Four years ago today (on my hubby's birthday!), in my first year of marriage and my tenth year of teaching and my sixteenth year of studying French, with my sister-in-law's blessing, I wrote a little something about how I was trying to share the French language with my baby nephew and then posted it to my brand-new blog.
That baby nephew is now a dynamite four-year-old who called out "Tatie!" and ran up to me in the library today and gave me a hug, but who when I saw him half an hour later only glanced up from his book long enough to say, "Don't bother me please, I'm reading!"
And since starting this blog, I've transitioned from a full-time university instructor to a part-time program coordinator at a public library, and I've learned tons about literacy and working with young people.
And I now have my own bilingual baby--no, make that "bilingual toddler"--who tells me he loves me in English and in French and makes observations about the world around him with whatever words come to mind first. ("It faire du soleil! It faire du soleil in my eyes!")
Other people's blogs and profiles and listservs about languages or parenting or teaching (or all of the above) have opened my eyes to other cultures and other approaches and other classrooms (both literal and figurative); I am so grateful to these inspiring people who share their ideas, make me laugh, and make my jaw drop in amazement. Not to mention my readers, whose comments, questions, words of wisdom, and words of support remind me that writing about raising Griffin bilingually is a good use of my limited time--thank you!
Big thanks, too, to my husband, Ed, who freely admits that our toddler speaks much better French than him and who puts up with my saying, "I'll be done in ten minutes and come join you," and then finds me still hunched over the keyboard with an empty mug two hours later putting the finishing touches on a blog post, several soggy teabags making puddles on the table.
I'm proud to be an imperfect but enthusiastic non-native speaker of the language I use with my son, which ensures that I learn something every day. (Today, it was the French word for "dulcimer"--un tympanon--thanks, Patty!)
This fourth "blogiversary" also comes--amazingly!--on the day that my visits counter hit 50,000! Feels like a good number.
Joyeux anniversaire, cher Blog! Now it's time for some gateau.
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Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
profile: non-native Spanish and French with Michael's family
Meet Michael Fee and his wife Karen, both Americans, who are learning Spanish and French along with their children! Thank you very much for letting me profile your family.
Introduce us to your family-- • Parents' names, occupations, nationality
o Michael Fee -- Managing Director of Lango, a company which offers French, Spanish, and Mandarin classes for kids ages 18 months to eight years old in 17 states across the US. (For more information about local classes or if you are interested in becoming a licensee and bringing classes to your own neighborhood, visit http://www.langokids.com/.)
o Karen – Associate Development Director for Lighthouse Community Charter School
• Kids' names, ages, interests
o Mack – 10, mountain biking, soccer and travel
o Catie – 8, soccer, music, sewing and languages
o Declan – 4, soccer, t-ball and Spanish
• Where you currently live
o Oakland, California
• Anything else relevant?
o Extensive travel in Europe, Asia and Africa
o Karen and I met doing Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
• We’re both learning! I started Lango because I had a classically American language-learning experience: started late (high school), wasn’t immersed, and never lived overseas. We want better for our kids! So we’re all learning Spanish, and my daughter and I are also learning French.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
• Spanish and French. They’ve gravitated towards these, and most of all, we want them to love learning languages. At times I wish they were learning Mandarin, because I do believe it will become very relevant in the coming years, but I don’t want to push them to the point of discomfort.
Why do you want your children to know more than one language?
• So many reasons! Intellectual, cultural, practical…but most of all, we believe that borders between cultures are eroding, and to get along in this shrinking, “flattening” world, whether in business, politics or travel, we all need to take the step of reaching out and communicating in other languages, not just assuming everyone will speak ours.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the different languages? How do they feel about them?
o Extensive travel in Europe, Asia and Africa
o Karen and I met doing Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
• We’re both learning! I started Lango because I had a classically American language-learning experience: started late (high school), wasn’t immersed, and never lived overseas. We want better for our kids! So we’re all learning Spanish, and my daughter and I are also learning French.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
• Spanish and French. They’ve gravitated towards these, and most of all, we want them to love learning languages. At times I wish they were learning Mandarin, because I do believe it will become very relevant in the coming years, but I don’t want to push them to the point of discomfort.
Why do you want your children to know more than one language?
• So many reasons! Intellectual, cultural, practical…but most of all, we believe that borders between cultures are eroding, and to get along in this shrinking, “flattening” world, whether in business, politics or travel, we all need to take the step of reaching out and communicating in other languages, not just assuming everyone will speak ours.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the different languages? How do they feel about them?
• We’re getting there. My daughter has shown the greatest proclivity; she retains vocabulary well, and her accents are spot-on. We’re all becoming more comfortable with speaking only in our new languages at dinner and other uncontrived situations.
How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
• Living in California we’re exposed to Spanish all the time. My older son plays on an all-Spanish-speaking soccer team, and my younger son has a preschool teacher who’s from Mexico and speaks Spanish with him (even though it’s not an immersion school). We go to the market in Oakland’s Fruitvale District and hear nothing but Spanish when we buy our vegetables!
What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
• Lango classes, of course: learning new languages from native speakers alongside peers and engaged in dynamic, thematically-based activities.
• “Real-world” activities – incorporating new languages into our everyday life, such as dinner or chores around the house.
• Playing traditionally English games, but speaking Spanish. The kids are comfortable with the games so don’t mind experimenting with the language.
• There’s some good software out there, but we haven’t found that it holds their attention for long. Also, most of it is translation-based, which really confuses our youngest child.
How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
• Living in California we’re exposed to Spanish all the time. My older son plays on an all-Spanish-speaking soccer team, and my younger son has a preschool teacher who’s from Mexico and speaks Spanish with him (even though it’s not an immersion school). We go to the market in Oakland’s Fruitvale District and hear nothing but Spanish when we buy our vegetables!
What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
• Lango classes, of course: learning new languages from native speakers alongside peers and engaged in dynamic, thematically-based activities.
• “Real-world” activities – incorporating new languages into our everyday life, such as dinner or chores around the house.
• Playing traditionally English games, but speaking Spanish. The kids are comfortable with the games so don’t mind experimenting with the language.
• There’s some good software out there, but we haven’t found that it holds their attention for long. Also, most of it is translation-based, which really confuses our youngest child.
What challenges have you faced as you raise your children with more than one language?
• Mostly it’s not speaking it fluently ourselves! When we’re trying to get through daily life – chores, pickups and drop-offs, meals – it’s a lot easier to speak the language we are all familiar with.
Do you have any advice for us--for example, how do you encourage your children to use the other languages, or how do you cope with family members who don't speak the child's second language?
• Be patient. Don’t force it. Becoming fluent takes years, and any form of early exposure is going to move your child towards bilingualism.
