Disney World of English

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Isaac Mom

Registered User
Hi there

I am new to Geobaby forum and would like to seek for comments.

My son is 22 months and both my hubby and I are Chinese and working. To be honest, we want our son to be bilingual, so we speak English whenever we talk to him. It appears that he totally understands us but he answers in Cantonese. It's pretty funny. It's because both of our parents and maid speak Cantonese to him.

In the recent Baby Expo I was introduced Disney World of English, which attracts us and we think it can provide a good English environment to my son to learn while playing, but the price is really out of my expectation. We are still struggling whether it is worth buying it.

Is anyone using this and any comment to it?

Thanks
Isaac Mom
 
continue speaking to your son in english. when you rent a dvd, rent an english one. when you watch tv, watch the english channle. when you buy books, buy english books.

do NOT spend so much money on it. I have tutored English for 11+ years and can say, I'm not very impressed with the products you mentioned. it is normal for him to answer in what he feels comfortable with, he isn't even 2 years old yet!

my hubby is chinese, i'm canadian. i speak english, my hubby chinese to our 19 month old son. he answer some things in english, and other things in chinese. he shouldn't start to realise the difference until 2-2.5 years of age. even then, he will choose what he considers to be the "easiest" way to answer.

i have cousins in canada who are COMPLETELY bi-lingual in English and French. Even now that they are adults, they switch back and forth depending on what they are talking about and who the are talking to. This is part of being bi-lingual.

good luck!
 
ps. english families would be unlikely to spend that kind of money on the same product. why? because you learn to speak and use a language by speaking and using a language. if you continue the way you are, your child will speak english.
 
it is indeed very expensive (around 50k for the full set) and also from what i have heard, you have to spend time with your child to get full use out of it. if u were going to just play the dvds then u might as well find a friend who has it and dub it or buy a pirated version from shenzhen.

if u r impressed with the so called reader, there is another cheaper version called popupenglish. www.popupenglish.com

personally, i would rather spend the money taking my baby to playgroups or overseas holidays instead.
 
Hi there

Really appreciate the response from carang and ms momo.

I definitely will continue to speak English with my son. Honestly I also tried to speak English to hubby whenever my son was with us, but you know it's feeling weird two native Chinese converse in English, so we gradually gave it up.

The reality is both of us have to work and usually return home late around 8:00 pm. We only have 2 hours at most with our son in the evening and 1/2 hour in the morning. This is also the reason why we want to have an education material to assist him to be familiar with English.

Sometimes I would really admire some mommies who do not have to work. Nevertheless, my son gives me a lot of happiness that he surprises me with his new words. Now he is able to speak some Cantonese sentences and simple English words. The usual English word he says is "mommy please" :-)

Cheers
Isaac Mom
 
totally agree with carang.

both hubby & i are chinese. i try to get hubby, grandparents to speak cantonese to baby, while i speak cantonese in full sentences or english in full sentences (i have to emphasis in full sentences, cos some of my friends speak to there babies in broken english + cantonese in cantonese grammar, which i find horrendous), nanny speaks english. i only buy english books & DVD (not that i don't wanna buy chinese, but i don't know where to find them). baby understands both cantonese & english 100%. she answers in single words english or chinese wherever she finds easier to pronounce.

so if you're afraid bab's english won't be good enough, english books & english DVDs are enough. they'll pick up the proper pronunciation from the DVDs. unless you guys can't speak english properly, then u can consider otherwise. but still i think that disney english thing is ridiculously expensive.
 
cannot agree more with joannek, the price is ridiculous. I actually tried to find one in Shenzhen during business trip, but couldn't find it

We are currently giving my son DVD with songs that he can follows and sings. For reading books, he cannot concentrate even on few pages. I am trying every night with 15 minutes but he can usually stay with 5 minutes.
 
