很多华裔美国人都是高级知识分子，为什么他们的子女汉语这么差？

国内知名企业新东方在美国打开了一扇新的大门，这家在中国做英语培训的企业，转战美国，做起了中文培训，并且效果十分显著。这从新东方在加州举办的一场线下活动就能看出，这场活动是面向华裔青少儿开设中文课程，现场氛围十分热烈，吸引了大量华人父母参加。

海外华裔青少儿学习中文已经成为了一种刚需，甚至比国内的孩子学习英文的需求还要旺盛。这正是祖国强大了的一个体现，曾经这些父母在国内学了英语前往美国，现在他们又争相为自己的下一代报名学习中文。在美版知乎Quora上，美国网友提问道：很多华裔美国人都是高级知识分子，为什么他们的子女汉语这么差？这个问题引起各国网友的围观和热议，海外华人纷纷撰文作答，我们来看看他们的观点。

问题：为什么许多华裔美国人都是高级知识分子，他们的子女的汉语却这么差？

美籍华裔网友陈达娜的回答，她是一名双语支持者

Most parents want to pass on Chinese to their children, but over the past 20 years, raising a Chinese speaking child in a foreign country is like going against the current and moving forward with a heavy load. Only we know the difficulties.

大多数家长都想把汉语传给孩子，但是二十年来，在外国抚养一个说汉语的孩子就像逆流而上，负重前行，其中的艰难只有我们自己知道。

I learned bilingualism out of sheer luck. I completed my fifth grade in China and then emigrated to Britain and Canada with my parents. I grew up with many Chinese people born or raised in Canada. I have seen too many examples that prove that the idea that two Chinese speaking parents will educate a Chinese speaking child is not feasible.

我学双语完全是出于运气，我在中国完成了五年级的学业，然后随父母移民到英国和加拿大。我在许多在加拿大出生或长大的中国人身边长大，我看到了太多的例子，都证明两个会说汉语的父母会教育出一个会说汉语的孩子的想法是行不通的。

I know what I need to do now - I am the mother of a young son. I am determined to bring him up and let him speak Chinese. I realize how hard many Chinese parents fought during this period.

我知道我现在需要做什么了——我是一个年幼儿子的母亲，我决心把他养大，让他讲中文，我意识到许多华人父母在此期间需要进行多么艰难的斗争。

For a child of Chinese descent who was born in an environment where English (or any other Western Language) is the majority, if he wants to practice completely fluently and have good Chinese reading and writing skills, his parents must have firm determination, abundant resources and incredible insight into the language and the whole social and cultural environment, which was very rare among the parents at that time.

对于一个出生在英语（或任何其他西方语言）占多数的环境中却有着中国血统的孩子来说，要想完全流利地练习，并具备良好的中文读写能力，父母必须有坚定的决心、充沛的资源，以及对语言和整个社会文化环境的不可思议的洞察力，这在当时的父母中间是非常罕见的。

Twenty or thirty years ago, the language policy in North America was very repressive. The best case was that it did not support you to learn Chinese on campus. Even in similar language groups (i.e. English / French / German and other languages sharing the same letters), it is difficult for parents to provide enough language atmosphere for their children to balance the large amount of English around them.

二三十年前，北美的语言政策是非常有压制性的，最好的情况也不过是不支持你在校园学习汉语。即使在相似的语言群体中（即英语/法语/德语等共享相同字母的语言），家长也很难为孩子提供足够的语言氛围来平衡他们周围的大量英语环境。

When children are eight to ten years old, their traditional language skills will obviously lag behind their English level. Therefore, without real literacy and literacy skills, they will not be able to contact Chinese without parents and language teachers.

当孩子们八岁到十岁时，他们的传统语言技能会明显落后于他们的英语水平，因此，如果没有真正的识字能力和读写能力，他们就无法在没有父母和语言教师的情境下接触汉语。

This raises the issue of literacy. It is difficult to achieve a certain level of Chinese literacy, because the Chinese writing system is completely different from the Latin alphabet system. You need to understand about 3000 Chinese characters to be considered literate.