• Try to expose them in a variety of formats – in a class, with family and with friends, through music and media, in everyday life. They shouldn’t see their new language as something that only happens in certain contexts.
What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
• Start early, and stick with it! There will be times your kids will push back, as with anything new or anything that takes a long time to learn. Without forcing it, just keep at it and it will take hold.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
• I love seeing all the new ways to learn languages come onto the market – but nothing replaces communication with real human beings, especially native speakers. Watching their mouths move, seeing their expressions, gauging their responses and not just pre-formulated statements – learning a language needs to be real.
Here, here! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. It sounds like your whole family is invested in learning languages together--how wonderful!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
a new bilingual baby on the way!
No, no, not me--my sister-in-law! Congratulations to Elizabeth, Steve, and Carl, who will welcome a new little person to their family in November. I can't wait to hear Griffin speak French to the little pooper, which will--I hope--motivate Carl to speak more French too.
Monday, May 17, 2010
not too late to vote for me!
More shameless self-promotion here....please reaffirm my belief that writing about raising my son bilingually is a good use of my time by voting for Bringing up Baby Bilingual in the Top 100 Language Blogs contest! Voting ends at midnight Monday (German time, so that's late afternoon for those of us in the US). Just visit this page, select "Bringing up Baby Bilingual," and click on the "vote" button at the bottom of the list.
Thanks for your support, everyone!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
English fingerplays & nursery rhymes en francais
When Griffin was an infant, I loved, loved, loved taking him to baby storytime at our library. I even allowed myself to speak English with him for that half-hour every week! (My academic background in French means I can--or at least could, as a grad student of M. Edouard Thai--trace the evolution of the language from Latin through today or explicate a poem or write a pastiche of a nouveau roman, but I sure can't do instaneous interpretation of nursery rhymes and songs from English to French while holding a squirming baby.)
But then I'd come home and want to sing and recite the songs and rhymes, yet I was determined to only speak to him in French. So I started translating--or rather, recreating--some of the rhymes into French. And I felt proud that I managed!
However, I've always wondered if my renditions would sound strange and mangled to a native speaker, and then the other day I realized I had forgotten bits and pieces now that Griffin's graduated to toddler storytime. So today I'm going to write them all down here so I don't lose them! Please let me know if anything comes across as absurd or if my French needs tweaking. And if you have your own French versions of rhymes and fingerplays in English to share--or others to request?--I'd love to hear about them!
But then I'd come home and want to sing and recite the songs and rhymes, yet I was determined to only speak to him in French. So I started translating--or rather, recreating--some of the rhymes into French. And I felt proud that I managed!
However, I've always wondered if my renditions would sound strange and mangled to a native speaker, and then the other day I realized I had forgotten bits and pieces now that Griffin's graduated to toddler storytime. So today I'm going to write them all down here so I don't lose them! Please let me know if anything comes across as absurd or if my French needs tweaking. And if you have your own French versions of rhymes and fingerplays in English to share--or others to request?--I'd love to hear about them!
Two Little Birds
Two little birds, sitting on a hill (hold index fingers in front of you)
One named Jack, the other named Jill (move tips of fingers up and down)
Fly away, Jack (make the left-hand finger fly away and hide behind your back)
Fly away, Jill (ditto with the right hand)
Come back, Jack (left-hand finger returns to the front)
Come back, Jill (ditto with the right hand)
Deux petits oiseaux
Deux petits oiseaux
Assis sur une colline
L'un s'appelle Jacques
L'autre Jacqueline
Envole-toi, Jacques
Envole-toi, Jacqueline
Reviens, Jacques
Reviens, Jacqueline
Two Little Hands and Ten Little Fingers
(to the tune of "Ten Little Indians")
Two little hands (hold two fists in front of you) and ten little fingers (open fists and wiggle fingers)
Two little hands and ten little fingers
Two little hands and ten little fingers
Count them now with me
(Hold up fingers as you count them off)
One little, two little, three little fingers
Four little, five little, six little fingers
Seven little, eight little, nine little fingers
And one more makes ten!
Deux petits mains et dix petits doigts
Deux petits mains et dix petits doigts
Deux petits mains et dix petits doigts
Deux petits mains et dix petits doigts
Comptons-les ensemble
Un petit, deux petits, trois petits doigts
Quatre petits, cinq petits, six petits doigts
Sept petits, huit petits, neuf petits doigts
Et encore un font dix!
Come-a-look-a-see
(Note--this is one I didn't grow up hearing. The librarian said that it's from the Caribbean. It's a rhyme used for indicating the different fingers and also for naming the people in your family. Imagine an island beat while you sing it!)
Come-a-look-a-see
Here's my mama (point to thumb)
Come-a-look-a-see
Here's my papa (point to index finger)
Come-a-look-a-see
My brother tall (point to middle finger)
Sister (point to ring finger)
Baby (point to pinky)
We love them all (bring five fingers together to blow a kiss)
(And the librarian always added a "cha-cha-cha" at the end!)
Come-a-look-a-see en français
Come-a-look-a-see
Voici maman
Come-a-look-a-see
Voici papa
Come-a-look-a-see
Mon cousin Carl
Tatie, tonton, je les aime tous
(This is my least successful translation. For one thing, Carl is the shortest person in our family--he shouldn't be represented by the middle finger. For another, it doesn't rhyme anywhere. And then there's that "come-a-look-a-see" that I couldn't figure out how to translate. I gave up on finding a French Caribbean creole-tinged equivalent of "come-a-look-a-see," so I need help! I decided just to leave the English in for now. After all, you can hear several languages within one conversation on many of those islands, right?)
Pattycake
Pattycake, pattycake, baker's man (clap)
Bake me a cake as fast as you can (clap)
Roll it (roll your forearms around each other)
And pat it (pat down imaginary bread dough with both hands)
And mark it with a G (pantomime writing a letter with your finger--I use G for Griffin but the default is B for baby)
And put it in the oven for Griffin and me! (tickle baby's stomach)
Pattycake en français
Pattycake, pattycake, boulanger
Faites-moi un gateau s'il vous plaît
Roulez-le
Et tapez-le
Et y écrivez un G
Et mettez-le dans le four pour moi et bébé!
(As with come-a-look-a-see, I didn't know what to do with pattycake--which comes from "Pat-a-cake"--so I just left it too. Any ideas?)
Whoops Johnny
This is another fingerplay, very very simple.
Johnny (touch pinky finger with the index finger of the opposite hand)
Johnny (touch ring finger)
Johnny (touch middle finger)
Johnny (touch index finger)
Whoops! (slide the opposite hand's index finger from the tip of the index to the tip of the thumb)
Johnny (touch thumb)
Whoops! (slide from thumb to index)
Johnny (touch middle finger)
Johnny (touch ring finger)
Johnny (touch pinky)
And that's all there is to it! Repeat multiple times for fascinated baby until you regret having two hands to play this game. Vary it by switching up the speed and the volume.
