Kids with Two Languages

[wtt :)]

I don't have kids yet but this is very interesting to read so keep posting please! hehe
I am planning to speak 99% German with our children and my husband English most of the time since we live in America. I really really wish DH knew Japanese better. I even studied it for a year but that is not enough to speak it fluently at all, especially to someone who is just learning the language.

 

[Amygdala]

Hi wtt!

My DH are in a similar situation. We're just trying for baby no. 1 and when he or she comes along, I will speak German to them and DH will speak English. We live in the UK but I'm hoping that with me being the primary caregiver for the first year or so at least, LO will pick up German anyway. I'm going to look into German language toddler groups and stuff as well. I think it'll be hard for me to switch back to German, as I'm used to speaking English with most people in my life and DH's German isn't good enough for every day use. But I also think growing up bilingually is such a great thing for a child so I'll just have to give my best. I'm thinking we might be able to switch the family language back to English a few years down the line, when any kids are old enough to practise their German in others ways, e.g. books, films, German friends... From what I've read and heard the key is consistency, i.e. one language for one parent or for specific situations. Can't wait to see how it'll work out for us.

 

[wtt :)]

I know one thing. It's not easy! At least according to what other people have said about it...
Can't wait to hear how you and the LO will manage. I, too, am used to speaking English most of the time. I only speak German when I get together with Germans/Austrians (which is not very often), when I'm talking to my family on the phone or we're in Europe. Other than that, it's just English for all of us here.
I will try my very best once LO is here though. German friends and schools or even groups should definitely help. Let's hope I find something like that around here!
Good luck to you and let us know how things go

 

[butrfly]

ey nice group. thanks for letting me know you have a group here.

another discussion on multi-lingual children is on at Multilingual Families and Language Development.

 

[Septie]

Just found this group thanks to another thread on BnB and will basically repeat what I've said there. We have a 9.5 (almost 10) month old. We live in the US, I speak to LO in my native German, OH in his native French, we speak in French when we are together as a family and OH and I unfortunately still communicate in English (which we are hoping to reduce). LO does not say much yet - mama and papa (not always directed) and sounds like tete, but he does understand quite a bit (where is mami, papa, dummy, up, nose, lights out etc.). I think his German is best atm, likely because I chat with LO more than OH. Love hearing about your experiences Great thread.

 

[NYCMommaxo]

Aw I love this group. My year old twins have been raised in a trilingual (is that a word? ) environment. I speak English to them, my fiance speaks Spanish with them, and her mom speaks Portuguese with her. I'm hoping they don't get confused somewhere down the line.

 

[magicvw]

lol I think they are bound to get a bit confused at the beginning, but they will sort it all out soon enough! x

 

[sanouette]

Hi

Anybody else out there who is (or will be) bringing up kiddies in a bilingual environment?

My LO is just 3 and struggling to learn English and Bulgarian (we are both UK but live in Bulgaria). It's pretty tough for her right now as her language is well behind her thoughts and it's very frustrating for her (and us). I've heard that bilingual kids often have a slow start, but it would be nice to chat to other mums (and dads) who are going through the same.

Magic x

Hi,

i don't have any kids yet but i actually had thought of it before! my partner is half arab half greek .. i am 100% arab but we speak english btween each other since our arabic dialects are totally diffrent .. when speaking(arabic) i mix french and arabic .. i am learning greek as well .. we live on greek Island don know what is proper to teach the baby if i ever have one!!

Confusing really!!!

 

[Faerie]

Just wanted to say Sofia, after saying only English words has just this last week started her first Italian word "grazie" (that's thank you) so far she only gets the "gra" out but she's getting there!
She understands hello and bye in French, Italian and English

 

[wtt :)]

Just wanted to say Sofia, after saying only English words has just this last week started her first Italian word "grazie" (that's thank you) so far she only gets the "gra" out but she's getting there!
She understands hello and bye in French, Italian and English

How cute!!

 

[curiosa]

Alice just turned one, and she's already starting to tell the difference between languages. She will say "bye bye" or "ciao ciao" depending on whether the person speaks Italian or English.
If I tell her to say 'ciao ciao' to somebody (I say this in Italian or Japanese), she will say 'bye bye' if the person speaks English - that means she knows that the word 'ciao' = 'bye' and knows which language it belongs to. Very clever!

 

[Lilly123]

Hi Ladies

Thanks Magic for directing me here!!

We are South African living in Switzerland so although her mother tongue at home is english, the daycare she starts in a month is swiss german.. then when she starts kindergarten at 4 years old she will learn high german... i also have a french background but wont burdern her with a 3rd language.. hopefully she can learn that at school but we will see.

Great thread!!

xxx

 

[Dinoslass]

They pick it up rather quickly and indeed know the difference. Rayan knows to talk dutch to me and english to his nanna online. He does sometimes mix up words though, but that will get better.

 

[Faerie]

Hi Ladies

Thanks Magic for directing me here!!

We are South African living in Switzerland so although her mother tongue at home is english, the daycare she starts in a month is swiss german.. then when she starts kindergarten at 4 years old she will learn high german... i also have a french background but wont burdern her with a 3rd language.. hopefully she can learn that at school but we will see.

Great thread!!

xxx

Oo, whereabouts are you?

