<p>If you guys have half Asian kids or know of any, can they speak their Asian language or just English? How fluently? Just curious!</p>
<p>My brother in law is half Chinese, born and raised in US, fluent in both English and Mandarin. Lived and worked in Beijing for a year after graduating Tufts, now finishing his international MBA at Columbia. </p>
<p>My town has lots of Asians, and my experience has been that most half Asian kids are fluent in English and their Asian language.</p>
<p>I’m what is often called Hapa and my first language was Japanese. But none of my siblings ever learned it as they were born in the US. I was the only one born in Japan. Some of us Hapas are fluent in an Asian language, some of us so-so, some of us not at all able to speak or understand it, just as any bi national group has these categories. I am fluent in English and two other languages that I learned in school.</p>
<p>My nieces and nephew are half Asian. None of them speak Chinese. their mom can’t speak it either…altho she can understand some.</p>
<p>They have Italian first and last names…their teachers must do double takes on the first day of school each year. LOL</p>
<p>It also depends on how many generations “in” the parent of Asian Heritage is. For instance, there may be mixed bilingualism when the kids are the 2nd generation; one parent is an immigrant, with (likely) other extended family members whose main language is not English. Now imagine, as my best friend is, that your family has been in the US before the Gold Rush. Should you be any more likely than any other American (Italian, German, etc) whose ancestors immigrated to the US at around the same time to still be conversant in the language of your country of heritage? Many generations in the U.S., married to a non-Asian, those children are less likely to speak the Asian language of their ancestors, unless they or their parents make a concerted effort to make them learn it.</p>
<p>Wow so the answers are quite varied! I myself am half Chinese and can speak Mandarin, but I’ve rarely come across other half Asians my age (19), which is why I asked. Although I see a lot of young half Asian children now, I was pretty much the only one I knew of growing up</p>
<p>My wife was born in Japan. Her father was American and her mother Japanese. She went to American schools in Japan after the first grade and came to the U.S. for College. While she considers English her primary language because it is the language she has received most of her education in, she is still extremely fluent in conversational Japanese and speaks Japanese with a native accent.</p>
<p>I met my husband while studying chinese in China so he’s first generation, right off the boat. I think those Asians here, who acclimate to US in communities with alot of Asians, have more of a tendancy to send their kids to saturday Chinese schools, follow traditions, speak Chinese at home. My husband never had that experience here, and we live in a community with an Asian population sure, but not concentrated. There is a Chinese school but when I asked about it, I was told “this school is not for foreigners” which I know was misinformation (on sooooo many levels) but also described how welcome our little mutt children would be!!</p>
<p>I’ve had interesting comments from lots of people about “where did you get them?” 3 out of 4 don’t really look mixed or asian. My one dd is distinctly asian looking and everyone expects her to be able to speak chinese. Funny, because she is trying to learn to speak korean (not Chinese) so she can understand the korean boy bands she is obsessed with.</p>
<p>I have 2 hapa boys. I am caucasian, my husband is a 1st generation Korean here in the states. He no longer speaks Korean and our boys speak only English. The older one is 18, the younger is 10. We lived on the mainland for many years, in different states. They were the only mixed kids in their classes and in some locations there was a bit of prejudice against them. We live in Hawaii now and the majority of kids are some variety of many races. It will be interesting to see what happens when the older one heads off to college. He does not have a strong asian appearance, but does have an asian last name. Hopefully he will not have any difficulties.</p>
<p>My 1/2 Korean kids have a Korean vocabulary that is limited to common items of food and bodily functions and parts that cannot be discussed in polite company. This came about because when they were little, we would use Korean terms when we were in public and had to discuss indelicate issues :D.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I came over when I was 10 years old and speak without an accent. When I was about 20, I was at a relatives house and speaking Korean with graduate students who had recently come to US. One looked at me funny and said “why does she talk like a 60 year old grandma?” This is when I realized that my Korean was formed, both syntax and vocabulary, by my conversations with my elderly grandmother who lived with us. I generally spoke English with my parents. It was amazing to me that it was that obvious to the graduate student. It must have been strange to have this 20 year old using sentence structure, idioms, and vocabulary of an elderly woman. Also, my total vocabulary has never progressed much beyond that of a 10 year old.</p>
