Off topic: To all those with bilingual sprogs Thread poster: Phil Hand
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Phil Hand 
China
Local time: 18:57
Chinese to English
I liked this article in the Guardian very much:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/15/living-in-brussels-children-french
Language is, of course, a big part of that. Bilingualism is a vast and complex topic that I can't hope to cover here, but on a personal level I observe with alarm how far English has fallen from favour, the longer we live in Belgium. My children's mother's tongue is no longer their mother tongue. They speak French to each other, but also to me. I speak to them in English, they reply in French; I tell them to speak English and they refuse in French.
With my British friends and family they make an effort, but don't sound native: Louis's sentence structure is right, but he sounds French; Théo's accent is pure east London but stilted and he struggles for words. Recently, it took him 20 minutes to remember the word "wheel".
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Now, perhaps too late, I am trying to redress the balance. I have always read aloud to them in English, but now I devote more time to trying to think which books would most amuse them, turn them on to the language they have all but abandoned. The way they pronounce Roald Dahl may make me weep, but they love the stories. If they want to watch the Simpsons they have to watch in English...
Huh. I once forgot the word "fluorescent light" for an alarming two weeks.
My nippers haven't yet begun linguistic rebellion - though they do get very irate if mummy or I read to them in the "wrong" language - but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 03:57
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
Thanks for the link. I also enjoyed the article very much.
To maintain the English of English speaking children in a non-English speaking environment, I would recommend a steady diet of English language TV and movies.
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Phil Hand wrote:
Huh. I once forgot the word "fluorescent light" for an alarming two weeks.
While musing in a traffic jam, nothing better to do, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten how to say grapefruit in English!
Everybody in Brazil calls it grapefruit, we say gray-pee-froo-tee. It does indeed have a name in Portuguese, "toranja", but I've never seen or heard anyone using it here. For instance, http://belezaesaude.dae.com.br/sabonete-facial-neutrogena/
Only when I finally got home and relaxed, it dawned upon me that "grapefruit" IS already in English. Duh!
| | | | rjlChile (X)
Local time: 07:57
Michele Fauble wrote:
To maintain the English of English speaking children in a non-English speaking environment, (...)
... would anyone want to do that?
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| Great article, | Sep 16, 2012 |
thanks for the link!
Very funny: Worse still, when I sent them to school with lime jelly cubes for a special treat one day, they came home mortified, telling me that their friends had called it "Martian food".
[Edited at 2012-09-16 08:17 GMT]
| | | | Mailand
Local time: 11:57
Member (2009)
Italian to German
+ ...
| Nice article | Sep 16, 2012 |
Phil, thanks for the link!
I think I´ve been quite lucky. I had already been living in Italy for 10 years when my first kid came along, so was already "steeped" in Italian culture (absorbing most but not all of it, some of the more recent "cultural" developments here are better left where they belong: in the gutter ....). Apart from books and very frequent visits to my home town and visits here from family and friends, I had one important ally: tv - it would be quite hard to make worse ch... See more Phil, thanks for the link!
I think I´ve been quite lucky. I had already been living in Italy for 10 years when my first kid came along, so was already "steeped" in Italian culture (absorbing most but not all of it, some of the more recent "cultural" developments here are better left where they belong: in the gutter ....). Apart from books and very frequent visits to my home town and visits here from family and friends, I had one important ally: tv - it would be quite hard to make worse children´s shows than the Italian ones and my children (now 15 and 13) watch almost exclusively German shows (I am NOT saying that German television is THE thing, but: anybody out there voting for Italian tv??).
I do understand the author´s fear of loss, though, but it´s inevitable: you gain something, you lose a little elsewhere. I believe that a parent of bilingual/bicultural children has to accept that nothing will be 100%. And: As fond as each of us is (usually) of dear childhood memories - we also have to remember that a childhood e.g. in Germany in my case, today, is different from the one I had 45 years ago. Fortunately nothing ever stays the same!
We can only try to instill in our children an openmindedness for cultural differences. And looking at today´s newspaper headlines, I believe that that is an invaluable gain which balances a lot of losses. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 03:57
English to Spanish
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In memoriam |
"With my British friends and family they make an effort, but don't sound native..."
How true!!!
I've got five sons (aged 17, 15, 10, 8 & 4) and one daughter (aged 13). All were born in Germany, and my husband speaks German to them, but I have ALWAYS talked English and nothing but English to them. My daughter is the only one who ever makes an effort to reply to me in English - maybe she thinks it's the girly thing to do....
When the children try and talk Eng... See more "With my British friends and family they make an effort, but don't sound native..."
How true!!!
I've got five sons (aged 17, 15, 10, 8 & 4) and one daughter (aged 13). All were born in Germany, and my husband speaks German to them, but I have ALWAYS talked English and nothing but English to them. My daughter is the only one who ever makes an effort to reply to me in English - maybe she thinks it's the girly thing to do....
When the children try and talk English, they have a pointedly German accent, often use German grammar, and don't have a massively wide vocabulary. On the plus side, they do understand virtually everything I or my British friends and family say to them - though that often doesn't extend to understanding jokes. I remember Johnny, when he was nine or ten, reading aloud to me from a joke book Grandma had sent him.
"What's the coldest country in the world? Chile! (which he pronounced to rhyme with "while"). Never has an attempted joke fallen so flat.
Ah yes...one other thing: my daughter is also my only child to like marmite. And only one son ever supports England with me when it comes to the clash in football matches...
Thanks for the link, Phil! ▲ Collapse
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 11:57
French to English
| I would like to tell this mother | Sep 16, 2012 |
that things can get better.
I definitely had that "been there done that" feeling as I read the article although I refrained from ever giving them jelly!
And non, my son, aged 20, is just off to do an Erasmus year in England, and my daughter in her last year of school is looking at only English schools for next year...
The other night she put "The Jungle Book" on, and we shared it yet again, and I explained things that I had never bothered to explain when ... See more that things can get better.
I definitely had that "been there done that" feeling as I read the article although I refrained from ever giving them jelly!
And non, my son, aged 20, is just off to do an Erasmus year in England, and my daughter in her last year of school is looking at only English schools for next year...
The other night she put "The Jungle Book" on, and we shared it yet again, and I explained things that I had never bothered to explain when they were young, like the vultures spoofing the "modern trash" of the day, we had a great time. They are now heavily into TV series from Britain, preferring them over any US stuff.
They both have enjoyed considerable prestige as the ones who could best decipher and explain the words of songs (asking mum for help of course). They have also embraced their father's culture and family.
I definitely think that three halves sums it up best. ▲ Collapse
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