这就引出了识字问题。要达到一定程度的中文读写能力是很难的，因为汉语的书写系统与拉丁字母系统完全不同，你需要理解3000个左右的汉字才能被视为识字。

This means that between the ages of 5 and 10, Chinese families are racing against time, forcing children to input a large number of characters in their minds. The reason why I say forced feeding is that even for children growing up in China, learning Chinese characters is far from fun, not to mention children in non Chinese environments. They can't understand why they are forced to recite Chinese characters every weekend in Chinese schools while other children are playing.

这意味着，在5岁到10岁之间，中国家庭正在与时间赛跑，强迫孩子在脑子里输入大量字符。我之所以说强制喂食，是因为即使对于在中国长大的孩子来说，学习汉字也远没有乐趣，更不用说在非中国环境中的孩子们，他们无法理解为什么他每个周末在中国学校被迫背汉字，而其他孩子则在玩耍。

This requires the extraordinary perseverance of parents. In the first five years of formal education, children will receive more and more English cultural input. English is not only a language for learning, but also a language for games and entertainment! If teachers and caregivers are not employed, they are explicitly instructed to play with their children, and they are sent to an immersive language environment in China, where they can truly understand the language background and feel its relevance, then their interest and ability in Chinese will inevitably lag behind that of English.

这就需要父母的非凡毅力。在孩子接受正规教育的前5年，他们将收到越来越多的英语文化输入，英语不仅是学习的语言，也是游戏和娱乐的语言！如果不雇佣教师和陪护人员，明确指示他们与孩子玩耍，并将他们送到中国沉浸式的语言环境中，在那里他们可以真正了解语言的背景并感受到其相关性，那么对汉语的兴趣和能力都不可避免地会落后于英语。

Therefore, by the time they are 10 to 12 years old, a child's English reading and writing ability has reached a certain level. They can read twilight and Harry Potter. If not, they can read Stephen King and Jane Eyre. All this happens when they are semi literate in Chinese reading, because their Chinese vocabulary is only at the level of grade 2 or grade 3 (Chinese schools teach an average of 150-200 characters a year).

因此，到他们10岁到12岁的时候，一个孩子的英语读写能力已经达到了一定的程度，他们可以阅读《暮光之城》和《哈利·波特》，如果不能的话，可以阅读《史蒂芬·金》和《简爱》。这一切都发生在他们的汉语阅读水平还是半文盲的时候，因为他们的汉语词汇只有二年级或三年级的水平（中文学校平均每年教150-200个字符）。

If they first strictly abide by the agreement to use only Chinese at home, usually at this point, parents begin to face greater and greater resistance when communicating in Chinese at home. Realizing that most of their laissez faire Chinese learning methods (or Sunday school methods) did not work, they began to shrink back from reading and writing, and reluctantly satisfied with the ability to only talk to their children in Chinese.

如果他们首先在家里严格遵守只使用汉语的约定的话，通常在这一点上，父母在家里用汉语交流时开始面临越来越大的阻力。意识到他们大多数自由放任的汉语学习方法（或主日学校的方法）不起作用，他们开始在阅读和写作方面退缩，勉强满足于只与孩子用汉语交谈的能力。

Soon, more and more English spread at home. When children can answer in Chinese, they tend to answer in English. This is when many parents succumb to habit and the power of English.

很快，越来越多的英语在家里传开，当孩子们可以用汉语回答时他们往往倾向于用英语回答。这就是很多父母屈服于习惯，屈服于英语的力量的时候。

Twenty years ago, from the perspective of children, Chinese was not that cool language, but now, wealthy New York families are paying a lot of money for Chinese speaking nannies to teach their children. At that time, China was far from a place of opportunity and future economic growth. Growing up in an English speaking world, it was difficult for you to feel that the language and culture around you were better than the abstract Chinese world described by the media to some extent, that is, the world you vaguely saw from your parents' words and deeds.