<p>I think that the important factor is where you were born, rather than where your parents are from. I go to a Korean church, and practically every teen/kid there have both Korean parents. And the ability for them to be able to speak Korean mostly comes down to this: Were they born in Korea, or the US? I was personally born in Korea, I speak Korean with my parents, and I’m fluent in Korean. But a lot of the pure Korean kids born in America speak English to their parents. In fact, many of them can understand Korean, they just can’t speak it. It’s really interesting, how when they converse with their parents they speak in English and their parents speak in Korean.</p>
<p>We have 3 half Vietnamese children, and none of them speaks Vietnamese. This is not surprising when you consider that the Asian parent arrived in the US at age 3 and doesn’t speak Vietnamese either.</p>
<p>I know that the “old school” approach to being bilingual in CA was to make sure the student was fluent in English and the first language was ignored. We now realize that was a mistake as in a global economy being fluent in more than one language is a definite plus! Hopefully bilingual parents will pass that gift on to their children.</p>
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<p>It may be more likely now due to greater opportunities for use of other languages (ethnic shops and restaurants locally, and international travel being much more accessible and less expensive than it used to be).</p>
<p>I know two Canadian born teens (from different families), who are half Japanese (each has a parent from Japan). Both are perfectly fluent in Japanese. A friend of mine is half Indian, born in India, but knows only English.</p>
<p>A related question: What makes a person Asian in terms of college diversity measures? or How should this be defined? I say this because I have two children who were born in S. Korea and adopted as infants. They aren’t in high school yet but it seems like they are hardly “Asian” in terms of adding diversity to a college campus. Yes, they are beautiful people with dark eyes and hair but their experiences and backgrounds are the same as their white siblings, aren’t they? Their last names do not identify them as Asian.</p>
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<p>Seems that in most cases, this is done by self-identification on the honor system (although Native Americans may have to show tribal affiliation).</p>
<p>(Don’t expect it to be of any advantage in university admissions to say that one is Asian, since Asians are ORM, not URM, at most universities.)</p>
<p>For most of the Asians we know in HI, the only ones who speak the tongue of their ethnicity either were born in native country & moved to HI/US after they had learned to speak that tongue fluently, born to parents from the native country who made a conscious effort to teach them native tongue, or learned the native tongue in school or language with others. For kids whose parents were born in the US & grandparents were born in the US (& sometimes great grandparents born in the US as well), the kids have no particular advantage in learning the native tongue and in fact may be disadvantaged because any skill they acquire is suspect because it is sometimes assumed they have relatives at home to practice with and/or were raised bilingual (which may be far from true).</p>
<p>One of our neighbors was adopted by blond-haired, blue eyed parents. He was a Korean war orphan and has a very Caucasian name. He married a ethnic Chinese woman (who was from Hong Kong) whom he met in college & they moved to HI. They have two kids, who are ethnically 1/2 Chinese, 1/2 Korean with a Caucasian surname, which causes some double-takes & confusion. The husband taught himself mandarin so he could speak with the wife’s relatives & it has come in handy for some of his business dealings as well. The mom taught the kids some mandarin & they took it in school.</p>
<p>“A related question: What makes a person Asian in terms of college diversity measures? or How should this be defined? I say this because I have two children who were born in S. Korea and adopted as infants. They aren’t in high school yet but it seems like they are hardly “Asian” in terms of adding diversity to a college campus. Yes, they are beautiful people with dark eyes and hair but their experiences and backgrounds are the same as their white siblings, aren’t they? Their last names do not identify them as Asia.”</p>
<p>Apollo, my son is also adopted from S Korea and could not be identified as such by name. He checked Asian on all of his college apps as most of the schools he applied to are small LAC who want to become more diversified. Being male helps at small LAC, too. OTOH,If he was applying to MIT or Harvard being Asian wouldn’t help.</p>
<p>As with your kids he is “hardly Asian” and doesn’t think of himself as Asian either. </p>
<p>His last name doesn’t identify him either but he interviewed at 6 of his 9 schools so it was obvious what he was. </p>
<p>I don’t know for sure if being Asian helped him but so far he is 7 for 7 and waiting to hear from the last two.</p>
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<p>There are colleges that consider Asian to be URM (rather than ORM) ???</p>