Meet Jennifer, an American poet who writes Magpie Days, who with her Swiss husband R is raising their children bilingually (even multilingually, if you count their understanding of High German and incipient French studies at school). Please read on to learn about their fascinating mix of languages in Switzerland and their choice to switch from OPOL to English-only at home! Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us.
Our older son, Small Boy, age six, is currently crazy about soccer, but in the cold weather he transitions to his winter passion of hockey. Basically if he can run around outside blowing off energy, he likes it. The Boychen is three years old and mostly loves what his big brother loves. He got on proper ice skates for the first time this year and will be tagging along to hockey practice before we know it. We live in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland (a canton is pretty much like a state). Ours sons also spend a lot of time with R's parents Grossmutti (grandma) and Grossvati (grandpa), who are Swiss. R and I met in the US but as a family with children we have always lived in Switzerland.
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
R speaks Swiss-German (native), “high German” (as native as a Swiss can get, and I’ll explain a bit about Swiss German v. “high German” in a minute), English (near-native), and French (very good). I am a native English speaker and speak “high German” at a high intermediate level and understand it at a near-native level. I understand Swiss-German fairly well.
Swiss-German is a dialect of German. There are actually dozens of Swiss-German dialects in Switzerland: if you grow up in Zurich you’ll have a slightly different vocabulary and accent than if you grow up in Basel than if you grow up in Bern than if you grow up in Chur, and so on. Strictly speaking R speaks Bernese, the dialect of the region around Bern. “High German” is the German you would learn if you studied German in school, the German spoken in Germany (not that there aren’t dialects in Germany, too), the German a newspaper or novel would be published in. Swiss-German can be very different from “high German;” many Germans would tell you they can’t understand half of what Swiss people say when they speak in dialect.
A native Swiss-German child’s first language, then, is Swiss. They do not start learning “high German” (also called “written German”) until the first grade when they begin to learn to read and write in school. So in a sense “high German” is, for many Swiss, a first foreign language, which is why I say my husband’s “high German” is as native as it gets for a Swiss.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
We’re raising our boys bilingually in English and Swiss. They are exposed to a lot of “high German,” though, because that is the language I speak with Swiss people (I have reached the point where I understand Swiss but I don’t speak it) and because a lot of children’s TV programming comes to us from Germany; also, when we read to them in German, the books are in “high German.” (There are story-and song-books available in Swiss, but I leave that for my mother-in-law.)
In the German-speaking part of Switzerland the kids are required to learn French in school (and in the French-speaking part they have to learn German). My boys aren’t there yet, though, but I am all for them learning French.
Why do you want your children to know more than one language?
Well, we live in Switzerland and the boys will go to public school here, so not speaking Swiss isn’t an option. And my in-laws don’t speak English, so for the boys to have a relationship with their grandparents, uncle, and cousins, it has to happen in Swiss.
As for English, it never occurred to me not to speak to the boys in my native language. Plus I’m a poet; I operate in English. I speak German well enough that I could live my daily life in German if I had to (it would be exhausting, but I could do it), but English is the language of my heart. I love rhymes and poems and stories and have a long list of the books from my childhood I can’t wait to share with the boys. I can’t imagine not being able to share that with them. And on a purely practical level, being monolingual Swiss doesn’t get you very far in today’s world. On the practical side, having English as a native language is a huge advantage.
How well do your children understand and speak the different languages? How do they feel about them? Do they have a preference for what they speak in which contexts? How has their language use evolved as they grow?
Both boys understand Swiss and English at a native level appropriate to their ages (6 and 3) and probably understand less German than a similarly-aged kid growing up in Berlin, but I’d say they understand German just fine.
I think my older son Small Boy’s spoken Swiss is stronger than his spoken English; when he was first starting to talk I’d say he used Swiss 75% of the time even though I always only spoke to him in English. He would often address me in Swiss (he still does). I always responded to him in English, but I never pretended I didn’t understand the Swiss or refused to reply until he spoke English. That never made sense to me although I know there are families that are that serious about one-parent-one-language (OPOL) and maybe if I had done that Small Boy would be more linguistically balanced.
Probably it just would have really annoyed him, though – since I speak German in front of him all the time out in the world, he knows perfectly well I understand it. My husband once asked Small Boy – he was maybe four at the time - why he always spoke Swiss, and Small Boy said “Otherwise they don’t understand you at the grocery store.” Which is a pretty brilliant answer, actually: he figured out early that he has the best chance of getting what he wants/needs by speaking Swiss.
Swiss schools don’t introduce reading and writing until the first grade, so Small Boy doesn’t read or write German. I’m teaching him to read in English, and he’s reading at the level of the Bob Books – simple pure phonetic words.
The Boychen, age three, seems quite balanced linguistically. He switches between the two depending on context quite well – Swiss with the grandparents, for example – and the languages seem quite distinct in his mind whereas with the Small Boy I sometimes get the feeling that when he slips into Swiss when talking to me he doesn’t quite realize it at first.
What’s fascinating to me is when I listen in on the boys playing together, sometimes the game is in English and sometimes in Swiss and I haven’t figured out how the decision is made to play in which language. It seems very fluid when it’s just the two of them.
How have you been able to expose your children to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?
Swiss is covered since we live here and are surrounded by Swiss family and Small Boy goes to public Kindergarten. For the US side it’s harder. We take long vacations there when possible, and tell stories, and I buy the boys lots of books in English but it’s all very on the surface compared to the way they’re tapped in to the local culture. To take a small example, the Small Boy is a huge fan of the Swiss cyclist Fabian Cancellara but I’m not sure he knows who Lance Armstrong is.
What challenges have you faced as you raise your children with more than one language?
Because I always speak English with the boys, every time I open my mouth I out myself as a foreigner. Sometimes I’d just like to be an anonymous mom at the playground.
Do you have any advice for us?
I personally think that for a bilingual kid language preference is a part of their identity. It’s more than just language, it’s really a part of how they see themselves and their place in the world. Small Boy has always leaned towards Swiss over English. I don’t know if this is because he wants to fit in, because it was easier for him to start learning the language he heard out in the world around him, because it’s what his beloved Grossmutti speaks or what, but it’s clearly his native tongue. I try to let him have that preference – to choose that identity for himself – as much as I can without damaging his chances to learn native English. I think we need to tread carefully so that encouraging use of a language doesn’t become forcing or that it not be seen as a rejection of the child’s preferred language. So although we recently changed over to being an English-only household, I also try to be relaxed about when they slip into Swiss.
You switched to English-only at home?
From the time Small Boy was born until just a little after his fifth birthday we stuck with the one-parent-one-language approach (OPOL) and were very consistent with this. R spoke Swiss to the boys, period, and I spoke English. But after the Small Boy started Kindergarten his Swiss became increasingly dominant (and he already had a strong preference for the Swiss); he would come home from Kindergarten and it would take forever for him to switch back over to English. I’d ask and ask if he could say that in English, please.
Because at that time the Boychen was deep in his learning to talk stage it seemed that his Swiss was starting to dominate because he heard so much of it from his older brother. So R and I made the decision to switch over to English only in our family after five years of one-parent-one-language. It has definitely made a difference, especially with the Boychen – he is very balanced linguistically and switches between the two languages depending on context much more consistently than the Small Boy who still slips into full-on Swiss a lot.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
It’ll all be fine. You’ve got to trust your instincts. Like with our switching over to English-only – a lot of advocates of strict OPOL would say that was a no-no. There are a lot of books and resources and theories out there about how to do, but as with all things parenting: you know your kids best and only you know your own priorities.
Showing posts with label German. Show all posts
Showing posts with label German. Show all posts
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
free books and stories and fables and poems and rhymes, all online, in so many languages!
While researching my articles on French language activities for Multilingual Living, I realized that I could probably stop buying books for Griffin entirely--both in English and in French--beause so very many books exist online already, and some on websites that can even boast animation and/or professional narrators!
(Oh, let's be honest. I'll never stop buying books.)
Anyway, here are some sites that I've explored lately. I hope you'll enjoy them too!
Tumblebooks:
I first blogged about this program three years ago; read my original post about how it works, the few aspects I don't like about it, and how you could use it in a language classroom. Briefly, you select a picture book, chapter book, or nonfiction book in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, or Russian. (Predictably, English predominates; click on the "language learning" button at the top of the page to access the books in one of the other languages.) You watch the story unfurl onscreen, with a narrator reading aloud while the lines of text are highlighted like a karaoke storytime. You can opt to have it advance automatically or manually. Many of the picture books have activities that accompany them--matching games, quiz questions, and so forth. If your public library or school doesn't subscribe to Tumblebooks, you can access it through the Lafayette Public Library's kid's stuff page.
We Give Books:
At this charitable giving site, everytime you read a book, the publisher (Penguin Books) will donate one to the nonprofit organization of your choice. You have to sign up (for free) and the selection is fairly limited (smaller than Tumblebooks), but it's hard to argue with the idea! The books, all in English, are geared to ages ten and under and include both DK nonfiction titles (which my kids in Reading Buddies love) and familiar picture books--definitely a plus. You (or your child) do have to actually read the book yourself from pages identical to those of the printed book.
Lire et RéCréer:
This site in French has short stories, fables, poems, and nursery rhymes, both classic and contemporary. The text is presented on the screen, often with simple animation and background music, but the reader is (usually) invited to pronounce it aloud (note that music will start when the site is opened).The tales are divided by genre and also by age. It doesn't have as many "bells and whistles" as Tumblebooks, but it's all in French and the selection (and variety of genres) is a lot better!
Librivox:
Like Tumblebooks, Librivox reads books to you; unlike Tumblebooks, this program focuses on books for adults, and all of the texts are recorded by volunteers from their homes, which makes the sound quality less professional. On the other hand, this means that new texts are constantly being added. (By "new," I mean "previously unrecorded." The books are limited to those in the public domain, which means nothing from the past few decades.) Librivox offers texts in just about any language you can think of, limited only by the languages that their volunteer readers around the world speak, from Catalan to Korean to Latvian to Old English to Tagalog to Urdu (click here and select a language from the drop-down menu to see what books are available in the languages of your choice). Among their choices in French, I haven't found anything appropriate for Griffin or Carl--even the fables by Jean de la Fontaine would go over their heads, at least without illustrations, and no way would I give a preschooler the original versions of Charles Perrault's fairy tales! In English, though, they have stories by Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, Aesop, and Mother Goose, plus The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and with 10,000+ texts in English, many more are bound to be appropriate for kids).
Reading A-Z:
I found this one almost four years ago, before I started working as a reading enrichment program coordinator at the library; I'll be exploring it more thoroughly now to steal (er, adapt) some of their ideas for my Reading Buddies. As I stated in my original post, you must purchase a subscription ($85/year for one classroom) to access all of their materials, but they also offer a generous number of free samples. You print out the black-line books and staple them together (then the kids can color them themselves). As the site is designed for teachers of English, the vast majority of their books are in English, but they also have a selection in French and in Spanish (both translations of their original books in English). The subheading on the home page of this site claims "Everything You Need to Teach Reading," and I pretty much believe them--everything from phonics to poetry to readers' theatre to worksheets to lesson plans to assessments is here.
Enchanted Learning:
Like Reading A-Z, this subscription-based site markets itself to teachers with printable books and worksheets. Its offerings are much more limited when it comes to books, but the site provides more printable activities, games, and worksheets. You can also access all of their materials without subscribing ($20/year) if you're willing to look at ads and not have the prettiest versions of the pages when you print them. While Reading A-Z seems very educational, the Enchanted Learning stuff strikes me as more fun. Check out their materials, including short printable books, about Africa and Kwanzaa, in American Sign Language, about Canada, about China and the Chinese New Year, in Spanish and about Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos, in French, in Swedish, in Dutch, in German, in Hebrew and about Hanukkah, in Italian, about Japan and Japanese crafts, in Portuguese, in Russian, and about geography in general. Enchanted Learning's materials in English are divided into categories on the home page.
So now it's your turn! What do you think about sites like these? Do you prefer the interactive ones or the simpler text-based sites? Which are your favorites (and least favorites) (and why)? What others do you recommend?
Note: Do check out the comments, where readers have recommended many more worthy sites in the pasttwo three years!
(Oh, let's be honest. I'll never stop buying books.)
Anyway, here are some sites that I've explored lately. I hope you'll enjoy them too!
 |
| free online children's books--because you can't always find an older cousin to read to you |
Tumblebooks:
I first blogged about this program three years ago; read my original post about how it works, the few aspects I don't like about it, and how you could use it in a language classroom. Briefly, you select a picture book, chapter book, or nonfiction book in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, or Russian. (Predictably, English predominates; click on the "language learning" button at the top of the page to access the books in one of the other languages.) You watch the story unfurl onscreen, with a narrator reading aloud while the lines of text are highlighted like a karaoke storytime. You can opt to have it advance automatically or manually. Many of the picture books have activities that accompany them--matching games, quiz questions, and so forth. If your public library or school doesn't subscribe to Tumblebooks, you can access it through the Lafayette Public Library's kid's stuff page.
