Bilingual children

[vrach]

My friend recently returned from China after 4 years of studies.His wife and 2 little girls spent the last 2 years with him.They are back in an all-english environment.The children and father speak Mandarin.Children-fluently.I would very much like to see these children NOT lose the language.(My wife and I brought up our 2 girls trilingually-so you can see how passionate I am about this).Are there any good web sites for these children to further develop the language?Any suggestions,similar experiences?
thank you.

[spudqueen]

One way of them keeping this language would be for the father to only speak mandarin to the children, at home at least.

[polyanna18]

I married a Spaniard and always regretted that my husband never spoke to them in Spanish so that they would be bilingual. They say now that they wished their father had taught them Spanish. The younger the children are the easier it is for them to speak another language. We have Spanish friends whose children were born in this country. They now speak perfect English and Spanish. When they speak to me they have no Spanish accent and when they speak to my husband they have no english accent which is proper bilingual. It would be a shame if these children lost the Mandarin now.

[morelegend]

There may be some group or way of meeting up with other speakers .
I know what you mean my friends wife from singapore has lost a lot of her native mandarin due to lack of use.

[saxy_jag]

I once sat beside a young family at a local tourist attraction, where the children (eldest approx. five) were both bilingual. They conversed with their father in English and their mother in French, switching between the two with apparent ease.

Wish I could do that now, never mind at five.

[netibiza]

Both my husband and I are English but daughter was born in Spain and she is trilingual, I would always encourage the learning of another language in this world as I believe it's the way forward.

[Thunderchild]

I'm bilingual in English and italian as i went to live in Italy when i was 10 but retain english speaking at home, now that I'm back in england i have both languages, unfortunately Italian seems to be totally useless here