Joe Hoskin, 41, born in Nevada, US
Katie Hoskin, 41, born in California, US
Sydney Hoskin, 14, born in California, US
Jade Hoskin, 13, born in Tianjin, China
Kaia Hoskin, 10, born in Wuhan, China
James Hoskin, 10, born in Arizona, US
Kendyl Hoskin, 8, born in Guangzhou, China
Joe: We’ve been in China for five years. We came from Detroit with Microsoft. And then we had the opportunity to move to Shanghai with Microsoft in 2006 and we were there for three and a half years. And then we had a great opportunity to move to Beijing with National Basketball Association of China. I do Human Resources, in fact, for all these companies. I’ve done HR for fifteen years. So that’s how we got here.
Katie: I started learning Mandarin in 1985 in high school in Colorado. In 1991, we met at a language training center in Utah. We were Christian missionaries. We got assigned to an area [and I had to learn Cantonese]. Joe had already completed volunteer work in Hong Kong and was teaching Cantonese at this language center. Four years later, we met [again]in college – [coincidentally]at the same college, Brigham Young University. We hung out for a year and a half as best friends. And then we finally figured out we ought to get married. So it was four years from when we met to the time we got together.
When we found each other, we both spoke Mandarin and Cantonese and we loved China from the beginning. So it’s been a wonderful foundation for our marriage to love Chinese culture and Chinese people. I could not have children and I knew that at age 16. Prior to getting married I told Joe, “I can’t have children” and he was fabulous from the beginning. For us, since China and the US are our natural cultures, we felt that those are the two cultures that we could adopt and really give them their language and their culture.
Katie: All five of them attend Yew Chung International School. Out of all the international schools, it has the strongest Chinese foundation program, which is why we chose it. Joe and I are all about our children learning Chinese. We’ve raised them bilingually from the time that we’ve adopted them. We speak English and Chinese in the home, so we wanted school to reflect that as well.
Sydney came home one day with a form to fill out from school and asked, “I’m part Chinese, right? I must be part Chinese. Our family is part Chinese.” So we’ve had to teach our kid what nationality means, what ethnicity means, versus what passport holder you are.
Joe: All of the kids have progressed to the point where they enjoy living in China.
Katie: Our dog Roxie is adopted also. We had been resisting getting
a dog. We love dogs, but it’s different when you’re in charge of the house and the cleaning. The kids had been begging us for a dog for years, so we adopted Flick – our bird. But when it came to Roxie, I couldn’t resist her. So our big joke is we do all things abandoned in this home.
Katie: Our dog Roxie is adopted also. We had been resisting getting
a dog. We love dogs, but it’s different when you’re in charge of the house and the cleaning. The kids had been begging us for a dog for years, so we adopted Flick – our bird. But when it came to Roxie, I couldn’t resist her. So our big joke is we do all things abandoned in this home.
Katie: Sometimes they don’t get the bigger picture of what we’ve been trying to do, but they’re so obedient that they just do it. We’ve explained to them, “This is your mother country. This is your heritage. You do not want to grow up and not speak Chinese.” But the more that we’re here, the more they get it. But it’s not all roses.
Joe: China is trying to create a harmonious society. We’re trying to create a harmonious family!
Katie: I tell my kids, “You have white parents that are way passionate about China. So whether you have white parents or Chinese parents, the result is the same – you would be learning Chinese!”
They’ve openly embraced Chinese, but the older they get, it’s going to be interesting to see whether they still want to embrace that.
Joe: Because we’re in transition: we have two potential opportunities [for the future]. Helping companies grow in a Chinese environment is a very needed skill set right now. So we could be here for the next five to ten years. Or we could be heading back to the US.
Katie: For me, I want to stay, live and die here. But I do recognize that we need to do what’s right for the family. And I will always follow Joe. It’s a close second, but Joe is more important to me than China.
This article is excerpted from beijingkids September 2011 issue. View it in PDF form here or contact distribution@beijing-kids.com to find out where you can pick up your free copy.