We Give Books:
At this charitable giving site, everytime you read a book, the publisher (Penguin Books) will donate one to the nonprofit organization of your choice. You have to sign up (for free) and the selection is fairly limited (smaller than Tumblebooks), but it's hard to argue with the idea! The books, all in English, are geared to ages ten and under and include both DK nonfiction titles (which my kids in Reading Buddies love) and familiar picture books--definitely a plus. You (or your child) do have to actually read the book yourself from pages identical to those of the printed book.
Lire et RéCréer:
This site in French has short stories, fables, poems, and nursery rhymes, both classic and contemporary. The text is presented on the screen, often with simple animation and background music, but the reader is (usually) invited to pronounce it aloud (note that music will start when the site is opened).The tales are divided by genre and also by age. It doesn't have as many "bells and whistles" as Tumblebooks, but it's all in French and the selection (and variety of genres) is a lot better!
Librivox:
Like Tumblebooks, Librivox reads books to you; unlike Tumblebooks, this program focuses on books for adults, and all of the texts are recorded by volunteers from their homes, which makes the sound quality less professional. On the other hand, this means that new texts are constantly being added. (By "new," I mean "previously unrecorded." The books are limited to those in the public domain, which means nothing from the past few decades.) Librivox offers texts in just about any language you can think of, limited only by the languages that their volunteer readers around the world speak, from Catalan to Korean to Latvian to Old English to Tagalog to Urdu (click here and select a language from the drop-down menu to see what books are available in the languages of your choice). Among their choices in French, I haven't found anything appropriate for Griffin or Carl--even the fables by Jean de la Fontaine would go over their heads, at least without illustrations, and no way would I give a preschooler the original versions of Charles Perrault's fairy tales! In English, though, they have stories by Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, Aesop, and Mother Goose, plus The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (and with 10,000+ texts in English, many more are bound to be appropriate for kids).
Reading A-Z:
I found this one almost four years ago, before I started working as a reading enrichment program coordinator at the library; I'll be exploring it more thoroughly now to steal (er, adapt) some of their ideas for my Reading Buddies. As I stated in my original post, you must purchase a subscription ($85/year for one classroom) to access all of their materials, but they also offer a generous number of free samples. You print out the black-line books and staple them together (then the kids can color them themselves). As the site is designed for teachers of English, the vast majority of their books are in English, but they also have a selection in French and in Spanish (both translations of their original books in English). The subheading on the home page of this site claims "Everything You Need to Teach Reading," and I pretty much believe them--everything from phonics to poetry to readers' theatre to worksheets to lesson plans to assessments is here.
Enchanted Learning:
Like Reading A-Z, this subscription-based site markets itself to teachers with printable books and worksheets. Its offerings are much more limited when it comes to books, but the site provides more printable activities, games, and worksheets. You can also access all of their materials without subscribing ($20/year) if you're willing to look at ads and not have the prettiest versions of the pages when you print them. While Reading A-Z seems very educational, the Enchanted Learning stuff strikes me as more fun. Check out their materials, including short printable books, about Africa and Kwanzaa, in American Sign Language, about Canada, about China and the Chinese New Year, in Spanish and about Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos, in French, in Swedish, in Dutch, in German, in Hebrew and about Hanukkah, in Italian, about Japan and Japanese crafts, in Portuguese, in Russian, and about geography in general. Enchanted Learning's materials in English are divided into categories on the home page.
So now it's your turn! What do you think about sites like these? Do you prefer the interactive ones or the simpler text-based sites? Which are your favorites (and least favorites) (and why)? What others do you recommend?
Note: Do check out the comments, where readers have recommended many more worthy sites in the past
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
profile: smashedpea's kids growing up with German and English in Canada, part 2!
Almost four years ago, Smashedpea, a mom from Germany, introduced us to her Canadian husband and their little girl. Today we're going to revisit their original profile now that their daughter is in school (and about to start a French immersion school!) and their family has been joined by a little boy. Thank you very much for answering my questions once again, Smashedpea! Visit her over at her blog, Intrepidly Bilingual, to hear more about her little "punks."
We are a family of 4, living in an English-speaking part of Canada. My husband is Canadian and I moved here from Germany. We have two kids – S, our daughter who just turned 5, and O, our son who will turn 3 in July.
S loves books and letters and likes us to spell things for her, anything she can’t yet spell all by herself, so she can write it down. She currently wants to be an English teacher, probably entirely due to the fact that she loves her English JK (Junior Kindergarten, optional for 4 year olds) teacher. O tries to keep up with his big sister as best as he can and often has to be her student when she wants to play JK. Otherwise his main interests are trucks, diggers, cars, construction sites, planes, climbing on things, and trying to destroy whatever he gets his grubby little hands on.
What languages are spoken by the adults in your household and at what level of proficiency?
My husband’s only language is English, though he has picked up a bit of German over the years and has just finished his first ever German course. Occasionally, he tries to dazzle the kids with German – frequently resulting in hysterical laughter from O and confusion and/or corrections from S.
German is my native language, but these days I feel more at home in English. My German is still fluent, but a bit rusty in that I can’t always think of the right word, am not always sure of all grammatical rules, have no clue about the buzzwords, etc. I have been using English most of the time for a while now, and it shows.
Other languages I studied have mainly fallen by the wayside, though I can still understand basic French.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
Mainly English and German, through a somewhat relaxed version of OPOL (one parent one language), and we are about to add more French.
While we don’t worry about the kids’ English at all, things are a bit different with German, given that I provide their only regular input and also work full-time outside the house. Although I speak German with them as much as possible wherever we go, they are really only getting a few hours each day before and after work/school/daycare and usually more on weekends – but that depends on what we’re doing.
We incorporate German into our daily lives, so that speaking German is just something that they do, rather than a chore. We are raising them to be bilingual, biliterate and bicultural, and want them to consider German as a normal and relevant part of their lives, so that it isn’t just this weird language I speak with them.
Additionally, we are beginning to add more French. Both kids are already learning some in daycare which switches to French in the afternoons, and this fall our eldest will start French immersion SK (Senior Kindergarten, optional for 5 year-olds), with the little one likely to follow in a couple of years. We are not jumping into French as enthusiastically as we did into German, but if the kids take to it we will probably end up supporting it at home to some extent as well.
Why do you want your children to know more than one language?
German is my first language and I and simply couldn’t imagine my kids not being able to speak it. My husband is very supportive of the kids’ budding bilingualism and wants them to learn German so they can talk to that side of our family, but would otherwise prefer French as their other language (which is the main reason why we’ve registered S for the immersion programme I mentioned above). But it’s really important for both of us that the kids can interact with our German friends and family and that a lack of understanding doesn’t get in the way of having good relationships with them.
That bilingualism gives them other benefits is a nice thing of course, too, but not the reason why we got into it. In keeping going it probably plays more of a role for my husband, but that makes sense as he wouldn’t have much of a connection to German on his own.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the different languages? How do they feel about them? Do they have a preference for what they speak in which contexts? How has their language use evolved as they grow?
English:
Both have age-appropriate skills in all language skills as this is their strongest language, for sure.
French:
This is their weakest language, but they understand simple instructions, can say a few words and phrases, and sing some songs. For S that will change as she starts with French immersion this September.
German:
Both understand it very well, but have to make a bit of an effort when they speak it. They make more mistakes in German than in English, have a comparatively smaller vocabulary, and can’t express themselves as well or as easily as they can in English. O, for example, has only recently begun to separate German from English and come out with complete German sentences of his own, whereas S can talk your ear off in German almost as well as in English these days and is not afraid to make mistakes or ask for words she doesn’t know.
Things certainly have changed a lot for both kids over time, especially so for S, who just turned 5. Until about a year ago, she pretty much refused to speak German, even though she understood everything that was said to her. Her English was ahead of that of other kids her age, but she barely managed a simple “Ja” [yes] or “Nein” [no] in German, and had no interest in speaking it at all. Not even when we went to Germany and spent a lot of time with her then still monolingual cousins – because she understood everything they said to her, she could keep up in their games and that kind of thing, and never saw the need to even consider speaking German.
At that point, I hadn’t really done anything to encourage her to speak it either as I had always just assumed, rather naively, she’d be speaking German because I was speaking it to her. When that didn’t happen, I began encouraging her, and slowly we turned things around. When she first started out speaking German, she did so very haltingly, with an English accent, and lots of word-finding problems (even though she’d have understood the words she was looking for had I said them to her). Slowly and with some set-backs she came around and started to realize that speaking German was getting easier as she used it more. She lost her accent very quickly, doesn’t nearly have as many word-finding problems anymore and has become as talkative in German as she is in English.
She has become so used to speaking German with me that she does it even in situations when I’d be okay with her speaking English (e.g., when I pick her up from a play date with an English-speaking kid and we say our goodbyes to the kid and her parents), and frequently reminds me to speak German myself under such circumstances. Occasionally she still gets frustrated with speaking German because she can’t express herself as easily as she can in English, but she is learning to cope with that. She often sings German songs without anyone prompting her; picks German books for bedtime stories; belts out German songs for her relatives, regardless of whether they understand German; has taught some German words to one of the daycare workers, her cousins and her best friend; and has recently asked to have a play date with a little German boy we know. She has come a very long way!
Her German is by no means perfect, but she can carry on conversations quite easily. The main problems are that she confuses the three articles; doesn’t always conjugate irregular verbs correctly (she still has the same problem in English); sometimes uses the wrong word; has a smaller vocabulary; and often uses the English sentence structure. Some of this might be age-appropriate, so I don’t worry about it and I definitely don’t correct her constantly. But it is quite noticeable when she speaks, and she is certainly aware that her German is not quite as strong as her English. She is also interested in improving it, and sometimes asks how to say something or if she’s used a word correctly, etc.
When she speaks German, she code-switches quite frequently, all the while keeping German grammar for the English bits as best as she can (e.g., adding a German verb ending to an English verb). Similarly to the other issues I mentioned above, this doesn’t necessarily worry or bother me, although I do correct it when I catch it as I don’t want her to get used to speaking a mix all the time, especially when I know she could say it all in German. I have also noticed that when I let this slide for any amount of time, she takes more and more liberties with it and pretty quickly starts making sentences that are more English than German. Interestingly though, she rarely inserts German words or parts thereof into her English.
She is very good at knowing with whom to speak what language and never uses the ‘wrong’ language. At least not with adults, although her default with other bilingual kids is English, and she will only speak German as long as the other kid doesn’t switch into English and I remind her occasionally.
She can switch back and forth between English and German effortlessly, and has to do this all the time when we’re together as a family so that she can talk to both me and my husband. She is very good at translating and has no problem answering my questions in German and then turning around and telling my husband something in English or translating what we just talked about.
Her preference, however, is quite clearly English. She speaks to herself in English and has never made comments about it being difficult (which occasionally still happens with German). At times, she has been quite self-conscious about speaking German, but these days she is quite proud of it. I’m really excited about how well she’s able to communicate in the language, and can’t wait to see what happens as her little brother picks up speed in his language development and the two can maybe interact in German a bit more.
As for the little one, he is lot easier going than his sister and has never refused to speak German altogether. He doesn’t seem to have a preference and hasn’t ever (yet?) complained that German is harder, but as I mentioned earlier, his verbal skills in English are much stronger than in German. He can now produce complete sentences in German and is definitely making more of an effort to keep his languages apart. But he still mixes a lot, and in both languages (unlike S). For him, it’s mainly because he doesn’t know all words in both languages, but at times also because he has a number of words that he knows in both languages yet strongly prefers in one.
For example, he picks “Nachtisch” over “dessert” every single time. But he also knows enough to turn his request for “Can I have Nachtisch, bitte?” into “Can I please have dessert?” when the original gets him confused looks, for example from his English-speaking grandmother. His enthusiasm for the German word “Bagger” [digger] on the other hand seems to be so contagious that a number of other little kids have picked it up from him - ensuring his continued use of the German word, even though he full well knows the English one.
He has also begun to develop some understanding of what language works with whom. For example, he notices and reacts when someone who normally speaks English with him all of a sudden speaks German, which he never does when S or I switch languages as he’s so used to hearing us speak both, depending on where we are and who else is around.
They are both doing quite well in German, but I wish they spoke it to each other. I’m trying to get S into the habit of speaking German to him when it’s only the three of us (and maybe other German-speakers), but she usually doesn’t. She seems to be quit strict about picking her language based on the person she is speaking with rather than choosing by context, and to her, their language is English. As he is getting better at keeping his languages apart, I might start asking him to speak German with her and we’ll see if that makes a difference. He does use more German when she speaks it with him, so I’m curious to see how this will play out in the future.
How have you been able to expose your children to the culture where the different languages are spoken?
We’ve been to Germany once with both kids, and hope to go back next year. O was too young to really remember anything, but S remembers enough to know that we were there and often asks to go back. As they get older, I think this will become a much more meaningful way to help them along and it’s definitely something we’re planning on doing.
My mother comes to visit us regularly (if only once a year) and keeps us well stocked with German books, DVDs, CDs, board games, and treats. There are regular phone calls to and from Germany as well, but I shamefully admit that we haven’t skyped yet – we are on the verge though since we recently upgraded our ancient computer to something that can handle it.
