What Do You Do If Your Child Says "I Hate Chinese"?

This is an issue we come up against every other month.

If we were living in Sg, it would never happen. I mean, when all you know is bilingualism, you take it as a given and don't question it. It's when you have a choice and realize you are doing something extra that your peers aren't, that problems arise.

I just reminded Beth that this Sat is the start of Term 2 of her Chinese classes.

She went "I Hate Chinese!"

She hates that it's 3 hours long and takes up her entire Sat afternoon. (Fair enough.)

She hates that the break is only 2 mins long. (I'm sure it's 20, but I accept her perception of the brevity of it.)

She wants to study a 2nd language but NOT Chinese. (I try to explain what 'commitment' means: not giving up on something just because you're tired/feeling slack. Got nowhere.)

I don't want to take the easy way out and let Beth go monolingual. Not until I have tried everything. It's hard that I didn't start out speaking only Chinese to her, like what language experts recommend for raising a bilingual child. By the time I heard from my ex-colleague that this was what he and his wife were doing with their son, it was too late.

Even now, I can't bring myself to speak just Chinese to J or Beth, so how do I motivate and inspire my kids to love Chinese?