Jada Pinkett Smith wants her daughter to learn Chinese.

The actress’ family – husband Will, daughter Willow, 11, and son Jaden, 13 – spent four months in China and her youngest child started to pick up the local Mandarin language, and she wishes she had kept up lessons when they returned to their home in America.

Speaking of China, she said: “It’s so raw. What you see is what you get. I love that. And my daughter learned Mandarin and when we were at the Nobel peace prize we were on the stage, speaking Mandarin. So, y’know, yeah! Fantastic.

“I wish she had kept it up. She has a brain. She’s very good with languages. She picks them up like this. Her next is Spanish. She’s like her father in that way. Jaden and I on the other hand – we’re the artists.”

Despite their youth, both of the Smith children have embarked on showbiz careers, with Jaden starring in films such as ‘The Karate Kid’ and Willow scoring a worldwide hit with ‘Whip My Hair’ in 2010.

Jada is keen to encourage her children to pursue the careers they want to and she doesn’t want to hold either of them back in anyway.
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, she added: “I’m not one about trying to slow things down. What I try to do is create an atmosphere for my family where we can pretty much have whatever.

“What I try to do is create an atmosphere where my children can have whatever comes. Because that is what life is about. And I surely am not going to try to control the current. Lord knows I tried that in my own life. For me to think that I could ever do that for someone else. Boy! I’m not gonna set myself up in that way. I can barely control my own doggone current! So I’m there in great support and so that they can have whatever the higher power has to offer them.”

Jada – who is also stepmother to Will’s son Trey from his marriage to Sheree Zampino – voices a character in animated movie ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’ which is in cinemas this autumn.