S is now also old enough to talk about the differences between Germany and Canada. She has become fascinated with some things, e.g., that her German cousins go to bed when she has lunch; that Santa comes the evening of the 24th and not the morning of the 25th; that Germans love their bakeries and eat cake in the afternoon before dinner and not after dinner the way her Canadian relatives do; that her German cousins are learning English in school; and that Germans don’t necessarily eat the same foods we’re eating. She seems to be quite interested in this sort of thing and soaks it up, often re-visiting those topics days or even months after we’ve initially talked about it.
We also take the kids on outings we organize or to events we come across locally, either with other German-speakers we know or by ourselves. It’s not the same as going to a country in which the language is spoken, but it’s still important to us. We want our kids to know German traditions as much as they know the ones that are native to Canada, so we make an effort.
To help the kids with this and hopefully have some fun along the way, Nikolaus comes to our house every year; we have been to a “Laternenumzug” [lantern parade]; I made the traditional “Zuckertüte” [literally, sugar cone, but really a cone filled with treats and little things useful for a kid starting school] when S started JK last year; and the German Easter bunny usually makes an extra trip to all the little German-speakers in town when we get together with one of our playgroups. While O has a lot of fun with these things, they make more of an impression on S, who is often prompted to talk about her friends missing out on the excitement. We’ve also been to a German Christmas Market; the Christmas Party of the German Saturday School; we bake German Christmas cookies and cakes; sing German songs; etc.
To the extent that these things happen in a group setting, the kids don’t just get to know some of the German traditions, foods and whatnot, they also get the benefit of being exposed to more subtle cultural aspects or things they wouldn’t necessarily get from me. For example, they will hear different German accents and experience different kinds of foods; play with kids who have lived and gone to school in Germany; see other people interact with their kids in ways that can be quite different from what they see in their Canadian counterparts, all in German; and hear more people around them speak German. I think these types of things make using German more meaningful for them, and I’m hoping that it gives them the feeling of belonging to a group, so that speaking German, eating German foods, and in some way being German does not make them feel alone or that they stand out.
What resources and activities have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
Mainly, we make an effort to let the kids hear and use German in many different contexts, so that they see it as a normal part of their lives. What we find most useful is anything that provides lots of opportunity for interaction in German (e.g., talking with me about what goes on in their lives; joking around with me; playing board games; reading books together; phoning their largely monolingual Oma; etc.), any event or activity that involves German and is fun (e.g., hiking trips with the German playgroup, play dates with other German-speaking kids), and anything that exposes them to elements of German culture and traditions, especially if it involves kid-friendly fun.
Additionally, we play vocabulary games we make up on the fly when the kids are in the mood; play with our German learning computer they both love; use a German babysitter whenever possible; have little secrets about which we can only talk in German; and occasionally we watch German DVDs or visit German websites.
Some of the above we do more than others, some encourage verbal skills and others are fun more than anything – but anything that incorporates German into their normal lives works to keep them talking and see it’s usefulness. Additionally, they get exposed to different cultural aspects, some of which they might not get otherwise because we live here and not there.
For example, watching a German DVD of “Die Seite mis der Maus” may not do much for their language skills, but it teaches them about how things are in Germany. So, now they know that garbage trucks there are orange and not blue (probably not something I would have ever told them about), and they have learned a few things that can help them relate to their cousins there a little more. Similarly, playing soccer with “Sandmann” on-line becomes fodder for conversations about their Oma’s (and everyone else’s) obsession with soccer and about their cousins going to bed when “Sandmann” visits German children at night with his special sleep-inducing sand. Similarly, I often translate their favourite English songs on the fly – not always with the most elegant or accurate results, but always with a lot of fun. Some of them we’ve done so often that we now have our own versions of “Baa baa Schwarzes Schaf” [Baa Baa Black Sheep], “Leuchte, leuchte kleiner Stern” [Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star] that the kids can sing themselves.
S sometimes also likes to talk about mistakes she tends to make a lot. This is maybe not for every kid, but our little Ms. Perfectionist can get quite into this in an effort of trying to get something right. Explaining and practicing something specific with her, on her request, has lead to improvements in her use of German in the past. And it usually comes with an aha-moment on her part, when you can just tell that she’s gotten it and she knows she has, which probably motivates her to keep going, too.
We often also just talk about how cool it is to be bilingual – so she is now quite excited about the possibility of going to Germany again, to go to the playground there and hang out with the German kids. She sometimes also feels sorry for my husband because he doesn’t really speak German, so he won’t be able to just go to the corner store and buy himself a little treat the way she might get to do next time we go. She is also interested in talking about other bilingual people we know and what kinds of languages they speak – which is how she has learned the vocabulary for a number of languages and countries, and, maybe equally important, learns to see bi- or multilingualism as normal and expected.
Finding things that are not so useful for us are a bit harder, though to some extent, I would list playgroups and the German Saturday School that S has been attending for the last year in JK.
I think playgroups have a lot of potential, but we never really knew the right kind of people to do this with. We currently are part of two groups and the kids do get some benefits from both, which is why we haven’t given up on them, but I guess I was just hoping for more. I wanted regular get-togethers with a bunch of little German-speaking kids running around having fun, little friends for the kids for play dates and that sort of thing, but it’s never really worked out to have much happen on a regular basis. Maybe my expectations were unrealistic, but for us it works out better to organize activities in smaller groups, with just the people we’ve become friends with.
Regarding the German Saturday School, it turned out that S’s German was too advanced by the time she started there last September. I guess that’s a good problem to have, but I was just hoping she’d learn new things there and be exposed to more German speakers. However, as most JK kids didn’t actually speak any German when they started out, the teacher had to speak mainly English. S loved it for the first few months and her teacher did speak German with the few kids who could understand, but aside from hearing German from her teacher it’s hard to say whether she learned anything more than she would have had she stayed home.
What challenges have you faced as you raise your children with more than one language?
I think most of all I underestimated the amount of work that goes into trying to do something like this, given that our circumstances are not exactly ideal. The biggest challenge probably is exposing the kids to German in the first place. I work full-time, so at best they are getting a few hours/day. I’d love for them to have a bunch of little German-speakers in their lives, for example, for regular play dates and outings. And I’d love for them to speak German to each other, all to increase their exposure – and so far we have a little of that, just not enough.
Also, as they are getting older and their German becomes more advanced, we’re beginning to have a bit of a problem with my husband, the last remaining mainly monolingual member of our family, feeling left out. Early on, when S refused to speak German and understood everything but only spoke English, he was fine as he understood enough from context or her answers. Now, it’s quite different. She has lengthy conversations with me all in German, conversations he can’t understand anymore. We translate and that kind of thing, but it’s not the same as all of us talking to each other in a language we all understand.
Another issue is well-meaning German family members and friends who think they should try to speak to the kids in English to make it easier for them. I have explained many times that the kids need the German more than they need the English, but with some people it’s not sinking in. Then there are others who want to give us gifts, but don’t like to give German books/CDs/DVDs because they don’t like the fact that then my husband can’t use them with the kids, that kind of thing. We have a few Canadian relatives who are not all that much in favour of the kids learning German, but they are not as much of a challenge as they usually get told off by other relatives who think of the kids’ bilingualism much more positively.
And lastly, we haven’t really been able to go to Germany as much since we had kids as we used to before. Outrageous daycare costs and a general lack of vacation time get in the way of much international travel these days, something that should become less of an issue over time. I just think that travelling to Germany would help along the kids’ German, and motivation to keep going, a lot. Maybe more so than anything we can do from here.
Do you have any advice for us?
Oh, I’m not sure I’m in a position to give advice to anyone, but I think what got us to where we are now are:
- Persevering; speaking the minority language even when/if the kids don’t answer back in it.
- Making it fun through anything we can think off that engages our kids.
- “Knowledge is power” - reading up on childhood bilingualism really helped us fine-tune what we were doing and has turned S from a passive bilingual to the chatterbox she now is. At the same time, occasionally the information has also helped address the concerns of the naysayers we all run into now and again.
- Taking cues from our kids as to what’s working and what’s not.
- Exposing them to as much minority language (and culture) as possible using many different activities and resources.
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 wish I’d have known more about early bilingualism when we first got going. It sounds incredibly naïve now, but back then I assumed bilingualism would just happen through some sort of osmosis, i.e., S and (then O) would be speaking German to me simply because that’s what I was speaking to them. And in some ways that probably is how it happens, at least if O is anything to go by, but it sure didn’t do the trick for S. I just found it re-assuring to find out more about early bilingualism, language acquisition and other useful stuff like not needing to worry about mixing languages, code-switching, and that sort of thing.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you would like to comment on?
Setting realistic goals can be challenging. For example, as much as I would like for the kids to speak German to each other (increased exposure time), it’s probably not going to happen. Also, given S’s concern with mistakes, what should we try to work on and what is simply a developmental thing and will go away as she gets older? And how do I separate out my expectations from what they want – e.g. do they want to learn languages? Do they want to learn German (and French)? Do they want to be able to speak, or would they be happy to just understand? Choosing bilingualism has profound effects on our family life – did we do the right thing?
I’m not sure there are any right answers either – it’s something that each family has to sort out for themselves, and it’s probably something that changes over time. But it can be quite hard and sometimes frustrating.
I should also add that I think it’s great that we can give our kids the opportunity to learn other languages and have no regrets about what we’re doing (though occasionally, alongside others, I might grumble about it). In fact, I’d have loved to have grown up multilingual from infancy/childhood myself – but I think it’s also important to be honest about it.
Overall, in spite of the hard work, it is absolutely amazing to hear your kids interact in their ‘other’ language!
Monday, May 05, 2008
all that's missing is that old-book smell
When my best friend Anne and I traveled to Washington, DC in 1997 to visit our friend Jamie who was working there as an intern at National Geographic, we spent an afternoon at the Library of Congress--admiring the architecture, taking the tour, prowling the gift shop (I think of that trip every time I hang the Library of Congress ornament on my Christmas tree), and most important, absorbing the presence of so many books so well organized and well preserved. What a mecca for bibliophiles, educators, writers, librarians (all of which I am now)!Now you too can revel in the Library of Congress' amazing collection from the comfort of your own computer--and use their resources as you expose your kids to different languages! From the rare book collection, here are entire works of children's literature, digitized for your pleasure, so you can read them page by page on your computer screen. You can even print them!
Available are classics (The Secret Garden, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz), nursery rhymes (Mother Goose), poetry ("A Visit From Saint Nicholas"), fairy tales (Hans Christian Andersen), and plenty of works I've never heard of, such as the 18th century's Little Pretty Pocket-Book, Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly and The Square Book of Animals from 1900. The site even offers a few children's books in French (Vieilles Chansons pour les Petits Enfants, Fables de la Fontaine, a translation of Poe's poem "The Raven" illustrated by Manet) and German (My Very First Little German Book--"Wo ist meine Katze? Ich weiss nicht. Ich habe Milch fur sie. Sie trinkt so gerne Milch.")!
The illustrations are often exquisite, and the old-fashioned lettering and yellowed pages are evocative of a time when books were more precious and, perhaps, more treasured by children than they are today. All kids should have a chance to see tomes like these--online or in person--regardless of what language(s) they speak--and see what children's literature was like before Captain Underpants.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Jeanne's children learning English, German, Spanish, and Swedish in the US
Jeanne has only recently started to use other languages with all of her six children, but she reports that for the most part the kids are catching on and liking it a lot. In recent emails to me, she mentioned that her three-year-old just said his first independent word in German (in addition to his repeating words after her). And now her oldest son and daughter have started speaking to their younger siblings in German and asking for her to teach them more! You can follow along with Jeanne's family's linguistic explorations and adventures at her blog, Books and Brownies.
What is your language background and history?
I have always been fascinated with languages. At the age of 12, I heard a song by Menudo on the radio. It was their first English release. I liked it so much that I bought the tape, and then I wanted more of their music, so I started buying their Spanish albums. This led me to want to study Spanish, so I took 2 years in high school along with 3 years of French. When I went to college, I began to study German and continued my Spanish. I then decided to major in languages, so I majored in German and minored in Spanish. After graduation, I enrolled in graduate school and earned an MA in German. Since graduating in 1996, I have been at home with my children. I have no family connections in either Spanish or German, and my husband speaks only English.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
I have six children: Robert is 17, Gabrielle is almost 11, Mary is almost 9, Ryan is 3, and Alexander and Christopher are identical twins who are a year and a half old. They are being exposed to three languages besides English to some extent, but German is the primary one.
Robert (17) is learning German at home using a high school level text called Deutsch Aktuell, and he spent a month in Germany with me when he was 5 ½. During that month, he spent the mornings at a home daycare that a German family ran. By the end of the month, he understood most of what was said to him. An elderly woman at a museum asked him several questions, which he answered with “ja” or “nein” appropriately. Later she overheard us speaking English and asked me if he was German, so she obviously had thought he was. I wish that I had been better at teaching him German through the years, but I was very lost as to what exactly to do with him. Robert is fairly good at languages and studied Latin for two years, has some Spanish, and is currently volunteering with me as an ESL assistant teacher. However, he is not anywhere near fluent in any other language. We plan to finish at least three high school years of German before he graduates, and also two official years of Spanish. I also hope to be able to get him to Germany next year somehow.