I've tried it with French names, but it never quite feels natural ("Whoops François!" "Whoops Jean-Marc!"), so now I just stick with "Griffy."
Now here's one that isn't from storytime; it's actually an honest-to-goodness French knee-bouncing rhyme that describes riding a horse to various cities in France as the horse goes faster and faster:
À Verdun
À Verdun, à Verdun (to Verdun, to Verdun)
Sur mon petit cheval brun (on my little brown horse)
Au pas, au pas (walking, walking)
Au trot, au trot (trotting, trotting)
Au galop! (galloping)
À Paris, à Paris
Sur mon petit cheval gris (my little grey horse)
Au pas, au pas
Au trot, au trot
Au galop!
Now, there's nothing wrong with the original version, but it doesn't mean a thing to a toddler in northern Colorado! So I wanted to add a few local cities while keeping the rhyme. For example, we live in Lafayette, which, fortunately, "violette" rhymes with. "Violette," that is, not "violet." "Violette" is the feminine form of the adjective which must be used only with feminine nouns. "Horse" (cheval), unfortunately, is a masculine noun. So that means that our horse is no longer a horse:
À Lafayette, à Lafayette
Sur ma girafe violette
Au pas, au pas
Au trot, au trot
Au galop!
Yep, the brown and grey French horses have turned into a purple giraffe in our house!
This rhyming challenge, plus the fun of introducing a whole menagerie of galloping animals, also leads to verses such as:
À Boulder, à Boulder/Sur mon petit poisson vert (my little green fish)
À Denver, à Denver/Sur mon petit chat brun clair (my light brown cat)
À Green Bay*, à Green Bay/Sur mon p'tit ours brun foncé (my little dark brown bear)
À NCAR**, à NCAR/Sur mon petit oiseau noir (my little black bird)
Okay, enough animal silliness! On to the cuckoo clock silliness. This is the one English nursery rhyme that totally stumps me.
Cuckoo Clock
Tick-tock, tick-tock, Griffin is a cuckoo clock (hold baby in front of you with your hands under his arms, swinging him from side to side)
Tick-tock, tick-tock, now it's one o'clock
Cuckoo! (toss baby gently in the air)
Tick-tock, tick-tock, Griffin is a cuckoo clock
Tick-tock, tick-tock, now it's two o'clock
Cuckoo! Cuckoo! (toss baby gently in the air for each "cuckoo")
Continue up through twelve cuckoos if you can hold your kid that long!
Griffin LOVES this rhyme (and it's a great upper-body workout), but I have no clue how to render it in French (and keep it rhyming and charming). Suggestions?
*No, Green Bay, Wisconsin is nowhere near us, but Griffin knows that's where his other grandparents live.
**Pronounced en-car, that's the National Center for Atmospheric Research, located on the outskirts of Boulder.
Friday, May 14, 2010
new and improved!
Well, in advertising, that's a specious claim--how can a product be both new and improved? But in the case of Multilingual Living, it truly applies. The Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network (BBFN) has been reborn as Multilingual Living.
(Does that name ring a bell? BBFN also published Multilingual Living Magazine, now defunct, in which my regular column "Tatie Teaches a Toddler" appeared for several years! By the way, you can pay a one-time subscription fee to have access to all the back issues online--what a great deal!)
Anyway, their new website has some of the old content, plus new stuff, easy on the eyes, and in a more interactive format. It's not exactly a traditional blog, but you can leave comments on the articles. They cover all sorts of questions that come up when you're raising bilingual or multilingual children. So what are you waiting for? Go read it and get inspired!
(Does that name ring a bell? BBFN also published Multilingual Living Magazine, now defunct, in which my regular column "Tatie Teaches a Toddler" appeared for several years! By the way, you can pay a one-time subscription fee to have access to all the back issues online--what a great deal!)
Anyway, their new website has some of the old content, plus new stuff, easy on the eyes, and in a more interactive format. It's not exactly a traditional blog, but you can leave comments on the articles. They cover all sorts of questions that come up when you're raising bilingual or multilingual children. So what are you waiting for? Go read it and get inspired!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
in great company
I am absurdly proud of the fact that in my 225-person high school graduating class, I received a "senior superlative." (If you're not familiar with this cultural practice, it involves one's peers voting for the student who is "best dressed," who has the "most school spirit," who is "most likely to succeed," and so forth. One guy and one girl are chosen for each category. Usually it's a popularity contest.) How ill-suited was I for this sort of competition? Well, let me now reveal that I had never even spoken to the students who won "most popular"!
Anyway, the class of 1992 voted me "most original," which still tickles me.
But as that "election" was half a lifetime ago, I'm ready to move on: the website Lexiophiles has just opened voting for their annual Top 100 Language Blogs of 2010. Bringing up Baby Bilingual was chosen in 2008, but not 2009, when I had stopped posting regularly. I would so love to be included this year, especially since my blog has become much more important to me as my son develops into an honest-t0-goodness bilingual toddler.
So take a look at the list of the nominated blogs in the category of language learning, and if you think mine stands out, please vote for Bringing up Baby Bilingual!
PS: What was your senior superlative? Or what do you wish it had been? What's the one adjective or phrase that sums up your teen years? Leave me a note in the comments!
Anyway, the class of 1992 voted me "most original," which still tickles me.
But as that "election" was half a lifetime ago, I'm ready to move on: the website Lexiophiles has just opened voting for their annual Top 100 Language Blogs of 2010. Bringing up Baby Bilingual was chosen in 2008, but not 2009, when I had stopped posting regularly. I would so love to be included this year, especially since my blog has become much more important to me as my son develops into an honest-t0-goodness bilingual toddler.
So take a look at the list of the nominated blogs in the category of language learning, and if you think mine stands out, please vote for Bringing up Baby Bilingual!
PS: What was your senior superlative? Or what do you wish it had been? What's the one adjective or phrase that sums up your teen years? Leave me a note in the comments!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
why I love my friend Kelly
Kelly has been battling cancer for over a year. She left the hospital yesterday and is in hospice care at home. Her family has asked us to respect their time together by not calling or sending emails or writing on her Facebook wall, but I wanted to say good-bye. I have sent this letter to her, but I don't know if she'll receive it in time, so that's why it's on my blog now. I'm also posting because I want other people to hear about this amazing woman. You can read more about Kelly on her co-authored blog, Notions and Threads. Please keep her and her family and friends in your thoughts.
