Companion
Two Languages: Mandarin
You translate for your nǎi nai at the grocery store
Children who complete this book have a personal identity map in both Mandarin and English, in their own words.
Children who grow up speaking Mandarin at home and English at school — who move between two languages, two sets of customs, and two ways of understanding the world
The Name It First Experience
Speaking two languages means knowing the world in two ways — and both of them are yours. Two Languages: Mandarin walks a bilingual child through their words, their names, their family, and the two worlds they move between — giving language to the experience of living between Mandarin and English every day. It is for the child who translates at the grocery store, who knows the right word sometimes only exists in one language, and who carries two ways of understanding the world without ever having had a book that holds both. They finish with a Mandarin-English Identity Map — a page that shows exactly who they are in both languages, in their own words.
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Sample questions
- What language does your family use most at home?
- What is a word in Mandarin that you love the sound of?
- Who taught you your first word in another language?
Research basis
Grounded in Cummins (1979) bilingual language development research / Wong Fillmore (1991) on heritage language maintenance and identity / Bialystok (2011) on bilingual identity development in children.
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The full guide on any screen, with a companion journal to write your answers by hand.
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We read every question and every scenario aloud. For the commute, the walk, the dishes.
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The keepsake edition — sewn, ribboned, made to sit on a shelf and be returned to.
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Answer on screen. Your responses save as you go and assemble into your finished document.
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Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
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The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
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Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
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Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
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