20年前，从孩子的角度来看，汉语并不是那种很酷的语言，可如今，富裕的纽约家庭正花大价钱请讲汉语的保姆教他们的孩子。那时，中国远非机遇之地和未来经济的增长巨人，在一个讲英语的世界里长大，你很难感觉到你周围的语言和文化在某种程度上优于媒体描述的这个抽象的中国世界，也就是你从父母言行中恍惚看到的这个世界。

I have witnessed with my own eyes the efforts of many Chinese families to actively encourage their children to speak English and only English, thereby demonstrating their determination to fully integrate into the English culture. An early writer once wrote an article that parents are always embarrassed when they walk around in their newly discovered English environment, which will keep them away from Chinese. I fully agree with this view.

我亲眼目睹了许多中国家庭积极鼓励孩子们说英语和只说英语，以此表明他们决心完全融入英语文化的努力。早期的撰稿人曾写过这样一篇文章：让父母在他们新发现的英语环境中四处走动交流时总是感到尴尬，这会让他们远离汉语，我完全同意这种看法。

I have seen and heard too many adults with Chinese backgrounds struggling to master the language. They lament that they missed the opportunity when they were young.

我看到和听到过太多有中国背景的成年人挣扎在无法掌握语言的困境中，他们哀叹自己年轻时错过了机会。

I think neither parents nor children should be blamed. External environment - as a language with a low status in the United States, Chinese has limited understanding of bilingual and traditional language learning, few global thinking models, plus the teaching methods of Chinese courses and the intergenerational struggle between our parents and the mainstream society, all of which have contributed to a struggle that is almost impossible to win.

我认为父母和孩子都不应该受到责备。外部环境——汉语作为一种在美国地位较低的语言，对双语和传统语言学习的理解有限，全球思维模式较少，再加上汉语课程的授课方式以及我们的父母与主流社会的代际斗争，所有这些都促成了一场几乎不可能获胜的斗争。

Now is the good news. I think the changes in the world situation may be more conducive to the cultivation of successful Chinese speaking children.

现在是好消息。我认为现在世界局势的变化可能更有利于培养成功的讲汉语的孩子。

First, the rise of China has significantly improved the status of Chinese, making it an economic and cultural asset.

第一，中国崛起，汉语的地位显著提高，使其成为一种经济和文化资产。

Second, a large proportion of Chinese speaking parents belong to higher socio-economic groups. Many parents who grew up in an English speaking environment no longer struggle with cultural identity or stand on the edge of the mainstream society. They now decide to raise their children in Chinese purposefully, not out of the inheritance of Chinese identity. I can imagine that parents like them will be more sympathetic to the challenges faced by their children when reconciling their language and cultural identity.

第二，很大一部分讲汉语的父母属于更高级的社会经济群体。许多在英语环境中长大的父母不再在文化认同上挣扎，也不再站在主流社会的边缘，他们现在决定有目的地用汉语抚养孩子，而不是出于中国人身份的传承。我可以想象，像他们这样的家长在调和自己的语言和文化身份时，会更加同情孩子面临的挑战。

Third, technology makes it easier to share resources - nowadays, you can buy all kinds of Chinese CDs, DVDs, books and educational materials directly from China, which makes it easier to create a more convincing immersion experience for children. I have cautious hopes.

第三，科技使资源共享变得更加容易——如今，你可以直接从中国购买各种中文CD、DVD、书籍和教育材料，这使得为孩子们创造更具说服力的沉浸体验变得更加容易。我对此抱有谨慎的希望。

美籍华裔弗朗西斯?陈的回答

Don't be too harsh on immigrant parents or Chinese Americans (ABC). Let me share my experience.

不要对移民父母或华裔（ABC）太苛刻，下面让我分享一下我的经验。

I am a third-generation Chinese American. I have two children. It is extremely difficult for them to speak Chinese.