Gabrielle and Mary have taken German classes through a German group we belong to called CarolinaKinder. In addition, we have done lessons at home. We tried using Power Glide Jr., which was expensive and not at all worth it! It did not produce any noticeable German. Then, I didn’t know what to do with them, but got some inspiration from our math books. The Saxon math series does a “meeting” where the child has daily practice on things like writing the date, counting money, etc. I decided to have a German meeting with them to teach them basic vocabulary and review it every day. I used Usborne’s First 1000 Words in German sticker book as a base. Every day we reviewed numbers, colors, days of the week, seasons, months, time of day (like morning, afternoon, etc), weather, and clothing. As they learned the basic vocabulary, I added in more German. I also wrote phrases in the book so it wasn’t just vocabulary. For example, under the picture of rain, it says “der Regen” and I wrote in “Es regnet” so they would know how to say “It’s raining.” Then we added in some verbs and we had a page that we were learning. We started with pets. We would play games where they would be an animal and we had to guess what they were. For colors we would play I Spy.
I don’t know how to measure our success with this. They did learn basic vocabulary, but I spoke way too much English doing it with them. I tried to add in more German, but at the time I was not too comfortable with my spoken German, which had gotten incredibly rusty. I tried to mix the languages so the girls wouldn’t stress about what I was saying, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it that way. Eventually, they had learned the words and were getting bored with what we were doing. I then bought LinguaFun cards and we played games with them, which the girls enjoyed. We played while I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with the twins. At this point, their German mainly consists of knowing basic vocabulary and being able to answer, “What’s your name?” Now they hear me speaking it to the little ones, so that helps. I hope to get them back into German classes this fall.
In addition, Gabrielle is very motivated to learn Spanish. She is currently using a program called “Learn Spanish with Grace.” She has a very good accent. She sang in a Spanish children’s choir when she was five, the only non-Hispanic child to participate. She would love to do that again. I am going to start having a short time every day of speaking Spanish with her. Mary is not “officially” studying Spanish, but she overhears a lot of what Gabrielle does and so is learning it too (sometimes you have to be sneaky!).
Mary wants to learn Swedish. That comes from the Kirsten series in the American Girl book line. One day she came to me and asked if I had any songs in Swedish, since Gabrielle was learning Spanish songs. I actually do, because I love ABBA and they recorded several of their biggest hits in Swedish. So I gave her the CDs (which had the words thankfully) and she learned them all. It’s very interesting to have an 8 year old singing “Waterloo” to you in Swedish! I have been searching for a children’s program to use with her and so far have been unsuccessful. She doesn’t want to do it entirely on the computer. We have the Bilingual Baby video in Swedish and she learned some basic vocabulary with that, but how many times can you watch the same video? I would love to take her to the Concordia Language Villages sometime in the future. Since Swedish is kind of obscure, it’s hard to find resources. We do live near a large university, so I have been thinking of seeing if I could find a Swedish exchange student who would tutor her. That is probably the best option. I am happy to learn it with her, but I know from experience that just knowing the language doesn’t mean you know what to do to teach it.
Since the girls have other languages they want to learn, they don’t understand why I want them to learn German too. They think one other language is enough. But I tell them that they can learn both, and they need to study German because I said so. My husband backs me up on that, so it helps. I hope to organize some activities for older children in our German group, but what I find is that the older children all speak English to each other when they are together. I know that I need to create reasons for them to learn German and get that desire back. It’s likely at some point we will go spend some time in Germany and I want them to at least be able to converse in German. They do like learning German songs and can sing about 5 or 6 children’s songs.
Now, onto the little ones! Ryan is 3 and the twins are 20 months. I decided about a month ago to begin speaking German to them consistently. This now means that I speak German at least 50% of the time. I would like it to be more, but I need to increase my child-centered vocabulary! I learned German as an adult, and didn’t know how to say things like, “Would you like to play catch?” So I sit there with my little dictionary and look up words as I need them. I just bought more children’s books in German, so I read the books to them and talk to them and play with them.
Why do you want your children to learn additional languages?
Because I just think it’s wrong that Americans believe they don’t need to learn any other language. I just read yesterday that the EU is promoting being able to speak your own language plus 2 others – in the US hardly anyone speaks just one other! I don’t think that the US can afford to be isolated anymore. I believe that studying languages is fun and interesting and that anyone can learn to some extent. I want them to learn German because it will help them with whatever they decide to do in the future, and because we may at some point go to Germany so I can study. I think it’s great that they also have another language they want to learn, and I want to support their efforts and get them to a basic level of fluency in both.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the other languages?
Robert seems to have a basic understanding of German and Spanish and can usually figure out the topic of something he is reading. He likes languages, but not as much as I do. To him they are just a means of communication! Gabrielle and Mary are very much beginners in their languages. Ryan is understanding some of what I say in German and repeating it back, but doesn’t spontaneously say things (although we did just start with the German in the last month or so).
How you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the other languages are is spoken?
Mainly through our German group. They have holiday celebrations like they would in Germany. I tell my children about Germany, show them pictures, and read books about Germany. For Spanish, there are a lot of Hispanics in our area. Our church building looks like a transplant from New Mexico. Just yesterday I was explaining to the girls that even though there are a lot of people that speak Spanish, they have different cultures, just like England, Ireland, the US, and Australia all speak English but have different cultures. I also like to listen to Latin music, so they know some of those songs. We have gotten books out of the library about Sweden for Mary, and she will tell us, “In Sweden they do such-and-such.” A couple of weeks ago, we all watched the Eurovision contest on the computer and that was a lot of fun. It inspired my daughters to have their own contest with their Barbies. They got a map of Europe and chose countries for each Barbie and made outfits and then had the contest.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children other languages?
The biggest challenge has been just not knowing exactly what to do! Another big challenge is finding good resources that don’t break the bank! And since we live out in the country, I have had to decide that it’s worth it. Yes, it’s worth it to drive an hour for a 30 minute storytime. It is a commitment of time and money and energy, but I don’t want to have my little ones grown and say, “Why didn’t I do this with them? Why didn’t I give them this gift?” like I am doing with my oldest. Another challenge is my daughters’ resistance to German. Hopefully I can overcome that. And I already mentioned how difficult it is to find Swedish resources for Mary.
What resources have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
Useful: Berlitz book Help Your Child with a Foreign Language by Opal Dunn, Usborne language books, a songbook and CD set I got from Alphabet Garten [specializing in German materials], other German picture books, Sound Beginnings CD, Bilingual Baby videos, LinguaFun cards, Enchanted Learning website, Deutsch Aktuell, Learn Spanish with Grace.
Not useful: Power Glide, Rosetta Stone (and on her blog, Jeanne also explains the inadequacies of the Pimsleur program)
What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I would like to see more research about effective ways for families to learn a language together, and also for a parent to teach a non-native language to his or her own child. I really can’t believe that I let a month’s worth of German slip away from my son! I should have continued with him and maybe by now he would be fluent.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
Another thing that I would really like to do, but have been unable to figure out how, is teach other subjects in the target language. I guess I could probably find resources to do this with Spanish, but it would be hard to do it in German and even harder in Swedish. And I guess that one would have to reach a basic level in the language before anything else would make sense. Any ideas about how to do that? I really am inspired by your creativity with the games and ideas that you do with the girls you tutor and with your nephew!
Jeanne, thanks so much for answering this questionnaire with so much detail! I really like seeing how it's possible to start using a foreign language with kids of such varied ages. Thank you too for all the specific resource recommendations. Readers, do you have any questions or comments for Jeanne?
What is your language background and history?
I have always been fascinated with languages. At the age of 12, I heard a song by Menudo on the radio. It was their first English release. I liked it so much that I bought the tape, and then I wanted more of their music, so I started buying their Spanish albums. This led me to want to study Spanish, so I took 2 years in high school along with 3 years of French. When I went to college, I began to study German and continued my Spanish. I then decided to major in languages, so I majored in German and minored in Spanish. After graduation, I enrolled in graduate school and earned an MA in German. Since graduating in 1996, I have been at home with my children. I have no family connections in either Spanish or German, and my husband speaks only English.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
I have six children: Robert is 17, Gabrielle is almost 11, Mary is almost 9, Ryan is 3, and Alexander and Christopher are identical twins who are a year and a half old. They are being exposed to three languages besides English to some extent, but German is the primary one.
Robert (17) is learning German at home using a high school level text called Deutsch Aktuell, and he spent a month in Germany with me when he was 5 ½. During that month, he spent the mornings at a home daycare that a German family ran. By the end of the month, he understood most of what was said to him. An elderly woman at a museum asked him several questions, which he answered with “ja” or “nein” appropriately. Later she overheard us speaking English and asked me if he was German, so she obviously had thought he was. I wish that I had been better at teaching him German through the years, but I was very lost as to what exactly to do with him. Robert is fairly good at languages and studied Latin for two years, has some Spanish, and is currently volunteering with me as an ESL assistant teacher. However, he is not anywhere near fluent in any other language. We plan to finish at least three high school years of German before he graduates, and also two official years of Spanish. I also hope to be able to get him to Germany next year somehow.
Gabrielle and Mary have taken German classes through a German group we belong to called CarolinaKinder. In addition, we have done lessons at home. We tried using Power Glide Jr., which was expensive and not at all worth it! It did not produce any noticeable German. Then, I didn’t know what to do with them, but got some inspiration from our math books. The Saxon math series does a “meeting” where the child has daily practice on things like writing the date, counting money, etc. I decided to have a German meeting with them to teach them basic vocabulary and review it every day. I used Usborne’s First 1000 Words in German sticker book as a base. Every day we reviewed numbers, colors, days of the week, seasons, months, time of day (like morning, afternoon, etc), weather, and clothing. As they learned the basic vocabulary, I added in more German. I also wrote phrases in the book so it wasn’t just vocabulary. For example, under the picture of rain, it says “der Regen” and I wrote in “Es regnet” so they would know how to say “It’s raining.” Then we added in some verbs and we had a page that we were learning. We started with pets. We would play games where they would be an animal and we had to guess what they were. For colors we would play I Spy.
I don’t know how to measure our success with this. They did learn basic vocabulary, but I spoke way too much English doing it with them. I tried to add in more German, but at the time I was not too comfortable with my spoken German, which had gotten incredibly rusty. I tried to mix the languages so the girls wouldn’t stress about what I was saying, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it that way. Eventually, they had learned the words and were getting bored with what we were doing. I then bought LinguaFun cards and we played games with them, which the girls enjoyed. We played while I was on bed rest during my pregnancy with the twins. At this point, their German mainly consists of knowing basic vocabulary and being able to answer, “What’s your name?” Now they hear me speaking it to the little ones, so that helps. I hope to get them back into German classes this fall.
In addition, Gabrielle is very motivated to learn Spanish. She is currently using a program called “Learn Spanish with Grace.” She has a very good accent. She sang in a Spanish children’s choir when she was five, the only non-Hispanic child to participate. She would love to do that again. I am going to start having a short time every day of speaking Spanish with her. Mary is not “officially” studying Spanish, but she overhears a lot of what Gabrielle does and so is learning it too (sometimes you have to be sneaky!).
Mary wants to learn Swedish. That comes from the Kirsten series in the American Girl book line. One day she came to me and asked if I had any songs in Swedish, since Gabrielle was learning Spanish songs. I actually do, because I love ABBA and they recorded several of their biggest hits in Swedish. So I gave her the CDs (which had the words thankfully) and she learned them all. It’s very interesting to have an 8 year old singing “Waterloo” to you in Swedish! I have been searching for a children’s program to use with her and so far have been unsuccessful. She doesn’t want to do it entirely on the computer. We have the Bilingual Baby video in Swedish and she learned some basic vocabulary with that, but how many times can you watch the same video? I would love to take her to the Concordia Language Villages sometime in the future. Since Swedish is kind of obscure, it’s hard to find resources. We do live near a large university, so I have been thinking of seeing if I could find a Swedish exchange student who would tutor her. That is probably the best option. I am happy to learn it with her, but I know from experience that just knowing the language doesn’t mean you know what to do to teach it.
Since the girls have other languages they want to learn, they don’t understand why I want them to learn German too. They think one other language is enough. But I tell them that they can learn both, and they need to study German because I said so. My husband backs me up on that, so it helps. I hope to organize some activities for older children in our German group, but what I find is that the older children all speak English to each other when they are together. I know that I need to create reasons for them to learn German and get that desire back. It’s likely at some point we will go spend some time in Germany and I want them to at least be able to converse in German. They do like learning German songs and can sing about 5 or 6 children’s songs.
Now, onto the little ones! Ryan is 3 and the twins are 20 months. I decided about a month ago to begin speaking German to them consistently. This now means that I speak German at least 50% of the time. I would like it to be more, but I need to increase my child-centered vocabulary! I learned German as an adult, and didn’t know how to say things like, “Would you like to play catch?” So I sit there with my little dictionary and look up words as I need them. I just bought more children’s books in German, so I read the books to them and talk to them and play with them.
