Linguistic development

It shouldn't surprise us how 4-year-olds pick up language, but still I just love hearing Noah speaking Chinese. Since our arrival, he's talking more and more Chinese everyday. I would say now he's comfortable expressing himself without the help of English. What amuses me is how colloquial he sounds, his choice of particles particularly Taiwanese-sounding (such as "ah" and "la" and "oh" at the end of sentence)and how he produces long sentences sometimes using English grammar. Yes, English is still his primary language in that his grammar and lexicon are more sophisticated, and that's why his Chinese sounds so cute to me :) We were in Lungtan with my parents (Paul's in the US this week). With our Chinese-speaking friends, Noah spoke exclusively in Chinese... I know he wouldn't do it with me, so I stayed quiet and just listened to him go.

Likewise, Ben's linguistic ability is all of a sudden exploding. He cannot stop talking and commenting on things around him: everything known to him has to be labeled: big car, small smoke, blue fish, mama pour (milk), little brother's (he calls himself "didi", quite amusingly) bike... With only two or three words at a time, he can be quite bossy! He imitates everyone's speech, including Noah's. And Noah's taking on the teacherly role of teaching Ben manners. I heard them conversing yesterday, as Noah instructed Ben to say "please" and "xiexie" ("thank you"). Ben mastered "PEEEAAAS" for please, but at first no "xiexie". After 8 or 9 attempts to get him to say "xiexie"), Noah gave up in frustration: "Mama, he just won't say it!" Then, after a minute or two, Ben came running over, exclaiming: "xiexie, xiexie, xiexie!" He won't stop!

How do you not love children for their amazing ability with language?