LANGUAGE OF LOVE

This is a strange world. Well, at least for babies - these adult Singaporeans must be wierd. Picture this - two Chinese parents speaking to each other in Mandarin, and mum turned to his son and blurted in broken English "Keep quiet, guai guai eat food, don't pray with your food. Drink Orleng Jooce." What the *%$#. Why can't they just use Mandarin? Can't they speak to the child in a language they are comfortable in? My guess - they want to give their child a headstart in the working language in Singapore, an edge over others in school or at least make sure they don't fall behind. I believe children are like a sponges, they learn, adapt and assimilate quickly. Put them in London and they will speak with an English accent, in US "Wassup", in Aussie Land "G'day". Put them in kindergarten, they will pick up English from their friends and teachers. Teaching them broken English is not helping them. It will saturate these sponges and spoil them. Changing is more difficult than learning something new. Example, my parents in law, they cannot speak English well, but when they turn to speak to the little one, they use whatever limited English they know "En, come, sit", "Don't naughty" - hey that's what they teach at dog obedience school. We had to tell them sternly to use Mandarin - and they give us THE LOOK - it's as if we are asking them to speak French. Duh?! If you ask me, if the common language of the house is Mandarin - use it, if it's Cantonese - use it - why devise a second language for your child? Anyway, isn't it better for him or her anyway to pick up a mother tongue from young and be proficient in it? It actually gives them an edge later in life. I come from a family who uses a mixture of Mandarin and Hainanese (I cannot speak Hainanese well, but comprehend it quite ok), my parents speak good Mandarin, picked up Cantonese when I hang out with my cousins who spoke the language among themselves, Hokkien came naturally in army, I picked up English from school and friends. I'm effectively multi-lingual ha ha. Isn't that better? I definitely don't want my child to be banana, worse a banana who speaks rotten English.