Why do you want your children to learn additional languages?
Because I just think it’s wrong that Americans believe they don’t need to learn any other language. I just read yesterday that the EU is promoting being able to speak your own language plus 2 others – in the US hardly anyone speaks just one other! I don’t think that the US can afford to be isolated anymore. I believe that studying languages is fun and interesting and that anyone can learn to some extent. I want them to learn German because it will help them with whatever they decide to do in the future, and because we may at some point go to Germany so I can study. I think it’s great that they also have another language they want to learn, and I want to support their efforts and get them to a basic level of fluency in both.
How well do your children understand, speak, read, and write the other languages?
Robert seems to have a basic understanding of German and Spanish and can usually figure out the topic of something he is reading. He likes languages, but not as much as I do. To him they are just a means of communication! Gabrielle and Mary are very much beginners in their languages. Ryan is understanding some of what I say in German and repeating it back, but doesn’t spontaneously say things (although we did just start with the German in the last month or so).
How you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the other languages are is spoken?
Mainly through our German group. They have holiday celebrations like they would in Germany. I tell my children about Germany, show them pictures, and read books about Germany. For Spanish, there are a lot of Hispanics in our area. Our church building looks like a transplant from New Mexico. Just yesterday I was explaining to the girls that even though there are a lot of people that speak Spanish, they have different cultures, just like England, Ireland, the US, and Australia all speak English but have different cultures. I also like to listen to Latin music, so they know some of those songs. We have gotten books out of the library about Sweden for Mary, and she will tell us, “In Sweden they do such-and-such.” A couple of weeks ago, we all watched the Eurovision contest on the computer and that was a lot of fun. It inspired my daughters to have their own contest with their Barbies. They got a map of Europe and chose countries for each Barbie and made outfits and then had the contest.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children other languages?
The biggest challenge has been just not knowing exactly what to do! Another big challenge is finding good resources that don’t break the bank! And since we live out in the country, I have had to decide that it’s worth it. Yes, it’s worth it to drive an hour for a 30 minute storytime. It is a commitment of time and money and energy, but I don’t want to have my little ones grown and say, “Why didn’t I do this with them? Why didn’t I give them this gift?” like I am doing with my oldest. Another challenge is my daughters’ resistance to German. Hopefully I can overcome that. And I already mentioned how difficult it is to find Swedish resources for Mary.
What resources have been most useful to you? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?
Useful: Berlitz book Help Your Child with a Foreign Language by Opal Dunn, Usborne language books, a songbook and CD set I got from Alphabet Garten [specializing in German materials], other German picture books, Sound Beginnings CD, Bilingual Baby videos, LinguaFun cards, Enchanted Learning website, Deutsch Aktuell, Learn Spanish with Grace.
Not useful: Power Glide, Rosetta Stone (and on her blog, Jeanne also explains the inadequacies of the Pimsleur program)
What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, would you do differently now?
I would like to see more research about effective ways for families to learn a language together, and also for a parent to teach a non-native language to his or her own child. I really can’t believe that I let a month’s worth of German slip away from my son! I should have continued with him and maybe by now he would be fluent.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
Another thing that I would really like to do, but have been unable to figure out how, is teach other subjects in the target language. I guess I could probably find resources to do this with Spanish, but it would be hard to do it in German and even harder in Swedish. And I guess that one would have to reach a basic level in the language before anything else would make sense. Any ideas about how to do that? I really am inspired by your creativity with the games and ideas that you do with the girls you tutor and with your nephew!
Jeanne, thanks so much for answering this questionnaire with so much detail! I really like seeing how it's possible to start using a foreign language with kids of such varied ages. Thank you too for all the specific resource recommendations. Readers, do you have any questions or comments for Jeanne?
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Isabella and Niki growing up with English, German, and Spanish in Austria
Alice Lapuerta, an editor of Multilingual Living Magazine, graciously consented to answer my questions about raising a trilingual family. Her daughter Isabella, age 5, and son Niki, age 2, are immersed in three different languages! To learn more about their adventures, visit her blog Jabberlingual (currently on hiatus).
What is your language background and history?
I grew up as a consecutive trilingual, with my mother tongue being German, literally, (my mother is Austrian), my father tongue Korean (my father was Korean), and English as the language of schooling. I was first sent to a Korean kindergarten in Korea, then to an International school where we spoke English, until I graduated. Now that I’m married to an Ecuadorean, I’ve added Spanish to my language repertoire. I am now equally fluent in German and English, passive in Korean and conversant in Spanish.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
My husband speaks Spanish, I speak German, but we have English as a family language. When it comes to our daily family life that means that we basically speak English at home whenever everyone’s together; we leave German mostly to the environment (the kids get enough German as it is from kindergarten, friends on the playground, as well as other family members such as their grandma); and my husband speaks Spanish on a one-on-one basis with them (when they are playing together, for instance). My kids probably don’t get enough input in Spanish, but we are satisfied that they have caught up in English so that they feel comfortable talking in both English and German now. We will take care of the Spanish input later when we have the opportunity (maybe we will send them to a Spanish-speaking school or on an exchange semester to Ecuador? But that is in the future).
Why do you want your children to learn the additional languages?
For us it’s not really a choice but a necessity that grows out of our multicultural family life. We need them to be able to speak other foreign languages so we can communicate with each other satisfactorily, with us as well as with other family members around the globe. All other reasons such as doing better at school later on, having better career chances, and so forth are of course important reasons, but to us they are secondary to our main purpose: the need to communicate.
How well do your children understand the various languages? What do they think about them?
German is probably stronger now but it is amazing to see how well my daughter is doing with English. She understands almost everything and can communicate well, of course interspersed with German phrases -- which is entirely natural – and she cannot read/write yet. She knows English is the language that she should speak with Mami. I sometimes speak German with her when other kids are present (like when picking her up from kindergarten) and she actually reprimands me: “In ENGLISH, Mami!” I think she’s figured out that to be able to speak several languages at her age makes her special. I also suspect she is trying to show off a little by asking me to speak English with her in front of her friends! (Usually the opposite is the case, I’ve heard).
How have you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken?
Not as much as we would like. It’s expensive to fly to Ecuador regularly with a family of four. We do try to “import” abuelita (grandma) as much as possible, but even that cannot be more than once a year.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children a second language?
Our main challenge was an overall language developmental one as my daughter’s been diagnosed having a slight sensory-auditory delay, which means that she’s not picking up grammar as easily as most kids. We have been told this problem has nothing whatsoever to do with multilingualism and that she would’ve had this problem as a monolingual as well. We decided to expose her to as much English and Spanish as possible anyway, and as I mentioned before she’s reacting very well to it. (See Alice's blog posts about this condition.)
What resources have been most useful to you?
The Sesame Street DVDs in Spanish have been and still are an absolute hit with us! Isabella learned the ABCs and how to count in Spanish just by watching those over and over and over and over … again. And of course books in all languages, colors, shapes. You can’t have enough children’s books, in my opinion. Isabella usually chooses a book and then decides in which language she wants it to be read (yes, that might require some creativity and good translation skills on the part of the parent) ;).
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?
About the first part of the question, I am not sure about the word “teaching,” which conjures up the notion of drilling and pulling out flashcards and vocab cards and what not. I wouldn’t do that, to be honest. With young kids it’s really more about just using the language in question as much as possible, in as many different settings as possible. Want your child to grow up speaking a certain language? Then just SPEAK it to them! I really think it’s that simple. What’s important is the emphasis on natural play, as kids learn only while they play. Now of course when it comes to language classes in school, that’s a different thing and I wouldn’t know how to go about teaching a second language to young kids there – but intuitively I’d say probably the same: playfully….
When we started out, I wish I had known that things are never cut in stone. Life is about change, and so do our linguistic situations. They change! I thought initially that one chooses a model, say OPOL (one parent one language), and this is what we’ll be doing for the rest of our lives. Wrong! We relocated, our linguistic situation changed dramatically and we realized that unless we adjusted our family language model as well, there was no chance of our children growing up multilingually. The majority language would take over and that was it. It is tremendously scary to make this kind of decision because there’s so much advice out there that tells you not to do it, that tells you to be “consistent” and always stick to a model etc. I wish I had known that 1) it’s totally OK to change models (from OPOL to minority language at home, like we did), and that it won’t “harm” your children. Far from being confused, my daughter LIKED the fact that I suddenly started to speak English to her non-stop (I used to speak German only).
And that 2) yes there are golden rules, there are words of advice, guidelines, and so forth. They can really inspire and help! But they are generalized advice and cannot take into account the individual situation of each family. I wish I had known that there are as many multilingual models out there as there are families, and not just one or two that we all have to adhere to. You discover via trial and error what works for you and what not. Ultimately you really, REALLY have to do that what works best for you and your family.
Alice, I'm glad that you've figured out how to make multilingualism work for your family! Thank you so much for your advice and for letting me profile you all on my blog.
What is your language background and history?
I grew up as a consecutive trilingual, with my mother tongue being German, literally, (my mother is Austrian), my father tongue Korean (my father was Korean), and English as the language of schooling. I was first sent to a Korean kindergarten in Korea, then to an International school where we spoke English, until I graduated. Now that I’m married to an Ecuadorean, I’ve added Spanish to my language repertoire. I am now equally fluent in German and English, passive in Korean and conversant in Spanish.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
My husband speaks Spanish, I speak German, but we have English as a family language. When it comes to our daily family life that means that we basically speak English at home whenever everyone’s together; we leave German mostly to the environment (the kids get enough German as it is from kindergarten, friends on the playground, as well as other family members such as their grandma); and my husband speaks Spanish on a one-on-one basis with them (when they are playing together, for instance). My kids probably don’t get enough input in Spanish, but we are satisfied that they have caught up in English so that they feel comfortable talking in both English and German now. We will take care of the Spanish input later when we have the opportunity (maybe we will send them to a Spanish-speaking school or on an exchange semester to Ecuador? But that is in the future).
Why do you want your children to learn the additional languages?
For us it’s not really a choice but a necessity that grows out of our multicultural family life. We need them to be able to speak other foreign languages so we can communicate with each other satisfactorily, with us as well as with other family members around the globe. All other reasons such as doing better at school later on, having better career chances, and so forth are of course important reasons, but to us they are secondary to our main purpose: the need to communicate.
How well do your children understand the various languages? What do they think about them?
German is probably stronger now but it is amazing to see how well my daughter is doing with English. She understands almost everything and can communicate well, of course interspersed with German phrases -- which is entirely natural – and she cannot read/write yet. She knows English is the language that she should speak with Mami. I sometimes speak German with her when other kids are present (like when picking her up from kindergarten) and she actually reprimands me: “In ENGLISH, Mami!” I think she’s figured out that to be able to speak several languages at her age makes her special. I also suspect she is trying to show off a little by asking me to speak English with her in front of her friends! (Usually the opposite is the case, I’ve heard).
How have you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken?
Not as much as we would like. It’s expensive to fly to Ecuador regularly with a family of four. We do try to “import” abuelita (grandma) as much as possible, but even that cannot be more than once a year.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children a second language?
Our main challenge was an overall language developmental one as my daughter’s been diagnosed having a slight sensory-auditory delay, which means that she’s not picking up grammar as easily as most kids. We have been told this problem has nothing whatsoever to do with multilingualism and that she would’ve had this problem as a monolingual as well. We decided to expose her to as much English and Spanish as possible anyway, and as I mentioned before she’s reacting very well to it. (See Alice's blog posts about this condition.)
What resources have been most useful to you?
The Sesame Street DVDs in Spanish have been and still are an absolute hit with us! Isabella learned the ABCs and how to count in Spanish just by watching those over and over and over and over … again. And of course books in all languages, colors, shapes. You can’t have enough children’s books, in my opinion. Isabella usually chooses a book and then decides in which language she wants it to be read (yes, that might require some creativity and good translation skills on the part of the parent) ;).
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?
About the first part of the question, I am not sure about the word “teaching,” which conjures up the notion of drilling and pulling out flashcards and vocab cards and what not. I wouldn’t do that, to be honest. With young kids it’s really more about just using the language in question as much as possible, in as many different settings as possible. Want your child to grow up speaking a certain language? Then just SPEAK it to them! I really think it’s that simple. What’s important is the emphasis on natural play, as kids learn only while they play. Now of course when it comes to language classes in school, that’s a different thing and I wouldn’t know how to go about teaching a second language to young kids there – but intuitively I’d say probably the same: playfully….
When we started out, I wish I had known that things are never cut in stone. Life is about change, and so do our linguistic situations. They change! I thought initially that one chooses a model, say OPOL (one parent one language), and this is what we’ll be doing for the rest of our lives. Wrong! We relocated, our linguistic situation changed dramatically and we realized that unless we adjusted our family language model as well, there was no chance of our children growing up multilingually. The majority language would take over and that was it. It is tremendously scary to make this kind of decision because there’s so much advice out there that tells you not to do it, that tells you to be “consistent” and always stick to a model etc. I wish I had known that 1) it’s totally OK to change models (from OPOL to minority language at home, like we did), and that it won’t “harm” your children. Far from being confused, my daughter LIKED the fact that I suddenly started to speak English to her non-stop (I used to speak German only).