Dear, dear Kelly,
I can't remember how or when we first met, though it must have been in the fall of 2000 through Steven and the Writing Center tutors. It just feels like we've been friends forever, as if we grew up playing together in the neighborhood park. And I bet that when Griffin and Ari meet one day, they will be fast friends too. (After all, they're already milk brothers!)
You play a big part in many of my happiest memories in Fort Collins, like initiating me into my very first Oscars party, our three-person dinner-party book club with Steven, wandering around Old Town, first talking about boys, later swapping ideas for our wedding plans. And even some of the not-so-happy, like when you and Ed and I went to see the entire cycle of Angels in America--so not a cheerful play--and couldn't stop talking about it during every intermission, at our dinner break, and afterwards.
And speaking of plays, I am still grateful for how much support you gave me when I was directing Le miracle de St. Antoine at CSU. Not only did you put up with my endless recitations of woe about how the students couldn’t memorize their lines, but you came to see it and laughed in all the right places and even threw me a party afterwards to celebrate!
And remember our joint yard sale here in Lafayette? It was like a slumber party for grown-ups--we all stayed up late throwing stickers on the stuff we didn't want anymore and talking and laughing, and it was your eye for aesthetics that allowed us to display everything so well the next day. (Also, you were the one who put her foot down to say that we really shouldn't be playing Steven's Wicked soundtrack in the background during a Saturday morning yard sale in the suburbs. And right you were!)
When you and Matt announced you were moving to Lexington, I knew I would miss you, but I also knew that we'd keep in touch, that we'd always be able to get on the phone and pick up where we left off, that we were sure to run into each other every few years in between travel, conferences, and whatnot.
We haven't seen each other since the summer of 2007, when you and Matt drove to Louisville to meet me for dinner one night while I was there grading AP exams. We sipped our non-alcoholic drinks because I was six weeks pregnant (though I hadn't told you yet) and you were trying. And we talked, talked, talked.
And then in 2008, Ari and Griffin arrived, giving us even more in common and even more to talk about! We went from sharing horror stories about teaching to swapping stories about labor, nursing, reinventing our identities as moms. I could tell right away that you were a fantastic mother. And when I confessed that I was really struggling with parenting, you made me feel better.
That's it, actually. That's exactly why you're an amazing friend. Because you always make me feel better. Every interaction I've ever had with you, I've walked away a little happier, a little more confident, with good ideas to try out, with stomach muscles aching from laughing, with the reassurance that things aren't as bad as I thought. There are very few people about whom I can say that.
But now it sounds like things are as bad as I thought, and my heart is breaking for you and Matt and Ari and your extended families and your closest friends. I want you to know that I have treasured our friendship. I so admire your strength, your warmth, your humor, your intelligence, your capacity for love, your inventiveness, your beauty--even your fashion sense! (I once asked one of my students who his composition teacher was, and he named you. "She's my friend!" I exclaimed. "She's so great," he said, "and she wears the best clothes.")
Kelly, thank you for making this often ugly world a more welcoming place through your caring and wisdom and laughter. I pledge to do more of that myself from now on in your honor. Thank you for your amazing friendship.
Much love from Sarah
Dear, dear Kelly,I can't remember how or when we first met, though it must have been in the fall of 2000 through Steven and the Writing Center tutors. It just feels like we've been friends forever, as if we grew up playing together in the neighborhood park. And I bet that when Griffin and Ari meet one day, they will be fast friends too. (After all, they're already milk brothers!)
You play a big part in many of my happiest memories in Fort Collins, like initiating me into my very first Oscars party, our three-person dinner-party book club with Steven, wandering around Old Town, first talking about boys, later swapping ideas for our wedding plans. And even some of the not-so-happy, like when you and Ed and I went to see the entire cycle of Angels in America--so not a cheerful play--and couldn't stop talking about it during every intermission, at our dinner break, and afterwards.
And speaking of plays, I am still grateful for how much support you gave me when I was directing Le miracle de St. Antoine at CSU. Not only did you put up with my endless recitations of woe about how the students couldn’t memorize their lines, but you came to see it and laughed in all the right places and even threw me a party afterwards to celebrate!
And remember our joint yard sale here in Lafayette? It was like a slumber party for grown-ups--we all stayed up late throwing stickers on the stuff we didn't want anymore and talking and laughing, and it was your eye for aesthetics that allowed us to display everything so well the next day. (Also, you were the one who put her foot down to say that we really shouldn't be playing Steven's Wicked soundtrack in the background during a Saturday morning yard sale in the suburbs. And right you were!)
When you and Matt announced you were moving to Lexington, I knew I would miss you, but I also knew that we'd keep in touch, that we'd always be able to get on the phone and pick up where we left off, that we were sure to run into each other every few years in between travel, conferences, and whatnot.
We haven't seen each other since the summer of 2007, when you and Matt drove to Louisville to meet me for dinner one night while I was there grading AP exams. We sipped our non-alcoholic drinks because I was six weeks pregnant (though I hadn't told you yet) and you were trying. And we talked, talked, talked.
And then in 2008, Ari and Griffin arrived, giving us even more in common and even more to talk about! We went from sharing horror stories about teaching to swapping stories about labor, nursing, reinventing our identities as moms. I could tell right away that you were a fantastic mother. And when I confessed that I was really struggling with parenting, you made me feel better.
That's it, actually. That's exactly why you're an amazing friend. Because you always make me feel better. Every interaction I've ever had with you, I've walked away a little happier, a little more confident, with good ideas to try out, with stomach muscles aching from laughing, with the reassurance that things aren't as bad as I thought. There are very few people about whom I can say that.
But now it sounds like things are as bad as I thought, and my heart is breaking for you and Matt and Ari and your extended families and your closest friends. I want you to know that I have treasured our friendship. I so admire your strength, your warmth, your humor, your intelligence, your capacity for love, your inventiveness, your beauty--even your fashion sense! (I once asked one of my students who his composition teacher was, and he named you. "She's my friend!" I exclaimed. "She's so great," he said, "and she wears the best clothes.")
Kelly, thank you for making this often ugly world a more welcoming place through your caring and wisdom and laughter. I pledge to do more of that myself from now on in your honor. Thank you for your amazing friendship.
Much love from Sarah
May 14, 2010: Kelly passed away this afternoon. My heart is breaking.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Fetez les mamans!
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in Griffin's life--me and my mom and my grandmother and my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law--and also our aunts, our friends, his daycare providers, and all the other mother figures in our lives. I couldn't do it without you. And Happy Mother's Day to all you mom bloggers out there too!
Friday, May 07, 2010
Grffin loves music! (Who cares about the lyrics?)
When we put Griffin down for a nap or to sleep at night, he sings and sings and sings. He sings in the car, in the bathtub, in his high chair, during diaper changes, in his toy kitchen. It delights me. And sometimes it amazes me--he'll sing songs I've never heard (they must be from daycare) or songs that I didn't think he liked or songs from CDs we haven't played in months or songs in French that I've only sung for him a handful of times.
