Bilingual babies

[DCJenn]

Don't forget the Anna doll that Nikolai has- even though her accent is Americanized!

Jenn

ETA- they're Language Little dolls and they come in a number of different languages- unfortunately, the only Russian one is a girl doll which was made obvious on Christmas morning. I've also found a bunch of Russian language kid cds. He likes to listen to them every once in a while.

So many of our Russian-speaking friends don't bother to make sure their kids have anything more than basic skills (understanding grandparents). I just don't get it. .

I don't get it, either. Learning multiple languages from birth is a gift, and one that is truly pretty easy to give. My dh doesn't know his native language -- his parents were so focused on surviving / adapting to their new country that they didn't even try. I begged them to teach my kids, but the only Gujarati words my kids know, they've learned from me.

[SoonerTexan]

I have a friend whose mom is Polish and she taught him Polish which they spoke at home- much to the dismay of his non-Polish speaking father.

Good for you! My father was fluent in Polish when I was born (same situation as above) and I am still mad he never taught me. He cant really speak it anymore either.

[Thirteen]

DH is 2nd generation Korean American, and his grandmother taught him to read/write the language. Even though he's been less-than-amped to speak Korean in our household (future kids), I am going to PUSH for this. I am fluent in Spanish, but had to learn in high school/college/traveling abroad in Spain. Trust me, he's gonna speak it to my kids

Good for you, for venturing out and making this possibility into a reality for your dd!

My 3 girls are bilingual German-English, and I'm an ESL teacher, so I researched this a LOT when we had our first DD 8 years ago. She was born in Germany, I did all English all the time, and the rest of her world spoke German, and she was equally good at both languages when we moved to the States when she was two and a half.

THEN her German went downhill since Daddy wasn't home much, English became her dominant language, but German was still fine when grandparents came ot visit, etc. We switched to "family speaks German when Daddy's home" and I also do lots of music, books, games, videos with the girls when I can. (My German is good.) She now goes to a German school here and is pretty much equal in both languages in 3rd grade.

The 2 and 4 year old girls are muuuuuch more comfortable in English, though they understand everything in German and speak when they need to. Kids normally speak the language of whatever country they live in to each other, it seems- many of our friends are German families and the kids speak English to each other and only German to their parents! It works out, though. The main piece of advice I read early on and find extremely important is to not mix languages within the same sentence, like "Go get your Stiefel and put them draussen." Other than that, you can just figure out a sytem that works best and kids seem to figure it out fine- I speak German in the car, for example, and we have friends who do German on weekends and English during the week.

When I studied German in college I had several classmates who had learned it as a child from Grandma and not spoken it for 15 years, but then it all came back when they started learning it again, and they had accents like Grandma's hometown and everything. So go for it, any way you can, and your kids will be able to access it when they want/need to.

Good luck!
Jennifer

[Vishenka69]

We're so guilty of mixing two languages in one sentence. There are so many concepts that are easier to describe in one language vs the other. We even slip English words when talking to our grandparents. I hope we can stick to a clean version.

[medpedspouse]

I spoke 3 languages when I started school...all at once. I remember having to be in ESL class for a while. No harm done, I think I turned out ok - how's my communicating.

[alison]

I'm honestly not looking for my dd to speak perfect German. Languages are organic, and they change all the time, IMO. Germans use English words in their sentences all the time, and so where do you draw the line when it comes to mixing?

As a child, I spoke Japanese, and whenever someone tried to correct me, I could feel myself resenting the language. As long as dd can understand German and make herself understood, that's enough for me.

[GrayMatterWife]

I just want my kids to speak ENGLISH correctly. DD doesn't really speak yet (just a word or two and lots of babbling)...but DS is five and a half and...

I have forbidden the phrase "like" in my house. From school, he has picked up the AWFUL habit of using "like" as an interjection, a conjunction, and an otherwise unnecessary insertion in his speaking.

I can't stand it. The children all say "like" about every third word. I yell at DS whenever he says "like" and make him rephrase. Poor kid. It's natural to adopt the vernacular of your peer group. But I can't bear the abuse of "like."

And don't even get me started on "you know"--another forbidden phrase. No, I do not "know"...if I KNEW what you were talking about, I wouldn't need to have the discussion with you.

My standards are LOW. My hope is merely that my kids master their native language on some level above that of Valley Girl.

[poky]

As a child, I spoke Japanese, and whenever someone tried to correct me, I could feel myself resenting the language. As long as dd can understand German and make herself understood, that's enough for me.

This is interesting. Did you learn Japanese separately, when you were slightly older, maybe? Was the correction you got any different than the typical correction of a kid who gets words wrong?

[alison]

My grandmother was my primary caregiver during the day while my mom was in grad school and my dad worked. I spoke Japanese with her, and with my parents, English. My Japanese was definitely stronger than my English until I started school.

Mostly it was other kids in school who made fun of me for speaking another language when my grandmother would pick me up from school. My grandmother's friends would also correct me and/or make fun of the dialect I spoke. Ugh! People can be really mean. Or perhaps I was too sensitive.

[poky]

OK, that's just..weird. Why would anyone, especially someone old enough to know better, make fun of a young child's accent? Especially since you presumably learned the language from their friend, your grandmother, right? Wow. It does sound like you got slightly different correction than the normal loving and/or offhand correction most kids get from most adults when they make a mistake, though, and yeah, kids are cruel to each other, and the peer teasing would have been bad, I'm sure. Sorry that made you resent the language!

[alison]

There are some pretty nutty dialects, so I sort of get it. These days, I mostly get a "oh my god, you speak THAT region's Japanese?!?!"

Sometimes I think kids were especially cruel, because it's an Asian language. They'd do the slanty eyes thing and run around saying "ching ching chong."