我是一个第三代的华裔美国人，我有两个小孩，让他们说中文真是难如登天。

问题#1/Problem #1

Although I can speak Chinese fluently, I can read but can't write. My Chinese reading and writing level has probably not improved since I immigrated to the United States, and has been in primary school. When I quarrel with native speakers of Chinese, I can't even have a satisfactory debate in Chinese, because I often can't find the right words to fully express myself. Teaching my own children sometimes feels like a blind person guiding the blind.

虽然我能流利地说中文，我能读但不会写，我的中文读写水平自我移民美国以来可能没有提高，一直停留在小学阶段。当我和母语为汉语的人吵架时，我甚至无法用汉语进行令人满意的辩论，因为我常常找不到合适的词语来充分表达自己。教我自己的孩子有时感觉就像盲人在引导盲人。

问题#2/Problem #2

Time is limited. It's 6 o'clock in the afternoon when I come home from work. Try to get the food ready, let them do their homework, and then the evening routine. There is hardly enough time for language classes. It is hard enough for them to do their homework normally.

时间不够。下班回家，已经是下午6点了。试着把饭菜做好，让他们做家庭作业，然后是晚上的例行公事。几乎没有足够的时间上语言课，要让他们正常地做家庭作业已经够难的了。

问题#3/Problem #3

The children have no motivation, because they will not use Chinese unless it is a Chinese family gathering, and then they will use English among themselves after greeting their elders.

孩子们没有动力，因为除非是华人大家庭聚会，否则他们不会使用汉语，然后在问候长辈之后，他们都会在自己中间使用英语。

The only time my children insisted on speaking Chinese was when we visited China. When there is such an environment, they will be forced to learn. Without language environment and atmosphere, it is difficult to keep your ancestral mother tongue.

我的孩子们唯一一次坚持说中文是在我们访问中国的时候。当有这样的环境时，他们会被迫学习。没有语言环境和氛围，很难保留你的祖传母语。

问题#4/Problem #4

My parents only speak Chinese, so when we are at home, we naturally have to use Chinese at home. But it is much more difficult for us and our children. Suppose you try to discipline your child, but when you say complex Chinese words, he can't understand you and will naturally return to English.

我的父母只会说中文，所以当我们在家时，我们自然不得不在家里使用中文。但对于我们和我们的孩子来说，这要困难得多。假设你试图管教你的孩子，但当你说出很复杂的中文字眼时，他听不懂你的话，会很自然地回到英语上来。

Still, perhaps all of these are excuses. In the final analysis, letting your children learn a foreign language is like letting them learn any other skill, whether it's art or sports. Take them to class / training every week and force them to practice every day. It takes years of effort and is not easy.

尽管如此，也许以上所有这些都是借口。归根结底，让你的孩子学习一门外语就像让他们学习任何其他技能，无论是艺术还是体育。每周带他们去上课/培训，并迫使他们每天练习，这需要多年的努力，很不容易。

Give more energy to those super parents who are able to do this, especially those who do not have enough money for extracurricular counseling.

给那些有能力做到这一点的超级爸爸妈妈们更多的能量吧，尤其是那些没有足够的财力进行课外辅导的孩子们。

Think about it, why do European descendants in the United States not retain their European language? Because after several generations, this challenge will multiply, and eventually the language will not be inherited.

想想，为什么在美国的欧洲后裔没有保留他们的欧洲语言？因为几代人之后，这种挑战会成倍增长，最终导致语言没能继承下来。

My solution is that every few years, I will send them to live in China for a few months, let them enter the language school there, and let them immerse themselves in that culture. My friends did this to raise their children, and it was successful, but it was expensive.

我的解决方案是，每隔几年，我会把他们送到中国住几个月，让他们进入那里的语言学校，让他们沉浸在那种文化中。我的朋友们为了培养他们的孩子就是这么做的，而且成功了，但是这样做的花费非常昂贵。