But I realized something this morning which changes my impressions a little bit. (I still find his singing adorable, but I'm not quite as impressed with his comprehension.) We saw a picture of a ship in a French book we were reading this morning, and he immediately launched into a joyful rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
That fit perfectly within the context, of course, and I smiled indulgently at his toddler pronunciation of "merrily, merrily, merrily." As he started singing it for the third time, I realized, though, that he can't possibly be understanding everything he sings in English, much less in French, because he was actually saying, "Row, row, row your boat/Gently down the street," with no apparent concern with or amusement at the physical impossibility of this action!
But I realized something this morning which changes my impressions a little bit. (I still find his singing adorable, but I'm not quite as impressed with his comprehension.) We saw a picture of a ship in a French book we were reading this morning, and he immediately launched into a joyful rendition of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
That fit perfectly within the context, of course, and I smiled indulgently at his toddler pronunciation of "merrily, merrily, merrily." As he started singing it for the third time, I realized, though, that he can't possibly be understanding everything he sings in English, much less in French, because he was actually saying, "Row, row, row your boat/Gently down the street," with no apparent concern with or amusement at the physical impossibility of this action!
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Profile: Melissa's family with American English, Czech, and Slovak in England and Prague
Try saying this five times fast: Melissa is an American married to a Slovak with a daughter in England temporarily before moving to the Czech Republic--and they're raising her with all of the languages and cultures of the above! You can follow their adventures at her blog, Where going havo? Melissa is a proofreader and translator at a Czech law firm (currently on maternity leave), and her husand, who speaks five (!) languages, works in HR for an international company. Their daughter, Katka, a budding bilingual at age 2.5, enjoys Doctor Who and art projects. They plan on returning to their home in Prague where Katka was born. I'd like to thank Melissa for letting me profile her family on Bringing up Baby Bilingual!
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
Matúš is a native speaker of Slovak and Hungarian (his region of Slovakia has a large Hungarian minority). He spoke Hungarian less as he grew older (Hungarian nanny until he went to school; he spoke Slovak with his parents) and never learned to read and write in Hungarian, though he can still have a conversation if he concentrates. He speaks American English at a very high level of fluency – people often ask what state he is from, or assume that I am the European spouse and he is the American. He learned English as a teenager but considers it very nearly as dominant as Slovak, though he never lived in an English-speaking country until now in UK. He also speaks French and Russian at lower levels of fluency.
I am a native speaker of English and moved to Prague in 2003, learning Czech in my early twenties. I understand Slovak but do not attempt to speak it (except to annoy my husband with my Czech accent). I speak Czech fluently enough to occasionally be mistaken for a native speaker, but I have a slight accent and make way too many grammar mistakes – especially after two years away!
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible languages--some people compare them to British and American English or to different dialects of German. We understand each other but we each speak our own language to each other. Of these two languages, our daughter is currently only exposed to Slovak, but ultimately she’ll grow up in a Czech environment.
Since she was born, we each speak to her in our own native language – him Slovak, me English. Together we speak mostly English or sometimes Slovak (i.e. him Slovak, me Czech). We are consistent in sticking to one language with our daughter but between ourselves we switch back and forth or throw words from one language into the other. In a few months we will move back to Prague and our daughter will have to learn Czech, but it is similar enough to Slovak that I don’t anticipate too horrendous of problems at her age…I hope….
Since we have lived in UK since she was six months old, Katka’s exposure to Slovak is limited to Matúš on a daily basis and any friends or family who come to see us (typically a couple of times a year). We have also been visiting either Prague (Czech) or Kosice (Slovak) twice a year or so. We usually manage to visit family in America for a week or so once a year, which we will continue to when we move back to a Czech environment do (maybe for longer periods, if possible, as Katka gets older).
Why do you want your child to know more than one language?
I have always regretted that my grandfather, born to Mexican parents in south Texas, didn’t teach his children Spanish, meaning that I had to learn it in school. Not to be too melodramatic about it, I felt a little cheated of my heritage. I think I came to this conclusion in about the 7th grade when I was having to study for Spanish class and thinking, hey, I should already know this. So maybe my motives weren’t that pure. I thought it would be so wonderful to just grow up knowing another language, not having to put in the effort it takes to learn as an adult. I valued languages and other cultures and broadening one’s horizons and all, and knowing another language is useful! All sorts of pragmatic reasons for language learning and passing on in general.
But then I married a person who actually SPEAKS another language, and that changed my motivation entirely. Sure, bilingualism has its advantages from an academic or business point of view, and I definitely value those, but to me all that is a distant second to the fact that my in-laws don’t speak English. My mother-in-law can’t even say, “I don’t speak English.” I want my children to be connected to their grandparents, and even more to their cultural background. There is a whole world of books, movies, pop music, cultural references, food, holidays, history, nursery rhymes, children’s songs…that Katka would lose if we didn’t make sure she speaks her family’s language.
Sometimes people (one I remember quite clearly) ask why on EARTH would you teach your child Slovak? When in life will she use that?? Teach her Spanish! Or Chinese! I think Spanish and Chinese are great languages and I’d love for us all three to learn them one day, but to me it doesn’t matter that only 5 million people speak Slovak. That’s a whole 5 million people whose language and culture Katka can share, because she is Slovak. I would never consider not teaching her English, for the same reason – not because it is useful and widely spoken (a nice bonus), but because it is where she comes from. 5 million people or 500 million is irrelevant. I’d make sure she knew Slovak just as well even if only 5 people spoke it.
I would love to instill in our children such a love of language and culture that they continue on their own to learn even other languages. I would really love for them to be proficient enough in both native languages to be able to freely choose which country to study and live in. At the very least I would want them to be able to talk to both sides of their family! I guess we’ll see how it goes.
How well does your child understand and speak the different languages? How has her language use evolved?
Katka spoke and understood almost nothing until she was 14 or 15 months old (she babbled, but no meaningful “mama,” “dada,” etc., and she didn’t understand the simplest words I said). At that point she caught on and started using some single words. She put together her first two-word sentences at about 20 months. At 2.5 Katka understands and speaks English at a similar level to a monolingual child her age – some of her peers speak better, some worse, from what I have observed (and based on language acquisition checklists for different ages). Though understanding and obeying are sadly not quite the same thing….
With her limited exposure to Slovak, her progress has been slower. For a long time she said very few Slovak words and wouldn’t even repeat them when she heard them. In the past couple of months her Slovak vocabulary has really been picking up. It is about a quarter of the size of English, maybe, and she uses Slovak words in English sentences but doesn’t really make sentences in Slovak. She does sometimes use word order more appropriate to Slovak than English, but that might be giving her more credit than she deserves at this word-salad stage of English speaking! She understands Slovak fairly well (can follow instructions, point to an object, etc.) but not as well as English.
