To learn Chinese or not

To learn Chinese and keep Chinese culture or not is not a question of “ To Be Or Not To Be” in Hamlet by Shakespeare. Please take it easy if I say that I have no plan to ask my kids to study Chinese and keep Chinese culture. And I would love to tell you why.
1. First of all, both my kids and I are American citizens and live in America. We feel pretty good about it. I don’t feel that it is that important for my kids to know Chinese and keep Chinese culture.
2. I just feel that we’ve got to be Americanized, not Chinese mentalized if we want our kids to be more succesiful. We’ve to got to believe that American culture is much better than the Chinese one though it may be very painful and very hard to accept it as a Chinese American. Some Chinese cultures are just backwards, unhelpful and unacceptable in America. It is a reality; especially what Chinese have right now in Mainland China. It is unacceptable to me and to my kids. It’d better not let my kids know about it, especially those moralities in Mainland China. Look, my kids have grandma, uncles, aunts and cousins back in Mainland. I don’t like my kids to realize Chinese not trustful nowadays. I want them to have good image of Chinese without knowing Chinese too much.
3. I just feel that Chinese is very difficult to learn and is very time consuming to learn so that it is may be more efficient, practical and economic for my kids to learn something else with the same amount of time. For instance, it may be easy and practical to learn Spanish due to the large Spanish speaking population in America and Spanish is easy to learn.
4. When we learned English at that time twenty years ago, we learned English as a tool so that we could learn from western countries like advanced America, which was great. I don’t see the same purpose to ask my kids to learn Chinese, maybe just for a couple of jobs or clients.
5. I wish my kids be a lawyer, journalist or even politician or do whatever they like to do, not like me just to make a living by doing whatever I don’t like, though I can say that I have a very decent income and a pretty large and luxury house in very nice neighborhood and in a great metropolitan city. My kids are born in America and they are real Americans. I firmly believe that my kids can do it if Ms, Zhao XiaoLan, Ms. Mischeal Kwan, Ms, Connie Chen, Mr. Liao JiaHui, Mr. Yang ZhiYuan, Mr. Michael Chang, Mr. Powell, Ms. Rice, Mr. Gonzales can do it. My kids have every single reason to be successive as any other America born American.
6. It requires an excellent English and social skills to do what I wish my kids do. Good English and ok social skills is not good enough for my kids. For instance, my kids’ English should be as good as Bill Clinton’s, not as George W. Bush’s. America born does not necessarily mean that he/she has an excellent English just like that China born Chinese does not necessarily mean that he/she has a great Chinese. It requires time, money, energy and practice. I would love to offer my kids opportunities to expose themselves to American language and culture as much as possible, including at home, for instance, to American TVs, not CCTV.
7. I don’t feel that much discrimination against Chinese Americans nowadays as someone does. At least the discriminations are not serious as it was used to be in America or even as it is in Mainland China nowadays. Yes, there are some bias ideas to Chinese Americans in America. Some bias to Chinese Americans in America is good as well as bad. To me, it is fair enough. I really feel that no one really cares much who you are, but what you are. You will be just fine if you are really good no matter what nationality you are, black, Asian, Hispanic. It really does not matter too much what color you are in America. Remember white is only one of the colors though whites are 70% of this American pie. No big deal to me. I don’t like using being Chinese, Indian, Korean, Hispanics of minority as an excuse of his /her failure. It is pretty fair in America. You’ve got to work hard and smart with an open mind.
8. We are talking about kids’ learning Chinese and keeping Chinese culture, not us parents. We want them more successful in the future, not want them to be just like us. I don’t even hope that they will give me a penny after I am retired or old. I just don’t want to bother them though I love my kids so dearly. To me, it is good enough if my kids have great passion and love to China, and if they love and respect their Chinese friends and me. It is not a big deal at all whether they know Chinese and keep Chinese culture or not. Anyway, they are Americans, not Chinese. They have their own way to live, which I don’t think, is bad at all. They don’t need to live the way as we do.
9. I myself need to improve my English, too so that at my home we don’t speak Chinese though we have many Chinese staffs of like painting, food, clothes, etc. Believe me that I have learned a lot from my kids about American culture and English. Of course, we have so many Chinese friends as well as other friends of whites, blacks, Hispanics, Koreans, Indians. We feel pretty good about it. I do believe that is the way that my kids should be raised in America.
10. I try to explain Chinese culture and traditions to my kids as much as possible without hoping that they keep them. I try to teach them to be nice and friendly to any one, not just to Chinese as long as they are good to them. Chinese Americans may have same interests in America and they should be united together to get most of their interests. However, it does not necessarily mean that they do not have same interests sharing with other nations, especially those of Indian, Korean, and Hispanic Americans. Just let them know that any one can be good and any one can be bad. Do not treat people differently because of their skins though others might do.
11. To be Americanized as well as keep some good of Chinese traditions and understand Chinese culture. That’s our kids should be. They have every single reason to know Chinese and culture, but not burden for them to know it. They have every single reason to have great passion and love to China, but not a burden for them to do it. They should know that their roots are in China, but their roots should not be their burdens. They are Americans. America is their country. They have every single reason to know America and American culture, and they should. They have every single reason to have passion and love to America, and they should. Their skin really does not matter that much at all as long as they are truly believe that they are Americans and they are good enough. Please let kids free and soar. Believe me that they will be much better than most of us, the immigrant parents, in America because America is their country. As American new and young eagles, our kids can soar much higher than we parents can even of in this free and beautiful country, America.
Again this is just my idea to raise my kids and the ideas of whether they should learn Chinese and keep Chinese culture or not. It is nothing against those who want their kids to learn Chinese and keep Chinese culture. It is not a question of “ To Be Or Not To Be”, not even close. I have this idea based on my personal life and my expectations of my kids. You have yours. And I would love to hear yours. I believe that it is always good and helpful to listen to different ideas. Plus, I am very open and liberal though I am very conservative on certain issues. I am not that kid of people who would like to say “never”. And I never say “never”. I will certainly help and support my kids to study Chinese if they are interested later. And I will be very happy to do it. It is never too late to learn or too old to learn. I started learning English whenever I was 17. I believe that my English is pretty good, at least good enough. Timing is not a big deal at all if you are determined.
Thanks for reading my message. And Happy New Year.