Will she ever dream in Chinese?

We’ve begun a new year of Chinese lessons in our household. This year my friend and I are trying something entirely new. We’ve formed a small co-op and are team-teaching our girls Chinese.  With my background in the Chinese language, I contribute to the linguistic side of our lessons and she, the master teacher, finds new and creative ways to make our lessons “stick.”

This past week, I watched my daughter process a sentence from a story I was telling them.  “Lùlù yào yī zhǐ xiǎo gǒu” (Lulu wants a small dog), I stated.  

She looked at me quizzically, “Huh?” and held up her index finger, which is our sign for "please say it one more time.”

“Lùlù yào yī zhǐ xiǎo gǒu,” I repeated. 

She looked out of the corner of her eye thoughtfully and held up two fingers (the sign for two more repeats). 

“Lùlù yào,” I broke the sentence up into fragments. “Lulu wants,” she translated out loud.

 “yī zhǐ,” I continued.

“That means one,” she said.

“xiǎo gǒu,” I finished.

“Xiǎo is little and gǒu means dog,” she responded.

“So what did I say?” I asked again.

“Lulu wants a small dog,” she beamed.  And I did too, because she patiently analyzed the sentence, bit by bit, and--despite being confused at first--successfully completed the translation.

Later that night,  I wondered, "Will she ever dream in Chinese?" Will she, at some point, become  fluent in this language that right now feels so strange in her mouth and mind? And when will she be able to transition from translating word for word to thinking and responding automatically in Chinese?

Do I even remember when this happened for me?

I remember sitting in first year Chinese in college, hearing my teacher speak and trying desperately to make the cogs in my brain turn faster.  During the second year, my teacher spoke Chinese only during class and although I quickly began understanding what he said, I struggled in my responses, stuttering and sputtering, as I tried to first translate in my mind what I wanted to say from English to Chinese, and then repeat this phrase as imagined out loud.  At some point during the following five years, my brain made the switch and I started to respond, think, and yes, even dream in Chinese.

I know that my heart will swell with pride if and when my daughter gets to this point, but for the time being, I am thrilled that she is learning the language, even if it is bit by bit.

***The title for this post is from a book I'm currently reading by linguist Deborah Fallows, which is about her experience as an American in China, as seen through the lens of learning the Chinese language.