And that 2) yes there are golden rules, there are words of advice, guidelines, and so forth. They can really inspire and help! But they are generalized advice and cannot take into account the individual situation of each family. I wish I had known that there are as many multilingual models out there as there are families, and not just one or two that we all have to adhere to. You discover via trial and error what works for you and what not. Ultimately you really, REALLY have to do that what works best for you and your family.
Alice, I'm glad that you've figured out how to make multilingualism work for your family! Thank you so much for your advice and for letting me profile you all on my blog.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
reading in more than one language
Visit Corey's blog, An American Between Worlds, to read this detailed post about her bilingual children learning to read. Fascinating! Does this sound familiar to anyone? What other approaches have worked as you try to foster your children's love of reading in more than one language?
Friday, October 20, 2006
Profile: Sophie learning English and German in Canada
Fellow Blogger Smashedpea was kind enough to answer my questions--and has one for the rest of us at the end of this profile!
What is your language background and history?
I’ve grown up in Germany, speaking German as my mother tongue, while learning English, Latin and Spanish in high school. I moved to Canada after graduating from high school – originally just for a year or so, but I ended up staying here. Over time, I spoke less and less German, to the point of not ever speaking it anymore – unless I went back on a trip, had German visitors or phoned home. In the end, I went to university here, started working and married a unilingual English-speaking Canadian – so English became my main language, and it is now the language in which I feel most at ease. Trips to Germany or German visitors help me stay in touch and I still consider myself fluent, but I have to admit that when I do use German, I sometimes have to think about a word or the proper sentence structure.
What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?
Our daughter Sophie, now 16 months old, is exposed to English by everyone around her and to German through me.
Early on, I found it weird speaking to her in German, especially when my husband was around (sadly, he doesn’t understand more than a few words). But I got used to it over time and now speak it with her almost exclusively.
I speak German to her when it’s only the two of us, whether we’re at home, at the playground, in the grocery store or wherever. I don’t really make a conscious effort just yet to try and teach her some sort of topical vocabulary, but it happens naturally, so that I’m likely to talk to her about food when we’re in the grocery store, for example. I’ve been doing this from very early on, so German was the main language for her while I was on maternity leave (9 months, then my husband took over).
Early on, I used to speak English to her when my husband was around, but as she was beginning to understand more, I naturally started speaking more German to her even in front of him. For example, if the three of us are sitting around the dinner table these days, my husband and I are speaking English, but I might ask Sophie in German whether she likes her food, whether she wants more, is ready for her bath or whatever, while my husband may speak to her in English. Similarly, if we’re all leaving the house, my husband and I speak in English, but I will ask Sophie in German to go get her shoes.
When my husband is around, I speak to her in German when something only applies to her, when I know that he can pick it up from the context, or when he’s not involved in what we’re doing. Other times I repeat to him in English what I just said to her in German, but sometimes I only say things in English. Using English only when she is around is becoming increasingly rare for me, since I naturally speak more German to her as her capacity for language increases.
When other people are around, I find this more difficult. For example, in the grocery store I’ll continue to speak to her in German, but not necessarily on the playground if other people are within earshot. Same when we visit my in-laws or have friends over – I will speak English to her because I’m just not comfortable speaking to her in German when I know full well that other people around us don’t understand. It just always seems rude to me, I can’t help it.
We also listen to a lot of German kiddie song CDs and read German books. I’ve asked all German friends and relatives who want to give her presents, to give her books, CDs or DVDs rather than toys or clothes, just to give us more resources. I also read English books to her, but translate the story into German. She can’t read anyway, so it won’t confuse her. My husband has picked up a bunch of German phrases and words from repeatedly listening to Sophie’s favourite CDs and will sing songs with her in German as best he can. He’s also picked up a few phrases from me, just things I tend to say to her a lot and tries to use them on her as much as possible. For example, he may ask her in German whether she wants a new diaper, or tell her to go upstairs with him and put on her jammies, get her shoes, eat or go outside.
We’ve also joined a German parents group, but meeting up with them hasn’t worked out yet since they meet during the week and I’m back working full-time. In the future, there may be more weekend activities in that group, so I’m keeping my eyes on it. We are also planning on having a second child, and I plan on getting more involved with the group while on maternity leave.
English, of course, she gets all day long at daycare, from other people we run into when we’re out, our friends and relatives here and when she spends time alone with her Papa. We are not too worried about this, since it clearly is the language she hears most often.
Why do you want your child to learn a second language?
Even though it was a bit difficult for me to get back into using German on a daily basis when we first had Sophie, I can’t imagine not speaking German to her. I think it’s just natural to want to pass on your own language to your children, and to speak to them in your own language. It is also important to me that she be able to speak to her German relatives and my German friends when we go over there or they come and visit us. I just couldn’t imagine her not being able to speak to her one German cousin the next time we go!
We also want to give her the opportunities that come from knowing another language. It’d be great if she could spend a semester or so at a German high school or university, or if she could spend a summer working there when she’s on break from university. I realize that she may not want to do any of this or that she may reject learning German at some point, but for now we just want to put her on the path to bilingualism.
Personally, I also think it’s great for people to know more than one language. I loved learning languages and I hope she takes after me on this. It’s totally okay if she doesn’t, but I see this as opening a door for her and really hope that she’ll take the opportunity to go and explore.
How well does your child understand and speak the second language?
So far, Sophie seems to understand English and German equally well. At least she responds to a few things, when she’s in the mood, regardless of whether she’s asked in English or German. She can get her shoes or jacket, pick up whatever she just threw down and give it to the person asking her, kiss people, wave bye-bye and respond with either shaking her head no or saying her own word for yes when asked whether she wants to eat a certain thing or have a bath or get a new diaper etc.
She also babbles all day long and one of her babble-words is ‘ich’, which happens to be the real German word for ‘I’. It doesn’t seem to mean anything just yet, but it has a sound in it that doesn’t really exist in English. She is also obsessed with dogs and has been barking quite a bit for the last couple of months. And she barks the German sound, not the English one. I don’t know if either of this means anything, but I find it encouraging.
At this point, aside from Mama, her only other clear word is ‘bird’. It started out as ‘brd’, but it’s now quite clearly ‘bird’. She says it whenever she sees a bird or someone says something about birds to her. She has never said the German equivalent Vogel (much harder anyway), but when I say something to her in German about a Vogel, she excitedly says ‘bird’. She’s also pretty close to saying ‘ball’ – but at this point it’s too early to tell whether this is the English or German pronunciation (they are quite close).
Have you been able to expose your child to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken? How?
Only really through CDs at this point and the occasional visitor from Germany. I’m hoping that the German parents group will help fill this gap once we’re able to meet up with them. I know from emails I’ve received that they celebrate some of the German holidays that cater more to kids, e.g., Karneval. At home, we celebrate Nikolaus and have our big Christmas do on Christmas Eve. I think the local children’s film and theatre festivals sometimes offer international entries, and we certainly would take advantage of that, if age-appropriate. Of course, eventually we’ll also take her to Germany for visits. I’ve also subscribed to the mailing list of the local Goethe Institut , but so far they haven’t had any kid-friendly events.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your child a second language?
Nothing yet, though in the beginning, simply remembering to speak German to her. I live my life in English and I think in English, and have been for years, so switching to German around her took some getting used to.
What resources have been most useful to you?
For now, German kiddie CDs have worked especially well for us. Books, too, but to a lesser extent, since it’s just as easy for me to translate her English books into German on the fly. Or we just talk about what’s in the pictures – when she stops running around for a minute or two. She also loves any and all music. We often have one of her CDs on while having lunch or while she plays, and we sing to her in German quite a bit, too. We don’t really let her watch TV or DVDs yet, but once we do, I’ll be after my German relatives and friends to keep us supplied. The next time we go over there, I also plan on stocking up with all sorts of German books, tapes, CDs, DVDs and games to increase the variety in our resources.
If we were able to participate in the German parent group, I suspect it would be right up there, too, to exchange books, to participate in the singing circle, to celebrate the kid-friendly holidays, to find German-speaking playmates--and for me to hear and speak more German.
All in all, we haven’t really had to worry about this too much yet as she’s still so young, but I’m beginning to think more about it now that I notice her understanding and responding more and more.
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 it takes a fair amount of commitment and follow through to do it, especially in a situation similar to ours. Sophie may hear German from me all the time, but often it would be easier to just use one language. I also worry that it just goes under in a sea of English.
I wish I would have looked into resources earlier, while still pregnant even. I don’t mean books and CDs, but playgroups, festivals etc. I never thought about it at the time, maybe because we were busy buying a house and moving and of course, I didn’t really know then that you don’t get around to much of anything with a newborn in the house, so I missed out on the German parent group. When I finally unearthed them, it was too late – I was about to go back to work, so I could never take advantage of their activities.
Young kids are such sponges, so my approach is based mainly on osmosis I think. It may not be very methodical and it’s not based on any sort of research on my part, but for us it works to just make German a natural part of our day. We go about our business, but we do it in German as much as possible. We try to make it fun and keep it varied and just expose her to as much German as we can.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
In the long run, we probably have to be a bit more organized about this and decide whether we want her to learn how to read and write in German as well. I know kids who’ve been to Saturday school to learn their parent’s language and they hated it. I don’t really want to force her into it, but at the same time I think it’d be best if she did learn.
Any thoughts on this?
What is your language background and history?
I’ve grown up in Germany, speaking German as my mother tongue, while learning English, Latin and Spanish in high school. I moved to Canada after graduating from high school – originally just for a year or so, but I ended up staying here. Over time, I spoke less and less German, to the point of not ever speaking it anymore – unless I went back on a trip, had German visitors or phoned home. In the end, I went to university here, started working and married a unilingual English-speaking Canadian – so English became my main language, and it is now the language in which I feel most at ease. Trips to Germany or German visitors help me stay in touch and I still consider myself fluent, but I have to admit that when I do use German, I sometimes have to think about a word or the proper sentence structure.
What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?
Our daughter Sophie, now 16 months old, is exposed to English by everyone around her and to German through me.
Early on, I found it weird speaking to her in German, especially when my husband was around (sadly, he doesn’t understand more than a few words). But I got used to it over time and now speak it with her almost exclusively.
I speak German to her when it’s only the two of us, whether we’re at home, at the playground, in the grocery store or wherever. I don’t really make a conscious effort just yet to try and teach her some sort of topical vocabulary, but it happens naturally, so that I’m likely to talk to her about food when we’re in the grocery store, for example. I’ve been doing this from very early on, so German was the main language for her while I was on maternity leave (9 months, then my husband took over).
Early on, I used to speak English to her when my husband was around, but as she was beginning to understand more, I naturally started speaking more German to her even in front of him. For example, if the three of us are sitting around the dinner table these days, my husband and I are speaking English, but I might ask Sophie in German whether she likes her food, whether she wants more, is ready for her bath or whatever, while my husband may speak to her in English. Similarly, if we’re all leaving the house, my husband and I speak in English, but I will ask Sophie in German to go get her shoes.
When my husband is around, I speak to her in German when something only applies to her, when I know that he can pick it up from the context, or when he’s not involved in what we’re doing. Other times I repeat to him in English what I just said to her in German, but sometimes I only say things in English. Using English only when she is around is becoming increasingly rare for me, since I naturally speak more German to her as her capacity for language increases.
When other people are around, I find this more difficult. For example, in the grocery store I’ll continue to speak to her in German, but not necessarily on the playground if other people are within earshot. Same when we visit my in-laws or have friends over – I will speak English to her because I’m just not comfortable speaking to her in German when I know full well that other people around us don’t understand. It just always seems rude to me, I can’t help it.
We also listen to a lot of German kiddie song CDs and read German books. I’ve asked all German friends and relatives who want to give her presents, to give her books, CDs or DVDs rather than toys or clothes, just to give us more resources. I also read English books to her, but translate the story into German. She can’t read anyway, so it won’t confuse her. My husband has picked up a bunch of German phrases and words from repeatedly listening to Sophie’s favourite CDs and will sing songs with her in German as best he can. He’s also picked up a few phrases from me, just things I tend to say to her a lot and tries to use them on her as much as possible. For example, he may ask her in German whether she wants a new diaper, or tell her to go upstairs with him and put on her jammies, get her shoes, eat or go outside.
We’ve also joined a German parents group, but meeting up with them hasn’t worked out yet since they meet during the week and I’m back working full-time. In the future, there may be more weekend activities in that group, so I’m keeping my eyes on it. We are also planning on having a second child, and I plan on getting more involved with the group while on maternity leave.
English, of course, she gets all day long at daycare, from other people we run into when we’re out, our friends and relatives here and when she spends time alone with her Papa. We are not too worried about this, since it clearly is the language she hears most often.
Why do you want your child to learn a second language?
