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Categories > Your Questions — General > Additional language, how many hours a week is needed?
 
 


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Weronika
  Posted   Reply with quote  #1 

Hi All,

I live in the UK. I’m Polish and my partner is Polish, too. We have 10 months daughter who currently has a contact with Polish at home, English when we are out and we are out a lot, Spanish when we go to classes ([email protected]). 
She is going to a nursery in January so we won’t be able to do Spanish classes anymore, but she will have French instead (not sure if this will happen at the beginning, from a baby room or later). We would like her to speak also Mandarin. As we don’t speak Mandarin I would like to know how is the best to start. I understand that those early years are crucial so don’t want to wait. 
Does anyone know how many hours a week she needs to be talked to so it makes sense at all?

I don’t expect it will make her fluent Mandarin speaker, but hoping it will help her in the future. Am I correct??
 
Yvonne Tse Crepaldi
  Posted   Reply with quote  #2 
1-2hrs per day would be minimal. (perhaps 2hrs now before 1year old and less afterwards). If you can sustain a Chinese nanny or teacher from 1-3 years old, that would be great. But learning is easy. Maintenance is hard. If Chinese is not offered in school or widely spoken in the community.
 
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