Why we should teach our children Chinese

Re:“中文，我們華人一生一世的護身武器”(嫵媚靈魂)

Re: 好文! 抬個杠, 就是因為長相不同嗎? 如果中國人是象俄國人那樣長相跟美加白人沒什麽不同, 還需要母語做"護身武器"嗎? 如果中國人混血後代長的很象白人又是洋姓名呢? (畢小珠)

Just read a good article, and here is my comment (a random thought):
Interesting question!
The importance of learning Chinese language for Chinese American children is partly in forming their ethnic or cultural identity.
I bet it's much easier for Russian American kids to deal with their identity issue, as their physical appearance is not that different from the majority, yet you can't say that for our kids--they have to face the two cultures they live in: the western values and the Chinese values.
Learning Chinese helps them clarify the possible confusion and an achieved identity helps them to have a positive self-esteem.

Self-esteem helps you to be strong. A clearly defined cultural identity gives us a high and positive sense of self or self-esteem and the cultural information is embedded in the language, so in that sense, Chinese language is our 護身武器.

And that’s why I should make sure my kids learn Chinese language. Well, that’s another topic (a hard one).