Even though it was a bit difficult for me to get back into using German on a daily basis when we first had Sophie, I can’t imagine not speaking German to her. I think it’s just natural to want to pass on your own language to your children, and to speak to them in your own language. It is also important to me that she be able to speak to her German relatives and my German friends when we go over there or they come and visit us. I just couldn’t imagine her not being able to speak to her one German cousin the next time we go!
We also want to give her the opportunities that come from knowing another language. It’d be great if she could spend a semester or so at a German high school or university, or if she could spend a summer working there when she’s on break from university. I realize that she may not want to do any of this or that she may reject learning German at some point, but for now we just want to put her on the path to bilingualism.
Personally, I also think it’s great for people to know more than one language. I loved learning languages and I hope she takes after me on this. It’s totally okay if she doesn’t, but I see this as opening a door for her and really hope that she’ll take the opportunity to go and explore.
How well does your child understand and speak the second language?
So far, Sophie seems to understand English and German equally well. At least she responds to a few things, when she’s in the mood, regardless of whether she’s asked in English or German. She can get her shoes or jacket, pick up whatever she just threw down and give it to the person asking her, kiss people, wave bye-bye and respond with either shaking her head no or saying her own word for yes when asked whether she wants to eat a certain thing or have a bath or get a new diaper etc.
She also babbles all day long and one of her babble-words is ‘ich’, which happens to be the real German word for ‘I’. It doesn’t seem to mean anything just yet, but it has a sound in it that doesn’t really exist in English. She is also obsessed with dogs and has been barking quite a bit for the last couple of months. And she barks the German sound, not the English one. I don’t know if either of this means anything, but I find it encouraging.
At this point, aside from Mama, her only other clear word is ‘bird’. It started out as ‘brd’, but it’s now quite clearly ‘bird’. She says it whenever she sees a bird or someone says something about birds to her. She has never said the German equivalent Vogel (much harder anyway), but when I say something to her in German about a Vogel, she excitedly says ‘bird’. She’s also pretty close to saying ‘ball’ – but at this point it’s too early to tell whether this is the English or German pronunciation (they are quite close).
Have you been able to expose your child to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken? How?
Only really through CDs at this point and the occasional visitor from Germany. I’m hoping that the German parents group will help fill this gap once we’re able to meet up with them. I know from emails I’ve received that they celebrate some of the German holidays that cater more to kids, e.g., Karneval. At home, we celebrate Nikolaus and have our big Christmas do on Christmas Eve. I think the local children’s film and theatre festivals sometimes offer international entries, and we certainly would take advantage of that, if age-appropriate. Of course, eventually we’ll also take her to Germany for visits. I’ve also subscribed to the mailing list of the local Goethe Institut , but so far they haven’t had any kid-friendly events.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your child a second language?
Nothing yet, though in the beginning, simply remembering to speak German to her. I live my life in English and I think in English, and have been for years, so switching to German around her took some getting used to.
What resources have been most useful to you?
For now, German kiddie CDs have worked especially well for us. Books, too, but to a lesser extent, since it’s just as easy for me to translate her English books into German on the fly. Or we just talk about what’s in the pictures – when she stops running around for a minute or two. She also loves any and all music. We often have one of her CDs on while having lunch or while she plays, and we sing to her in German quite a bit, too. We don’t really let her watch TV or DVDs yet, but once we do, I’ll be after my German relatives and friends to keep us supplied. The next time we go over there, I also plan on stocking up with all sorts of German books, tapes, CDs, DVDs and games to increase the variety in our resources.
If we were able to participate in the German parent group, I suspect it would be right up there, too, to exchange books, to participate in the singing circle, to celebrate the kid-friendly holidays, to find German-speaking playmates--and for me to hear and speak more German.
All in all, we haven’t really had to worry about this too much yet as she’s still so young, but I’m beginning to think more about it now that I notice her understanding and responding more and more.
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 it takes a fair amount of commitment and follow through to do it, especially in a situation similar to ours. Sophie may hear German from me all the time, but often it would be easier to just use one language. I also worry that it just goes under in a sea of English.
I wish I would have looked into resources earlier, while still pregnant even. I don’t mean books and CDs, but playgroups, festivals etc. I never thought about it at the time, maybe because we were busy buying a house and moving and of course, I didn’t really know then that you don’t get around to much of anything with a newborn in the house, so I missed out on the German parent group. When I finally unearthed them, it was too late – I was about to go back to work, so I could never take advantage of their activities.
Young kids are such sponges, so my approach is based mainly on osmosis I think. It may not be very methodical and it’s not based on any sort of research on my part, but for us it works to just make German a natural part of our day. We go about our business, but we do it in German as much as possible. We try to make it fun and keep it varied and just expose her to as much German as we can.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
In the long run, we probably have to be a bit more organized about this and decide whether we want her to learn how to read and write in German as well. I know kids who’ve been to Saturday school to learn their parent’s language and they hated it. I don’t really want to force her into it, but at the same time I think it’d be best if she did learn.
Any thoughts on this?
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Profile: Jessica and Jeremy learning German and English in Austria
Nadine graciously agreed to answer some questions about how she and her husband are raising their children bilingually in Austria. This post is longer than what you usually find on this blog, but it's so detailed and helpful that I couldn't bear to cut much! You can also check out an article she wrote here.
What is your language background and history?
My husband is Austrian and his mother tongue is German. I am American and my mother tongue is English. I studied German in college. My husband and I got married in my home state of California and a few months later we moved to Austria. I have lived in Austria for 17 ½ years. Both of our children, Jessica and Jeremy, were born in Austria. Jessica is now 12 ½ and Jeremy will be 11 next month. My husband and I are both fluent in German and English.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
From birth on, my children have been exposed to English and German. We use OPOL (one parent, one language) at home. Because my husband and I speak each other’s languages, we can “work” off one another and we know what the other one has told the children. My American girlfriends and I also formed informal weekly “playgroups” to get together and expose the children to more English, sing English language nursery rhymes and songs with them, read stories, do activities, and encourage them to speak English only. We celebrate holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, etc. to expose them to more of our American culture as they don’t get that exposure in Austria. Another method was showing them English language TV and movies only. My parents taped children’s shows off of PBS in the States (Barney, Bear in the Big Blue House, Sesame Street, etc. etc.) on LP 8-hr tapes and mailed them over for me. I also purchased many English language Disney movies on video and [the kids] would get to watch those. They actually did not watch German children's television programming until they were close to 7 and 8 years old. I tried to keep any TV time “English only." Of course, nowadays with DVDs and being able to select the language, providing the children with numerous options to view English language movies and shows is wonderful!
Why do you want your children to learn a second language?
Because my husband & I are in a bilingual, bicultural marriage, I found it only natural that our children be exposed to both of our cultures and languages. From the beginning my goal was to raise our children to become perfectly bilingual (active users!) of both languages. Also, all of my family (and I have quite a large family) is back in the US. I could not imagine my parents having grandchildren they could not communicate with; it would sadden and disappoint them. I want my children to enjoy an active, close relationship with family in the US and I feel being fluent in English is a large part of that. Since my children were born and are being raised in Austria, I know they will tend to feel more “Austrian” than “American." But I want them to be aware of their American heritage as well as understand about the culture and country their mother is from. To me, knowing English well is part of that.
How well do your children understand and speak the second language? What do they think about it? Do they have a preference for certain languages in certain situations and with certain interlocutors?
I am very very happy with my children’s language skills in both German and English! I can honestly say they are native level fluent in both languages. They tend to code switch sometimes but I am very strict about that and do not allow it. I stop them in mid-sentence and remind them that at the moment they speaking either English or German; there’s no such thing as “Gernglish"! J I encourage them to stop a minute and not take the word that pops into their head first but rather search their brain and find and use the English word….I think code switching is a bad habit to form because they train their brain that way (and get lazy!) and then when they really have to speak the one language or the other, it will be difficult.
[Note from Sarah: click here and here to learn more about code-switching.]
Both my children are very happy they speak both languages. From the beginning, I believe it has been easier to teach them English here in Austria rather than the other way around. I believe if we were living in the US and my husband was trying to teach them German, it would be more difficult. In Austria, English is very highly regarded second language to learn. Austrian parents pay a lot of money to have their children start learning English from an early age. They send their children to special, private schools that focus on English, attend playgroups, etc. When I am out and about with my children and people hear me speak English with them (and they realize the children and I speak German, too), the response is very positive and encouraging. My kids picked up on that quickly that being able to speak English is “cool."
On the whole, the kids have no qualms about not liking it when I do not speak German with them or my husband…. I think we have been able to create a home environment in which it is natural for us to use both languages equally. I absolutely refuse to speak German with my children and they know it. They know I speak German, of course, and I have explained why I do not speak German with them and why we feel it is important they learn both languages. They seem to be fine with it! In fact, I think if I began speaking German with them on a regular basis they would have a heart attack because it’s just not “natural”! They speak English with Mom!
The situation with non-English speaking Austrian friends is a bit tougher. I speak twice; once in English and then again quickly in German for the benefit of the non-English speaking friend. Sometimes, though, I do not believe I’m being rude in public when I only speak English with the kids. After all, I am speaking to my children and not for others around me. Only during a few incidences in the US when I wanted to tell my children something quickly and privately without anyone around me understand, I would say it in German. When that happens, they know it’s a rare situation and an exception.
Lately I don’t bother too much with translating for the Austrian friends. Mostly because a number of them now have English at school and they say they like it when I speak English because they can ‘practice’ and see if they understood what I said. J
Have you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken? How?
As mentioned, through using video tapes of US children’s TV shows, movies and cartoons, speaking only English with them, forming playgroups with other American moms and children being raised bilingually, reading to them a lot (in English), and playing computer games in which instructions, etc. are in English. Purchasing English language story cassettes and CDs for them to listen to before bedtime or ‘in the background’ while playing quietly with Legos (or whatever) in their rooms or the living room.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children a second language?
Code switching is a problem. They speak so much German in their environment at school and with friends that when they speak English with me, often a German word will pop into their head faster than the English word so they’ll get “lazy” and just insert the German word in the sentence. As mentioned, I do not accept that and I make them either think of the word in English or I give them the word and make them say the sentence again.
Writing can be a problem. German is a very phonetic language with defined grammar rules. Sometimes they carry these things over into their English writing and misspell words (trying to write phonetically), capitalize nouns (which, we do not do in English, of course), place commas incorrectly, etc. They can probably only best learn in the course of the next few years by having their work corrected and learning from their mistakes. They somehow have to learn for themselves that “…doing this belongs to this language and doing that belongs to that language.…”
Sometimes I find the longer we are here (before a summer trip home to CA, for example), the kids’ English starts getting “accented” and clumsy and I know from the structure of the sentence, they are directly translating from German. That is when I know it is high time for a visit to the US! It is amazing to me, though, because over the years I have observed that the minute we are in the US, after just 2 or 3 days, they speak American accented English (the Austrian accent is gone) and their word usage and sentence structure is good ol’ English again and not “translated German."
What resources have been most useful to you?
1) English language TV shows, movies and cartoons.
2) Computer and Gameboy games in English are also fun for them.
3) Books are a wonderful source and I make sure I keep them well stocked with English books. Jessica loves to read in English! Fortunately I can choose and order from a wide selection of English language books from Amazon’s German sister site. Before the children could read, I would read to them a lot in English! And I mean I read to them a lot! J I think that was also key in learning English well. I think it’s important to know that when you are working with small children, you do not necessarily have to have books in that language. They can’t read anyway, so just take any children's book you have and loosely translate the story into the second language. Point out all of the things in the pictures to increase their vocabulary: sky, trees, butterfly, etc. and repeat constantly. You can do that for many years before they actually learn to read! You don’t necessarily have to order a lot expensive foreign language books, especially since that can get expensive.
4) Getting together with friends whose kids speak English is also important and something we do as often as we can.
5) English language story cassettes and CDs to listen to at night before going to bed. When they were smaller we listened to many music CDs with classical children’s songs, etc. and later they loved listening to story cassettes and CDs.
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?
I believe that consequence and constant repetition is the key and vital to successfully teaching a child a second language. Remaining consequent is probably one of the most difficult things to do, especially when you are using a language the majority of people in your environment do not speak. I think it’s important to show the children a person is proud of that language, has reasons why (and share that with the child! As soon as they're old enough to start rejecting the language, tell them why you’re doing this!), and is strict about not accepting the other language. If parents can create a home environment where it is perfectly natural to speak that language, I believe it helps as the child does not know anything “different” or is aware that learning a second language is not the norm in every household, you know? It’s just a natural thing.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
After seventeen years in Austria, I recently had an opportunity to take a six-month leave of absence from my job in Austria and I made plans for an extended stay in California from the end of February to the end of August. The children and I stayed at my parents’ house in north Orange County, and from the end of February to mid-June, the kids attended elementary school in my hometown. My daughter was in 6th grade and my son was in 5th grade. It was an absolutely wonderful experience for them! Naturally they were very nervous about it but the kids in their new classes made them feel very welcome and right away like part of the community. The kids had an opportunity to work more in English (reading, writing, spelling) and improve their comprehension and vocabulary (including, the current slang and – probably unavoidable – the more “colorful” words of the language that they do not learn from Mom!). ;-) I was also very happy that they had a chance to experience the more positive, encouraging and helpful atmosphere of American schools and dedicated American teachers! I have many issues with the Austrian school system; however, that is completely different can of worms that requires a website of its own! ;-) Suffice to say I am not completely happy with the Austrian school system and the (ancient, medieval, old fashioned) methods of teaching and how kids here are treated. That said, the children had a fantastic experience in California where they improved their English, made wonderful new American friends, got a great boost of confidence in their academic abilities, became more “fun” and silly somehow (instead of being “serious Europeans”) and learned many new things!
