Chinese checker

Being fourteen and in high school, Annika has asked for some autonomy with her school work. Fine by me. To her credit she has really stepped it up. Her report cards are good, so I am happy to give her some space.

So I don’t really keep up with her daily work. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to help her with her Mandarin homework anyway. She gets her work done, I don’t get emails from her Mandarin teacher, everyone’s happy.

The other night Annika was lying on the living rug working in her Mandarin workbook when she audibly scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s just my Chinese workbook. They try to keep us students interested by having this ongoing teen drama. It's supposed to be like a Korean drama –and I guess it is because it’s just bad. This boy Da Wen likes this girl Li Yu, but he has never told her. He suspects she likes him too. They are chatting and Li Yu asks him what his plans are for Friday night. He says he is going out with his girlfriend. She says, I didn’t know you had a girlfriend. He says, You’ve met her before. She replies, I have? What is her name? Da Wen responds, her name is Li Yu; she is you. Dad, so cheesy! So bad. Worse than a Korean melodrama.”

I said “Wait a minute, let me see that Chinese workbook.” As she handed it to me, I asked her, “Did you get all that from this workbook?”

“Um, yeah,” she answered puzzled.

I looked down and saw half of a page covered in small, complicated looking Chinese characters. “You got that story from this page?”

“Yeah.”

“You can read all this?” I asked her incredulously.

“Um Dad, I’ve been taking Mandarin for two years. What did you think?”

I still didn’t believe her. I pushed the workbook back at her and said “Read this. Outloud.” I poked the page with my finger.

She started reading. In Chinese. Like a champ.

When did this happen?

Man, I have got to start paying attention to what’s going on under my own roof.

-Jack

Me? Two years and I know how to say two words in Mandarin: Ni hao. And I already knew that before I came to Hong Kong. Like every parent, I hope my kids surpass me in life. But in this case, that’s not setting the bar very high.