The bright spot is that she is quite willing to use the Slovak that she knows. She accepts it as part of life and doesn’t try to avoid speaking. She does answer back in English, but to be honest she is just as likely to answer me (or anyone else!) using Slovak words, too. It seems like she really hasn’t sorted out yet who speaks what. She doesn’t differentiate by person or context so far.
It is hard to talk about evolution over a period of the few months since she started making sentences, but I really like the recent trend of more and more Slovak comprehension and word acquisition. It’s an uphill battle, in an English environment, learning from a non-caretaker parent (he goes to work, I’m at home), but they are managing it.
How have you been able to expose your child to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
We listen to Slovak children’s music, play baby games (peekaboo, etc.), sing songs and nursery rhymes, and whatever we can think of. I participate in those type of activities, too, even though I’m officially the English Parent. We try to incorporate Slovak customs into our celebration of holidays, for instance we have two Christmases: Slovak on the 24th, and American on the 25th. We actually did that before we started a family, too. I guess I haven’t exposed Katka to American culture as separate from British culture, other than dressing up for Halloween while visiting family in America. When we’re living in a culture farther removed from America, I will need to do more.
I think the possibilities will increase as Katka gets older and better able to understand and participate, too. After all, culture isn’t just holidays, snacks and national songs; it’s attitudes, taboos, how you relate to people (do you smile at strangers?), how you treat a cold, how you drink your milk, how you behave in public, what you think is funny and what is TOTALLY NOT FUNNY. Those things are too subtle for a pre-schooler to pick up on, I think, at least in any organized way!
What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
We used about 12 – 15 signs (well, a few more, but that was how many she used back) with Katka when she was younger, and they made a dramatic difference in our observation. She was well over a year and not just wasn’t talking, she didn’t understand either of us talking even about the most common things – food, milk, toys, nothing. When she finally used her first sign (food, at 14 or 15 months), she learned new signs quickly and showed that she understood the word and the sign, in English and Slovak, both separately and together. She just really didn’t make the connection between words and their meanings until they were connected with a sign.
Matúš and I coordinated in advance which sign we would use (note that sign language between countries is different, sometimes very different – we used or adapted ASL signs for consistency’s sake) and each of us used the sign with our own language. This did seem to serve as a bridge for Katka to make the connection that mliečko and milk have the same sign and both mean that she gets some milk, so I think it helped her with learning both languages, as well as getting on the language train in general.
Skype of course is priceless. Katka talks with her grandparents every day or two, which does a fantastic job of letting her hear more language speakers than just the two of us and also of maintaining the grandparent-grandchild relationship so that we can make the most of our limited visits without too much getting-to-know-you bashfulness at the beginning.
The English town where we live for our second year in England (unfortunately not the first year) turned out to have a good-sized community of Czechs and Slovaks, especially Slovaks. I’ve met some moms on the playground and in the neighborhood playgroup--it’s been great for my social life! Not to mention my ability to string together a coherent Czech sentence after months of hearing only my husband’s Slovak.
Our local children’s center even has a Slovak playgroup (what fantastically good luck!) that meets once a month, which, unfortunately, has not been overwhelming in its usefulness. It’s a good way of meeting people, but looking around the room, the only ones speaking Slovak are the parents (or a few are Czech). The kids are running around speaking English together, so I can’t say it’s had any effect on my daughter’s Slovak language ability beyond overhearing some other adults talking. All of these families have one or both parents Slovak (or Czech), so the problem isn’t that we’re the only family with a native speaker in the home. Actually, I’m the only non-native speaker. One encouraging aspect I guess is that Katka’s Slovak ability isn’t really behind the others in relation to her age. All in all it’s a bit of fun, I get to converse with someone I’m not married to (and therefore telepathically understands what I mean to say even if I don’t get it out quite right) and we can compare notes on living in UK with people who understand us. But it doesn’t teach my girl Slovak.
What challenges have you faced as you raise your child with more than one language?
We haven’t had any too terrible challenges so far (but she’s only two! I’m sure the challenges are still coming!), mainly smallish things like how can you tell what she’s saying when she leaves out half the consonants and you don’t even know which language to be listening for. That doubles the possibilities! Fortunately people seem to take it in stride, and we haven’t noticed any nasty comments or anything. Occasionally some misconceptions, but those are more amusing than annoying at this point.
Also in our particular situation in UK, Slovak gets the short end of the stick since Katka spends all day with me, the English speaker. In the short term it would help for me to speak Czech, or even Slovak, with her to maximize her exposure, but in the long term I think it’s better to start out the way we’ll be carrying on, and we do intend to live in Prague long-term, so ultimately English will be the language that needs encouraging.
Finding a way for me to actively encourage Slovak without actually being the Slovak Parent has been kind of challenging. I am pretty good at pushing the “play” button on our favorite Slovak children’s CD, but I’d like to be a little more proactive than that! Mainly I try to give a lot of support to Matus, give him ideas to try and don’t let him get discouraged. I encourage the grandparent relationship and try to get any Slovak speakers we’re around to actually speak Slovak to Katka instead of defaulting to English.
Do you have any advice for us--for example, how do you encourage your children to use the second language, or how do you cope with family members who don't speak the child's second language?
Don’t tell the OPOL police (haha), but I actually found that Katka was more willing to try saying Slovak words if I said them. She went through a phase last year of not wanting to repeat after anyone but me, but if I said the word in Slovak she would try it, and later was willing to repeat it after Matúš as well. I’m not sure what was going on there but it really did seem to help, even though I kept it to a single-word level (not a running commentary in Slovak--less chance of corrupting it with my Czech influence that way). She’s gotten past it and is steadily picking up more and more Slovak vocabulary now. I’m not sure I’d make that a blanket recommendation for anybody, because it would be easy to lose focus and switch back and forth indiscriminately, but it works for us in small doses.
Overall I guess I find it helpful to be committed and intentional about it all, but also not to suck all the fun out. It’s important to just relax and enjoy your kids, too!
What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I think there is a lot of misinformation out there even still--bilingualism myths like you have to teach one language first, then others later, and similar widespread (but unfounded!) beliefs. I think it’s important to be consistent and patient, and not to be discouraged even when you wonder if your child will EVER speak your language properly. I worry about how informed my daughter’s future teachers will be about bilingual children and if they will treat her, or me, differently because of it. I don’t want to be in the position of being told to stop using one language or the other by a teacher or doctor or anyone, because I wouldn’t do it.
