Immigration
year Family number Second generation’s four-word Chineseidioms average score
1-5 years 4 Family 3, 9,10,11, 3.375 5-10 years 6 Family 5,6,10,14,15 2.88 Over 10 years 5 Family 1,2,4,8,12,13 1.9
The graph shows that shorter immigration years family have the highest average score, and the most extended immigration year group shows the lowest grade. This is clear data that shows immigration year does influence the second generation’s language learning. During the research process, I find out this is indeed links to family’s adaptation in the Netherlands. A parent from group1, family 10, who has 3 years of immigration experience in the Netherlands told me, it is tough to get the connection with local Netherlands people, their family friends circle is still full of Chinese people. She pays lots of attention to her children’s Chinese language and culture learning. Although her family is an immigrant family in the Netherlands, she is surrounded by Chinese people, so Mandarin is still an important thing for her and her children, they are willing to learn Chinese because of their social intercourse’s request. They got the inner motivation to study Chinese.
The other family from group3, family 1, have over 20 years of immigration backgrounds. They do not use Mandarin in their family, and they speak Wenzhounese with their relatives in China. “We do not have many Chinese friends here, the Chinese friends that moved to the Netherlands around the same time as we all moved to other cities or countries, we hardly get in touch with each other nowadays.”, the father said. Their children cannot use Mandarin, and they start to attend the Chinese school in
Leeuwarden from half a year ago. The father also said: "It is good for them to have another language skill.” Their connection with China is not very rusty, but it is the Wenzhou dialect that their children are fluent in. They do not need to use Mandarin in their social networking, and a relatively long life after immigration make that they were ‘adopted’ by the Dutch society, so they are not driven to let their children learn Chinese.
All in all, I think the immigration year can influence both first and second generation’s language attitude towards first generation’s mother tongue. The long years of the social environment, localized social networking, and education background make the immigrants get rusty with their roots. These groups are not very motivated to learn Chinese language and culture anymore.
4.7 Self-identification
I think the second generation’s self-identification is also an essential factor to promote or reduce their learning motivation. Thus, it can influence their Chinese level and four-word Chinese idioms level. A certain amount of the children is not old enough to answer the question, so the parents also answer this question. But I also interviewed two teenagers from family 14 and family 15 for this question.
Based on their self-identification, the families are been divided into three groups: 1) Children still think they are Chinese
2) Children think they are both Dutch and Chinese 3) Children think they are Dutch
Family 6 and family 13 are also exceptions in this research question, based on their family situation; family 6 are divided into group 2, the children think they are both Dane and Chinese. Family 13 is assigned in group 3; the children believe they come from U.A.E.
Table 10 Different self-identification group data (for the detailed family situation, see Appendix).
The second generation’s
self-identification Family number Second generation’s four-word Chinese idioms average score
Chinese 4
Family 10,11,14,15
another country) Family 2,3
Dutch 3,5,6,7,8,9,13
Family 1,4,12
1
The table shows that the second generation who think they are Chinese get a very high average score and who thinks they come from the Netherlands gets the average score 1. This means all of them do not know four-word Chinese idioms.
The second generation’s self-identification can deeply influence children’s interests in Chinese and Chinese culture. The case in family 11 can tells a lot about this. Their family migrated to the Netherlands three years ago. Back then, the younger daughter was 6 years old and the older, who was 11, just graduated (from) primary school. Her little daughter fitted in the Netherlands shortly but also difficult. She cried in the kindergarten for a month for she could not communicate with the teacher, but after a month, she fitted in well. The big children are good at English so she communicates with her teacher, but she took half a year to feel comfortable to stay in the Netherlands. Her mother says: “My big daughter still thinks she is Chinese; she is attached to Chinese culture and she prefers Chinese books and other entertainment things. She can already get self-study in Mandarin now. But my small daughter is different. She thinks she is Dutch and Chinese, she can talk in Chinese properly, but she can never achieve her sister’s Chinese level.” The reason for this is that she accepts the mixed culture environment earlier than her sister and her self-identification is a combination of Chinese and Dutch. After getting graduation from primary school, the big sister already learned almost all the basic Chinese, so she already knows the basics of Chinese culture and gets attached with it, that is the reason why she still thinks she is a Chinese.
The other two teenagers from family 14 and family 15 also migrated to the Netherlands when they graduated from primary school. They were around ten years old. Both of them stayed in the Netherlands for 6 years. The boy from family 14 says: “Although I am now very familiar with the Netherlands, I still think I am a Chinese. I think I will go back to China after my graduation from university. I contact with my Chinese friends very frequently; we play online games together.” The girl in family 15 also states that she wants to go to China for her development. They would read Chinese books in their causal time. It is worth to mention that I give four-word Chinese idioms test for these two teenagers. Their four-word Chinese level entirely stops at their primary school level, they get confused in explaining idioms for junior high school. The girl performs better than the boy; the girl scores 8 and boy scores 7. In conclusion, based on the data and the interviews, I think children’s self-identity can profoundly influence the second generation’s Chinese and four-word Chinese idioms.
The Chinese school in Leeuwarden opened half a year ago, Nov. 2019, and for now, they have over 50 students attend the class. Before this Chinese school opened there, there was a Chinese school established by a Hong Kong businessman and been closed after he died a decade ago.
The Chinese school in Leeuwarden has been opened with the support of Delft Chinese school, which has been opened for over twenty years and has 500-800 students. There are three classes in Leeuwarden Chinese school: 4-8 years old; 8-13 years old and 13-18 years old. They attend Chinese school every Saturday from 11:00 to 13:00. The Mandarin level of the students are all the same because they do not have Chinese school in Leeuwarden for over 10 years: almost all the children can listen and speak, but not able to read and write. So the objectives for different age group are distinct, for the small age group they can teach more culture related things, but for the big children, it is more like second language learning instead of heritage language learning although they would attend the cultural events, held by the school and try to recite poems in the textbook.
Jinan University Press publishes the textbook used for them, is a specialized textbook for overseas Chinese heritage language learning. The teaching objective for this series of book is to make the students have the essential ability to listen, speak, read, and write Chinese; know about Chinese culture. Besides this textbook, Qianziwen (Thousand Character Classic) has also been used in the classroom. Qianziwen is a poem that includes 1000 non-repeating Chinese characters; the full text is four-word sentences.
Most parents in Leeuwarden have opened a Chinese restaurant and live in the Netherlands for a long time. According to the headmaster, the children made significant improvements in Mandarin after they attend Chinese school, and some children already can use some simple four-word Chinese idioms.
But the interviewee also mentioned that students are not very motivated to attend Chinese school; most of the students said they participate in Chinese school because it’s their parents’ will. Only a few of them said they come to Chinese school because Chinese is their parents’ language and they want to use it. Small children would be more interested in attending Chinese school.
The teacher said she tried to give children culture inputs in the class, it is easier for small children to accept these, but for the teenagers, their acceptance for Chinese culture is more based on their attitudes towards Chinese. The school would celebrate Chinese festivals and culture related activities. For example, make rice dumplings and tell the story about the Dragon boat Festival. The interviewee said: “The small children can know lots of four-word Chinese idioms and Chinese culture if they keep attending the school, but the situation would not be very ideal for teenagers.” She also mentioned that based on the textbook and course volume, students’ level could not be