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15 minutes to a 19 month old or evena 2 year old is a lifetime... keep it to 5 minutes. when they start to lose interest, STOP. do NOT force your child to sit through something he is not enjoying. it will only make him hate it.

as for spending only 2 hours with him...don't worry! if both you and hubby only speak to him in english during those two hours, he'll pick it up!
 
plus, i wouldn't worry about it if you speak fluently. i can tell your english level is pretty good from your posts. i sure don't think you need it.

but hey, it's only normal to wonder whether we should buy it. i also did start a thread asking the same question about 6 mths ago. the reason was cos i have a friend who bought the set when her son was 9mths & her son was speaking single words at 12 mth, reciting a to z at 15mths. he's now 22 mths & speaking in FULL SENTENCES with correct grammar & prepositions (he even uses the word "otherwise" correctly!!! and he can sing the full "old macdonald had a farm" "pussy cat where have u been", etc. i thought it was the Disney thing. and then i did some research & learn that it's not the disney thing, it's the boy. he's just a little genius. i get the agent to come to my place & expain why the thing costs so much. she said it's your beloved offspring's future you're talking about, so it's priceless. (??) so i went on to ask her whether there are any english speaking parents bought the set. she said "no, cos it's a set for learning english & english native speakers don't need to buy the set to teach their children english."

i guess it's very good if the parents AND the caregiver don't speak english, or their pronunciation isn't accurate.
 
How early do you start letting your kid watch DVD?

Also, does anyone have the Baby Einstein DVD set? If so, is it a good set to play to the kid? It is certainly much cheaper than the Disney set.
 
we've always had the t on in the background. we did it before baby and we continue to do it now...

he LOVES barney, elmo, Little einstein and out of the box on disney playhouse.

when i go to the video shop on $10 tuesday for a movie for us, he always picks a barney DVD for himself.
 
i started showing baby when she could sit u on her own baby einstein, but she hated it. so i stopped. then at around 6 mths, i tried again. and the only one she liked was einstein macdonald farm. we let her watch that everyday at the same time (after breakfas for 15 mins).
 
I started VCD to my son since he was six months old at a regular time. The first VCD was the Disney trial version for baby less than 1, singing hello and byebye, and fingers and toes, etc. I can say that he has never been shy to the strange person, he even waves hello to people in the lift.

One funny thing is that in his 12 months time he pointed to a strange person's toes in the lift and said "TOES". It made that person embarrassed who however kindly said "oh yes, it's toes".
 
It costs you a future as it's DISNEY'S. Anyway, there are a lot of CDs&DVDs toddlers can enjoy and learn English too. My 18-month old son loves Barney's & Teletubbies but has no interest in animation like Disney's.
I speak to my little boy in English and Cantonese. I will frist speak English to him then repeat the words or sentences in Cantonese (sometimes, plus Putonghua too). One day, he surprised my by saying CHE CHE (car - in Cantonese)then pausing and say CARRR. Hope, this would help.
 
Thanks mommyboy.

I finally give up the desire of buying Disney's World of English. First because of the money and secondly I find my son is able to converse in English short phases with me before his two years old. He says "mama please help". "give it to me please", "play with me", "it's new" and he always says "sit down please"....etc

Funny is that he is able to switch to Cantonese when grandies talk to him. Anyway hubby and I will continue to speak English to him, despite a little concern of our Chinlish (Chinese English).

Cheers
Isaac Mom
 
speaking another language fluently is ALWAYS an asset, no matter what kind of job you wish to have in the future.
 
I think it?s quite common for children here to acquire 2 languages (Cantonese plus English) simultaneously from birth and a third language (Putonghua) early on in their childhood (through pre-school education). Bilingual families in the West usually adopt the one-parent one-language strategy (shown to be effective) but in HK such a clear distinction does not seem to be the norm. To nurture true bilinguals, the one-parent two-language strategy may not be an easy way out but if the parent speaking 2 languages could minimize mixed code (the typical Cantonese base language with English lexical words), it could surely reduce possible confusion on the part of the child.

Linda
:blahblah
 
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