I can’t think of anything I would have done differently, but we are just at the beginning of the road. Who knows what regrets I may have in five or ten years’ time, but at the end of the day, I am sure that teaching our kids English, Slovak and Czech won’t be among them!
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
Matúš is a native speaker of Slovak and Hungarian (his region of Slovakia has a large Hungarian minority). He spoke Hungarian less as he grew older (Hungarian nanny until he went to school; he spoke Slovak with his parents) and never learned to read and write in Hungarian, though he can still have a conversation if he concentrates. He speaks American English at a very high level of fluency – people often ask what state he is from, or assume that I am the European spouse and he is the American. He learned English as a teenager but considers it very nearly as dominant as Slovak, though he never lived in an English-speaking country until now in UK. He also speaks French and Russian at lower levels of fluency.
I am a native speaker of English and moved to Prague in 2003, learning Czech in my early twenties. I understand Slovak but do not attempt to speak it (except to annoy my husband with my Czech accent). I speak Czech fluently enough to occasionally be mistaken for a native speaker, but I have a slight accent and make way too many grammar mistakes – especially after two years away!
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible languages--some people compare them to British and American English or to different dialects of German. We understand each other but we each speak our own language to each other. Of these two languages, our daughter is currently only exposed to Slovak, but ultimately she’ll grow up in a Czech environment.
Since she was born, we each speak to her in our own native language – him Slovak, me English. Together we speak mostly English or sometimes Slovak (i.e. him Slovak, me Czech). We are consistent in sticking to one language with our daughter but between ourselves we switch back and forth or throw words from one language into the other. In a few months we will move back to Prague and our daughter will have to learn Czech, but it is similar enough to Slovak that I don’t anticipate too horrendous of problems at her age…I hope….
Since we have lived in UK since she was six months old, Katka’s exposure to Slovak is limited to Matúš on a daily basis and any friends or family who come to see us (typically a couple of times a year). We have also been visiting either Prague (Czech) or Kosice (Slovak) twice a year or so. We usually manage to visit family in America for a week or so once a year, which we will continue to when we move back to a Czech environment do (maybe for longer periods, if possible, as Katka gets older).
Why do you want your child to know more than one language?
I have always regretted that my grandfather, born to Mexican parents in south Texas, didn’t teach his children Spanish, meaning that I had to learn it in school. Not to be too melodramatic about it, I felt a little cheated of my heritage. I think I came to this conclusion in about the 7th grade when I was having to study for Spanish class and thinking, hey, I should already know this. So maybe my motives weren’t that pure. I thought it would be so wonderful to just grow up knowing another language, not having to put in the effort it takes to learn as an adult. I valued languages and other cultures and broadening one’s horizons and all, and knowing another language is useful! All sorts of pragmatic reasons for language learning and passing on in general.
But then I married a person who actually SPEAKS another language, and that changed my motivation entirely. Sure, bilingualism has its advantages from an academic or business point of view, and I definitely value those, but to me all that is a distant second to the fact that my in-laws don’t speak English. My mother-in-law can’t even say, “I don’t speak English.” I want my children to be connected to their grandparents, and even more to their cultural background. There is a whole world of books, movies, pop music, cultural references, food, holidays, history, nursery rhymes, children’s songs…that Katka would lose if we didn’t make sure she speaks her family’s language.
Sometimes people (one I remember quite clearly) ask why on EARTH would you teach your child Slovak? When in life will she use that?? Teach her Spanish! Or Chinese! I think Spanish and Chinese are great languages and I’d love for us all three to learn them one day, but to me it doesn’t matter that only 5 million people speak Slovak. That’s a whole 5 million people whose language and culture Katka can share, because she is Slovak. I would never consider not teaching her English, for the same reason – not because it is useful and widely spoken (a nice bonus), but because it is where she comes from. 5 million people or 500 million is irrelevant. I’d make sure she knew Slovak just as well even if only 5 people spoke it.
I would love to instill in our children such a love of language and culture that they continue on their own to learn even other languages. I would really love for them to be proficient enough in both native languages to be able to freely choose which country to study and live in. At the very least I would want them to be able to talk to both sides of their family! I guess we’ll see how it goes.
How well does your child understand and speak the different languages? How has her language use evolved?
Katka spoke and understood almost nothing until she was 14 or 15 months old (she babbled, but no meaningful “mama,” “dada,” etc., and she didn’t understand the simplest words I said). At that point she caught on and started using some single words. She put together her first two-word sentences at about 20 months. At 2.5 Katka understands and speaks English at a similar level to a monolingual child her age – some of her peers speak better, some worse, from what I have observed (and based on language acquisition checklists for different ages). Though understanding and obeying are sadly not quite the same thing….
With her limited exposure to Slovak, her progress has been slower. For a long time she said very few Slovak words and wouldn’t even repeat them when she heard them. In the past couple of months her Slovak vocabulary has really been picking up. It is about a quarter of the size of English, maybe, and she uses Slovak words in English sentences but doesn’t really make sentences in Slovak. She does sometimes use word order more appropriate to Slovak than English, but that might be giving her more credit than she deserves at this word-salad stage of English speaking! She understands Slovak fairly well (can follow instructions, point to an object, etc.) but not as well as English.
The bright spot is that she is quite willing to use the Slovak that she knows. She accepts it as part of life and doesn’t try to avoid speaking. She does answer back in English, but to be honest she is just as likely to answer me (or anyone else!) using Slovak words, too. It seems like she really hasn’t sorted out yet who speaks what. She doesn’t differentiate by person or context so far.
It is hard to talk about evolution over a period of the few months since she started making sentences, but I really like the recent trend of more and more Slovak comprehension and word acquisition. It’s an uphill battle, in an English environment, learning from a non-caretaker parent (he goes to work, I’m at home), but they are managing it.
How have you been able to expose your child to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
We listen to Slovak children’s music, play baby games (peekaboo, etc.), sing songs and nursery rhymes, and whatever we can think of. I participate in those type of activities, too, even though I’m officially the English Parent. We try to incorporate Slovak customs into our celebration of holidays, for instance we have two Christmases: Slovak on the 24th, and American on the 25th. We actually did that before we started a family, too. I guess I haven’t exposed Katka to American culture as separate from British culture, other than dressing up for Halloween while visiting family in America. When we’re living in a culture farther removed from America, I will need to do more.
I think the possibilities will increase as Katka gets older and better able to understand and participate, too. After all, culture isn’t just holidays, snacks and national songs; it’s attitudes, taboos, how you relate to people (do you smile at strangers?), how you treat a cold, how you drink your milk, how you behave in public, what you think is funny and what is TOTALLY NOT FUNNY. Those things are too subtle for a pre-schooler to pick up on, I think, at least in any organized way!