 

[Natsku]

Me and my boyfriend plan on raising our kid (and any future ones) bilingual. I will speak English and my boyfriend will speak Finnish (between us we mostly speak English so I might have to start speaking Finnish to him more before the baby comes so he gets used to talking Finnish at home).

My parents tried to raise me bilingual (English and Finnish) but it seems I wasn't a very keen learner of Finnish and would always get my brother to translate for me! So I'm quite worried about failing with our kid though I'm hoping that because we're living in Finland right now there will be so much Finnish input outside the house it won't matter so much that there will be more English inside the house.

 

[wild2011]

all my kids speak english and their father's mother tongue fluently, we use albanian alot at home as i like to be able to join in especially when we go on holiday to the grandparents. they also go to a welsh school and find it so easy to speak and learn other languages, it's been a great advantage to them. x

 

[magicvw]

I haven't updated in this thread in ages! Poppy is now 4 and a bit and has recently had an operation to remove her adenoids.

We noticed last july some signs that she wasn't hearing properly. It was really subtle little things, and she could obviously hear but we began to suspect that she wasn't hearing as clearly as she should be.

When I took her to the doctor, I was completely dimissed. Everyone I spoke to told me that Poppy is behind in her language because she is growing up bilingual (we estimated at that point she was around the 2 yrs developmental stage). I stuck to my guns though and pushed for proper hearing tests.

The first tests they did were inconclusive because they required Poppy to understand and obey some instructions - she was supposed to put bricks in a box when she hear the tone being played. Poppy really didn't understand what to do, due to her language difficulties, we just couldn't explain to her.

In the end they put her under a general anaesthetic to check whether her hearing was working from the inner ear to the brain - that was all in working order thank goodness, but then they hooked her up to a computer and tested the reaction of the middle ear and the results were bad.

They recommended removal of adenoids because they swell up taking up the space where the inner ear needs room to work properly and also can cause glue ear, which she also had.

They told us it takes up to 2 months for the inflammation and excess mucus or whatever it is to clear. In the last week or so, we have see MASSIVE improvements in her speech - it's really amazing to see and I'm so happy that it's working!

Previously, Poppy could never repeat a word properly without it being repeated 4 or 5 times and would still often get the wrong consonants - now she repeats things instantly and correctly - like a tape recorder. It's such a shock to me to hear that because it never happened before! She is also chattering non-stop now and asking lots of questions about things, as though she has suddenly realized there are so many things to say and conversations to be had! I'm very positive about these results!

Anyway - I thought I'd share this story on this thread just in case any of you experience something similar. Biingual children ARE often behind in language acquisition, but we took a long time to realize that Poppy's problem was not just about the number of languages she was learning. We really had to fight the system to get where we are now. If you suspect you child can't hear properly, don't let any one fob you off and trust your instincts!

For reference, these are the things which made us doubt her hearing:

appeared to watch our lips when we spoke
often said "what?" when we spoke
nearly always got the wrong consonants when repeating new words
lack of reaction when her named was called across a room
turned her head so that her ear was next to our mouths when we spoke
very behind in language
never remarked about things like birds singing, outside noises
often seemed vacant, playing alone

These symptoms varied in severity from day to day and they are subtle. E.g. if you were having a face to face conversation with her using words you know she knows, you wouldn't suspect any problem - and that's the kind of conversation you have most of the time, which makes it hard to figure out that there's a problem!

 

[wtt :)]

Thanks magic! Hope she gets better!

 

[curiosa]

wow Magic, I remember you speaking you the hearing tests Poppy was going through and what a nightmare that was. I am so glad to hear that you managed to get her tested properly and that the operation has already helped her so much!!
It really is difficult to tell when kids have hearing difficulties. Well done for spotting it!
I remember one of my sister's friends, when she was about 3, had hearing problems and they discovered it cause, apart from having problems with speech he was becoming very violent and frustrated, with both people and object cause he couldn't understand people or be understood properly. I think that can also be a sign.

Over here Alice is almost 15 months old and she knows about 50 words or more, about half of them are English words, the other in either Italian or Japanese. she uses Japanese the least of all even though that's the languiage I use primarily when I'm with her - probably cause she's sussed I can understand all three languages and taht English gets her furthest. English also happens to have the easiest words - often shortest, with less syllables, and easier to pronounce. I am very pleased with her progress. She also understands practically everything we say, which is amazing and makes life sooo much easier!

I want to point out to anybody who is wondering whether kids get confused with multiple languages: they do NOT! It's the parents that get more confused than the kids.
Alice loves to confuse me by answering questions using 'yeah' - which sounds very similar to 'iie' (NO in Japanese!) and then leaving me wondering whether she said yes or no.
She also baffled me one day cause she kept saying 'atchoo' - which I associated with her MrSneeze toy (she had learned how to say atchoo the nght before)... instead I later realised she was pointing to the other room and saying 'atchi' ('other there' in Japanese), meaning she wanted to go to the other room.
eeek so confusing but really funny at the same time.
I am really loving this!!

 

[wtt :)]

curiosa, that is so cute! I used to study Japanese, but only for a year so forgot most of it. DH is Japanese but doesn't really speak it! I try to refresh my memory every now and then just so i don't forget everything but i don't think i'll be able to teach our kids. I will be speaking 100% German with them though as they will learn English anyway.