I understand this is something not all families can do but I believe that if a family has the opportunity to do something like this (where there’s a will there’s a way!), I highly recommend it and it is an invaluable experience for the children. I believe age plays an important part, too, in planning something like this. When the kids hit a certain age (around 11 or 12), they are less reluctant to leave their friends and school and familiar surroundings! The older they get, the harder it becomes! We just barely managed to get Jessica over…. ;-)
Now that the kids are back at their regular school here in Austria (they attend an International School where English is the foremost language of instruction), it is only now they can reflect and compare on the differences from the school they attended in the US. They needed time to do that because it was all so different. When the kids speak English now, they still continue to speak very “American” and their vocabulary and word use is fantastic.
[Sarah again: I'd like to thank Nadine for taking the time to share so much. Her story confirms much of what I've read by linguists and heard from other parents: that lots of input is crucial to learning a second language, that parents can and should address the fact that their children are bicultural as well as bilingual (when that is the case), that consistent input (one-parent-one-language) cuts down on potential confusion, and that peers and the status of the second language does affect the children's perception of and desire to speak it. It's also interesting to note that even older children who are balanced bilinguals still code-switch; my research so far has confirmed that this is a natural part of being bilingual. I also found Nadine's suggestions of inexpensive ways to provide input very helpful: it's true that books for pre-literate children can be read in any language, and taped TV shows certainly are cheaper than buying that many videos and DVDs. So I have a couple of questions for other parents or teachers of bilingual kids: which of Nadine's suggestions seem most valuable to you? Do you have any others to recommend? Have any of you enrolled your children in the second language school system at any point, like Nadine did recently? Have your experiences been similar or different from her family's approach to learning two languages? (Click here to be reminded of difficult it can be to teach your kids a second language. ) Please click on "comments" to share here--and/or email me if you'd like me to post a profile of a bilingual kid you know!]
What is your language background and history?
My husband is Austrian and his mother tongue is German. I am American and my mother tongue is English. I studied German in college. My husband and I got married in my home state of California and a few months later we moved to Austria. I have lived in Austria for 17 ½ years. Both of our children, Jessica and Jeremy, were born in Austria. Jessica is now 12 ½ and Jeremy will be 11 next month. My husband and I are both fluent in German and English.
What languages are you exposing your children to, and how?
From birth on, my children have been exposed to English and German. We use OPOL (one parent, one language) at home. Because my husband and I speak each other’s languages, we can “work” off one another and we know what the other one has told the children. My American girlfriends and I also formed informal weekly “playgroups” to get together and expose the children to more English, sing English language nursery rhymes and songs with them, read stories, do activities, and encourage them to speak English only. We celebrate holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, etc. to expose them to more of our American culture as they don’t get that exposure in Austria. Another method was showing them English language TV and movies only. My parents taped children’s shows off of PBS in the States (Barney, Bear in the Big Blue House, Sesame Street, etc. etc.) on LP 8-hr tapes and mailed them over for me. I also purchased many English language Disney movies on video and [the kids] would get to watch those. They actually did not watch German children's television programming until they were close to 7 and 8 years old. I tried to keep any TV time “English only." Of course, nowadays with DVDs and being able to select the language, providing the children with numerous options to view English language movies and shows is wonderful!
Why do you want your children to learn a second language?
Because my husband & I are in a bilingual, bicultural marriage, I found it only natural that our children be exposed to both of our cultures and languages. From the beginning my goal was to raise our children to become perfectly bilingual (active users!) of both languages. Also, all of my family (and I have quite a large family) is back in the US. I could not imagine my parents having grandchildren they could not communicate with; it would sadden and disappoint them. I want my children to enjoy an active, close relationship with family in the US and I feel being fluent in English is a large part of that. Since my children were born and are being raised in Austria, I know they will tend to feel more “Austrian” than “American." But I want them to be aware of their American heritage as well as understand about the culture and country their mother is from. To me, knowing English well is part of that.
How well do your children understand and speak the second language? What do they think about it? Do they have a preference for certain languages in certain situations and with certain interlocutors?
I am very very happy with my children’s language skills in both German and English! I can honestly say they are native level fluent in both languages. They tend to code switch sometimes but I am very strict about that and do not allow it. I stop them in mid-sentence and remind them that at the moment they speaking either English or German; there’s no such thing as “Gernglish"! J I encourage them to stop a minute and not take the word that pops into their head first but rather search their brain and find and use the English word….I think code switching is a bad habit to form because they train their brain that way (and get lazy!) and then when they really have to speak the one language or the other, it will be difficult.
[Note from Sarah: click here and here to learn more about code-switching.]
Both my children are very happy they speak both languages. From the beginning, I believe it has been easier to teach them English here in Austria rather than the other way around. I believe if we were living in the US and my husband was trying to teach them German, it would be more difficult. In Austria, English is very highly regarded second language to learn. Austrian parents pay a lot of money to have their children start learning English from an early age. They send their children to special, private schools that focus on English, attend playgroups, etc. When I am out and about with my children and people hear me speak English with them (and they realize the children and I speak German, too), the response is very positive and encouraging. My kids picked up on that quickly that being able to speak English is “cool."
On the whole, the kids have no qualms about not liking it when I do not speak German with them or my husband…. I think we have been able to create a home environment in which it is natural for us to use both languages equally. I absolutely refuse to speak German with my children and they know it. They know I speak German, of course, and I have explained why I do not speak German with them and why we feel it is important they learn both languages. They seem to be fine with it! In fact, I think if I began speaking German with them on a regular basis they would have a heart attack because it’s just not “natural”! They speak English with Mom!
The situation with non-English speaking Austrian friends is a bit tougher. I speak twice; once in English and then again quickly in German for the benefit of the non-English speaking friend. Sometimes, though, I do not believe I’m being rude in public when I only speak English with the kids. After all, I am speaking to my children and not for others around me. Only during a few incidences in the US when I wanted to tell my children something quickly and privately without anyone around me understand, I would say it in German. When that happens, they know it’s a rare situation and an exception.
Lately I don’t bother too much with translating for the Austrian friends. Mostly because a number of them now have English at school and they say they like it when I speak English because they can ‘practice’ and see if they understood what I said. J
Have you been able to expose your children to the culture(s) where the second language is spoken? How?
As mentioned, through using video tapes of US children’s TV shows, movies and cartoons, speaking only English with them, forming playgroups with other American moms and children being raised bilingually, reading to them a lot (in English), and playing computer games in which instructions, etc. are in English. Purchasing English language story cassettes and CDs for them to listen to before bedtime or ‘in the background’ while playing quietly with Legos (or whatever) in their rooms or the living room.
What challenges have occurred as you teach your children a second language?
Code switching is a problem. They speak so much German in their environment at school and with friends that when they speak English with me, often a German word will pop into their head faster than the English word so they’ll get “lazy” and just insert the German word in the sentence. As mentioned, I do not accept that and I make them either think of the word in English or I give them the word and make them say the sentence again.
Writing can be a problem. German is a very phonetic language with defined grammar rules. Sometimes they carry these things over into their English writing and misspell words (trying to write phonetically), capitalize nouns (which, we do not do in English, of course), place commas incorrectly, etc. They can probably only best learn in the course of the next few years by having their work corrected and learning from their mistakes. They somehow have to learn for themselves that “…doing this belongs to this language and doing that belongs to that language.…”
Sometimes I find the longer we are here (before a summer trip home to CA, for example), the kids’ English starts getting “accented” and clumsy and I know from the structure of the sentence, they are directly translating from German. That is when I know it is high time for a visit to the US! It is amazing to me, though, because over the years I have observed that the minute we are in the US, after just 2 or 3 days, they speak American accented English (the Austrian accent is gone) and their word usage and sentence structure is good ol’ English again and not “translated German."
What resources have been most useful to you?
1) English language TV shows, movies and cartoons.
2) Computer and Gameboy games in English are also fun for them.
3) Books are a wonderful source and I make sure I keep them well stocked with English books. Jessica loves to read in English! Fortunately I can choose and order from a wide selection of English language books from Amazon’s German sister site. Before the children could read, I would read to them a lot in English! And I mean I read to them a lot! J I think that was also key in learning English well. I think it’s important to know that when you are working with small children, you do not necessarily have to have books in that language. They can’t read anyway, so just take any children's book you have and loosely translate the story into the second language. Point out all of the things in the pictures to increase their vocabulary: sky, trees, butterfly, etc. and repeat constantly. You can do that for many years before they actually learn to read! You don’t necessarily have to order a lot expensive foreign language books, especially since that can get expensive.
4) Getting together with friends whose kids speak English is also important and something we do as often as we can.
5) English language story cassettes and CDs to listen to at night before going to bed. When they were smaller we listened to many music CDs with classical children’s songs, etc. and later they loved listening to story cassettes and CDs.
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?
I believe that consequence and constant repetition is the key and vital to successfully teaching a child a second language. Remaining consequent is probably one of the most difficult things to do, especially when you are using a language the majority of people in your environment do not speak. I think it’s important to show the children a person is proud of that language, has reasons why (and share that with the child! As soon as they're old enough to start rejecting the language, tell them why you’re doing this!), and is strict about not accepting the other language. If parents can create a home environment where it is perfectly natural to speak that language, I believe it helps as the child does not know anything “different” or is aware that learning a second language is not the norm in every household, you know? It’s just a natural thing.
Answer your own question now--what did I not ask about that you want to comment on?
After seventeen years in Austria, I recently had an opportunity to take a six-month leave of absence from my job in Austria and I made plans for an extended stay in California from the end of February to the end of August. The children and I stayed at my parents’ house in north Orange County, and from the end of February to mid-June, the kids attended elementary school in my hometown. My daughter was in 6th grade and my son was in 5th grade. It was an absolutely wonderful experience for them! Naturally they were very nervous about it but the kids in their new classes made them feel very welcome and right away like part of the community. The kids had an opportunity to work more in English (reading, writing, spelling) and improve their comprehension and vocabulary (including, the current slang and – probably unavoidable – the more “colorful” words of the language that they do not learn from Mom!). ;-) I was also very happy that they had a chance to experience the more positive, encouraging and helpful atmosphere of American schools and dedicated American teachers! I have many issues with the Austrian school system; however, that is completely different can of worms that requires a website of its own! ;-) Suffice to say I am not completely happy with the Austrian school system and the (ancient, medieval, old fashioned) methods of teaching and how kids here are treated. That said, the children had a fantastic experience in California where they improved their English, made wonderful new American friends, got a great boost of confidence in their academic abilities, became more “fun” and silly somehow (instead of being “serious Europeans”) and learned many new things!
I understand this is something not all families can do but I believe that if a family has the opportunity to do something like this (where there’s a will there’s a way!), I highly recommend it and it is an invaluable experience for the children. I believe age plays an important part, too, in planning something like this. When the kids hit a certain age (around 11 or 12), they are less reluctant to leave their friends and school and familiar surroundings! The older they get, the harder it becomes! We just barely managed to get Jessica over…. ;-)
Now that the kids are back at their regular school here in Austria (they attend an International School where English is the foremost language of instruction), it is only now they can reflect and compare on the differences from the school they attended in the US. They needed time to do that because it was all so different. When the kids speak English now, they still continue to speak very “American” and their vocabulary and word use is fantastic.
[Sarah again: I'd like to thank Nadine for taking the time to share so much. Her story confirms much of what I've read by linguists and heard from other parents: that lots of input is crucial to learning a second language, that parents can and should address the fact that their children are bicultural as well as bilingual (when that is the case), that consistent input (one-parent-one-language) cuts down on potential confusion, and that peers and the status of the second language does affect the children's perception of and desire to speak it. It's also interesting to note that even older children who are balanced bilinguals still code-switch; my research so far has confirmed that this is a natural part of being bilingual. I also found Nadine's suggestions of inexpensive ways to provide input very helpful: it's true that books for pre-literate children can be read in any language, and taped TV shows certainly are cheaper than buying that many videos and DVDs. So I have a couple of questions for other parents or teachers of bilingual kids: which of Nadine's suggestions seem most valuable to you? Do you have any others to recommend? Have any of you enrolled your children in the second language school system at any point, like Nadine did recently? Have your experiences been similar or different from her family's approach to learning two languages? (Click here to be reminded of difficult it can be to teach your kids a second language. ) Please click on "comments" to share here--and/or email me if you'd like me to post a profile of a bilingual kid you know!]
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