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View Poll Results: Naming mixed babies: Would you use both cultures? e.g. adding a Chinese middle-name

Voters
12. This poll is closed
  • Yes, because the baby should have both heritage

    10 83.33%
  • Yes, other reasons

    0 0%
  • Depends on whether I could find a name that suits

    2 16.67%
  • No

    0 0%
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Living in Oz, giving birth in HK

  1. #17
    stagsrubes is offline Registered User
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    Feb 2009
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    Canberra, Australia
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    ooooooh noooooo! I think I am back to square one again... but thanks for the warning, geomum and nicolejoy! I can't help but think just having the baby here in Canberra is the easiest... but my desire is to give birth in HK where I was born... gee, already so irrational - not even pregnant!!!

    I suppose my options now is to go private in HK or stay here in Oz. But does going private, say at Matilda, guarantee that they will respect and follow your wish?

    I have read all the threads on QMH, PWH, QE, Adventist and Matilda before posting this thread... but different people have different experience and it's very hard to gauge what is likely to happen to us! But then I already got email replies from Matilda but not QMH yet... that's saying something?!

    And carang, thanks for the info! I remember now reading somewhere on HK immi that only if you 'denounce' your Chinese nationality will they allow consular assistance from your other country. Hubby always insists that I enter HK with my Oz passport if we are going anywhere outside of HK (say Macau)... just in case my big mouth got me into trouble! But then, in hindsight, I suppose I won't be allow Oz consular help anyway if I got myself into trouble! LOL

    Last edited by stagsrubes; 07-16-2009 at 08:16 AM. Reason: grammar

  2. #18
    0ze_Kid's Avatar
    0ze_Kid is offline Registered User
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    I think you should keep at it. You have given yourself a lot of time to plan and organise. As OP said, if you prepare a birth plan and make it known I am sure that Matilda would come to the table. That said, if I was paying that much for "Hotel Matilda" they would da!@#m do what I wanted and the way I wanted.

    I grew up in Canberra and met my husband at what is now called "Canberra Hospital" (Calvary). You have no real guarantees that they are going to do what you want either when crunch time comes about!

    Heritage is an important thing in my book; and whilst I never considered myself a religious person. I strongly believe that my kids should have some of their European heritage and had a big fight on my hands to try and convince my DH to come to the table and let my DD's be christened (trying to explain it is a right of passage only gets you so far). Eventually he did and I am glad that they have that small part of their heritage with them. It also means they will have dual citizenship (but that in itself is taking years to sort out).


  3. #19
    stagsrubes is offline Registered User
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    Hi 0ze_Kid, thanks for the encouragement! How nice to know someone from Canberra! If I give birth in Canberra, I would do it in the Canberra Birth Centre (midwives run, natural birth focused)... though there is no guarantee I will get on the list! What's more, I just found out I am not eligible for those expats' insurance... (min 3mths in HK or 75% time out of Oz)... so I really have to fork out the full sum at Matilda or going public in HK (hubby not too keen to go public).

    Glad to hear that your hubby is on board with the kids having both side of the heritage... we are lucky in the religion side, both families are Christian. We bought a few books on how to bring up a bilingual child, however, even though hubby is very keen & supportive... I just don't know how much Cantonese our kids will speak (let alone write!!!) - all my cousins overseas are pretty bad in their mother's tongue... sometimes I wish we are living in HK, there is no way the kids aren't going to be at least bilingual!

    Hope you have a great weekend, and thanks again for the chat!


  4. #20
    nicolejoy's Avatar
    nicolejoy is offline Registered User
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    I think it is often easier to have bilingual kids if the primary care giver (most cases, the mother) is bilingual. I'm white, my hubby is Chinese. I only speak English to our daughter - every now and then, I'll say a phrase or two in Cantonese, but I don't really "communicate" with her in canto... Hubby gets home from work tired and now his native language is more English. It's more of a conscious effort for him to use Cantonese at home... he speaks Canto to our daughter maybe once or twice a week ;) I don't know how bilingual she will end up being... there are other people that talk to her in Chinese... Chinese friends and family... but she probably hears about 90% English and only 10% Cantonese... if I was the one who was bilingual, it'd be easier to get that to around 50-50...

    Oh and about your poll, I voted "give them a Chinese name"... it was important to us - and I really like her Chinese name. It matches her English name. Her name is Lana, and Chinese name is Si-Lan (sorry, I don't know how to type Chinese). All our Chinese friends call her Lan-Lan (orchid). Maybe for some people that's too "matchy-matchy", but I like how it fits together, but it's still somewhat different too...


  5. #21
    stagsrubes is offline Registered User
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    LOL... Si-Lan is a pretty name... Is it 'Si' as in lady-like or polite? My chinese name (well, middle name, nowadays, is Yee-Wah: Elegant + Extravagant/Chinese Origins... I can tell you I got none of the elegance...) and all the families called me 'Wah Wah' even now!!! Imagine being called Lan-Lan at the age of 80!!!

    Well, the books I read reckons the best method for a bilingual child is OPOL - One Parent One Language, and I do agreed if the primary carer's language would be the bub's first dominant language but with efforts from both parents, the languages should even out. I do still worry about the external influence though... I am only one woman (my parents still in HK, relatives in Sydney), and I don't have many Cantonese-speaking friends... so bub will have 20:1 ration of English:Cantonese.... o_0 And also, speaking Canto to my bub in public in Canberra? May be ok if the bub does not require me to yell/scream/shout!!!

    And also, I am so 'inarticulate' in Canto when I speak to mum & dad nowadays... most of the time is half Eng/half Canto... so I better brush up my lingo for the big battle of me vs the rest of the world... :)

    Have you heard of the 'family book' in some Chinese families? You know, the one that denote what character you should use for all the future male generations? Even though my parents only have 2 girls, I asked my grandpa to tell me what the character my kids should use if I was a boy... thought it is pretty funky (well, if it's a nice character) that many generations ago, our ancestors have already decided what I should name my kids!!! For example, my sis & I share the word 'Yee' (Elegance). It will be cool if it is a character (sound) that I can merge it with some traditional names on the hubby's side, like Joyce or Edward... etc.

    Have a nice weekend!

    Last edited by stagsrubes; 07-17-2009 at 10:56 AM.

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