Simple Coconut Cookies, Mother Tongue, Valentine's Day
简单的椰丝饼干，简简单单的心意
This morning, I went to my daughters' school as a parent volunteer to support Chinese Mother Tongue program. I was tasked to manage Quiz Corner. Teachers have prepared some quizzes related to CNY. Girls are required to pick one question from a box, and answer in Mandarin. The reward is a sticker. It's interesting to see the girls queueing for the quizzes, trying to figure out the meanings of the Chinese words. Some of them gave the answers in English or dialect spontaneously rather than in Mandarin. Seems girls don't use common Chinese words such as “柑”, “压岁钱”，“元宵节 ”，“除夕”，“春联”, “腊肠” etc so often at home. It's said that almost 80% of the pupils in this school come from English-spoken family. I am proud that Mandarin is my mother tongue, also my daughters'. Even if it's not, it's an asset if we have a good command of a language like Mandarin, which has nearly one billion native speakers. Some people belittle Mandarin s...