What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
We used about 12 – 15 signs (well, a few more, but that was how many she used back) with Katka when she was younger, and they made a dramatic difference in our observation. She was well over a year and not just wasn’t talking, she didn’t understand either of us talking even about the most common things – food, milk, toys, nothing. When she finally used her first sign (food, at 14 or 15 months), she learned new signs quickly and showed that she understood the word and the sign, in English and Slovak, both separately and together. She just really didn’t make the connection between words and their meanings until they were connected with a sign.
Matúš and I coordinated in advance which sign we would use (note that sign language between countries is different, sometimes very different – we used or adapted ASL signs for consistency’s sake) and each of us used the sign with our own language. This did seem to serve as a bridge for Katka to make the connection that mliečko and milk have the same sign and both mean that she gets some milk, so I think it helped her with learning both languages, as well as getting on the language train in general.
Skype of course is priceless. Katka talks with her grandparents every day or two, which does a fantastic job of letting her hear more language speakers than just the two of us and also of maintaining the grandparent-grandchild relationship so that we can make the most of our limited visits without too much getting-to-know-you bashfulness at the beginning.
The English town where we live for our second year in England (unfortunately not the first year) turned out to have a good-sized community of Czechs and Slovaks, especially Slovaks. I’ve met some moms on the playground and in the neighborhood playgroup--it’s been great for my social life! Not to mention my ability to string together a coherent Czech sentence after months of hearing only my husband’s Slovak.
Our local children’s center even has a Slovak playgroup (what fantastically good luck!) that meets once a month, which, unfortunately, has not been overwhelming in its usefulness. It’s a good way of meeting people, but looking around the room, the only ones speaking Slovak are the parents (or a few are Czech). The kids are running around speaking English together, so I can’t say it’s had any effect on my daughter’s Slovak language ability beyond overhearing some other adults talking. All of these families have one or both parents Slovak (or Czech), so the problem isn’t that we’re the only family with a native speaker in the home. Actually, I’m the only non-native speaker. One encouraging aspect I guess is that Katka’s Slovak ability isn’t really behind the others in relation to her age. All in all it’s a bit of fun, I get to converse with someone I’m not married to (and therefore telepathically understands what I mean to say even if I don’t get it out quite right) and we can compare notes on living in UK with people who understand us. But it doesn’t teach my girl Slovak.
What challenges have you faced as you raise your child with more than one language?
We haven’t had any too terrible challenges so far (but she’s only two! I’m sure the challenges are still coming!), mainly smallish things like how can you tell what she’s saying when she leaves out half the consonants and you don’t even know which language to be listening for. That doubles the possibilities! Fortunately people seem to take it in stride, and we haven’t noticed any nasty comments or anything. Occasionally some misconceptions, but those are more amusing than annoying at this point.
Also in our particular situation in UK, Slovak gets the short end of the stick since Katka spends all day with me, the English speaker. In the short term it would help for me to speak Czech, or even Slovak, with her to maximize her exposure, but in the long term I think it’s better to start out the way we’ll be carrying on, and we do intend to live in Prague long-term, so ultimately English will be the language that needs encouraging.
Finding a way for me to actively encourage Slovak without actually being the Slovak Parent has been kind of challenging. I am pretty good at pushing the “play” button on our favorite Slovak children’s CD, but I’d like to be a little more proactive than that! Mainly I try to give a lot of support to Matus, give him ideas to try and don’t let him get discouraged. I encourage the grandparent relationship and try to get any Slovak speakers we’re around to actually speak Slovak to Katka instead of defaulting to English.
Do you have any advice for us--for example, how do you encourage your children to use the second language, or how do you cope with family members who don't speak the child's second language?
Don’t tell the OPOL police (haha), but I actually found that Katka was more willing to try saying Slovak words if I said them. She went through a phase last year of not wanting to repeat after anyone but me, but if I said the word in Slovak she would try it, and later was willing to repeat it after Matúš as well. I’m not sure what was going on there but it really did seem to help, even though I kept it to a single-word level (not a running commentary in Slovak--less chance of corrupting it with my Czech influence that way). She’s gotten past it and is steadily picking up more and more Slovak vocabulary now. I’m not sure I’d make that a blanket recommendation for anybody, because it would be easy to lose focus and switch back and forth indiscriminately, but it works for us in small doses.
Overall I guess I find it helpful to be committed and intentional about it all, but also not to suck all the fun out. It’s important to just relax and enjoy your kids, too!
What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I think there is a lot of misinformation out there even still--bilingualism myths like you have to teach one language first, then others later, and similar widespread (but unfounded!) beliefs. I think it’s important to be consistent and patient, and not to be discouraged even when you wonder if your child will EVER speak your language properly. I worry about how informed my daughter’s future teachers will be about bilingual children and if they will treat her, or me, differently because of it. I don’t want to be in the position of being told to stop using one language or the other by a teacher or doctor or anyone, because I wouldn’t do it.
I can’t think of anything I would have done differently, but we are just at the beginning of the road. Who knows what regrets I may have in five or ten years’ time, but at the end of the day, I am sure that teaching our kids English, Slovak and Czech won’t be among them!
This post is part of the April Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism.
Monday, May 03, 2010
bilingual aliens abduct celebrities for sex!
May 23 will mark the fourth anniversary of Bringing up Baby Bilingual. I would love to see my stats counter (at the bottom of the page) hit 50,000 by that day! It just feels like a strong, solid number for a birthday. This morning, I'm at 48,241 hits, and the blog gets an average of 70 or so a day. At this rate, I'll be ~250 short on my blogiversary.
In that case, I'd better start writing about politics, celebrities, alien abductions, and/or Viagra so that I'll grab more Googlers than usual! (Like the week or so after asking about for vocabulary advice for potty training Griffin in French--lots of people curious about French skivvies showed up to this blog. And were mightily disappointed.)
So, um, have you heard that the stars of Lost, on a press junket to Vegas, mysteriously disappeared somewhere in Nevada after sightings of strange bright lights in the sky, and then their spaceship was stopped in Arizona for not having proper papers proving their citizenship, but they bribed the cops to let them go by offering them a suitcase full of male performance enhancement drugs?
Oh, but this not-yet-confirmed, late-breaking news bulletin has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with bilingual families. I can't post something random like that just to inflate my readership numbers, especially with people who will show up once and never return. That's unethical! Unless....
This just in! Now, after spending time with their alien abductors, the actors are committed to teaching their children to speak Martian!
Sunday, May 02, 2010
look who else is blogging about France!
Over at Chateau des Fleurs, Frenchy (above) is hosting a linking party called "French Obsession of the Month. Anyone with a recent post about France can share their link with her readers. A thumbnail image and a short title will be displayed for people to click on. What a fun idea! Browse away and let yourself be transported....
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