Inspiring Others Through Everyday Living
By
on
June 21st, 2007
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Our family is different than most and it's interesting to see the different reactions we encounter as we interact with others. Raising children tri-lingually isn't exactly normal. But for us it's a way of life. The less informed seem to believe our children's brains will explode because they are dealing with three languages (and sometimes four) but most think we're doing a cool thing and giving our children a gift for life.
Last year we visited a German friend and his children for the first time since our pre-kids days. He loved he idea of his kids interacting with us and perhaps learning a thing or two. And it would of course be a great experience for Daniel as well. My friend's children are well educated but haven't traveled a lot around the world. For them it was a cool experience to have a family of foreigners staying with them for a couple of weeks. Especially since we were speaking four languages simultaneously.
My friend thought an important thing for his children was to get some real experience of foreigners and think more of all the things that exist outside the home country. Hotels in a foreign country are nice but it's tough to interact closely with the staff. Their kids picked up a few Swedish phrases and also got very interested in English. A few months after we left my friend told me how we had inspired the kids to take English classes. Since I know how important it is to learn other languages I was real excited to hear of their progress. But the credit for the straight A's goes to the bright kids.
During my earlier trips to Germany this summer I ran into another friend who married an American and now have a little baby. I was surprised to hear him speaking no German to their baby. We talked about it at length and I pointed out what an advantage the German language would be for their baby later in life. Older Germans, like grandparents, speak little English and the poor baby would be growing up without being able to communicate with close relatives.
Small babies learn new things frighteningly fast and an additional language requires very little effort. Speaking to the baby for an hour or two a day is enough to make the new language sink in before you know it. We agreed he would speak English as usual to his wife and then German only to the baby. By the time his daughter is two years old she will be bi-lingual and able to communicate with her close relatives. He doesn't know it but he will be thanking me in just a few short years.
I can hardly be called an inspiring person but being able to motivate and inspire someone here and there just by living life is a great feeling. Back in elementary school I had no idea extra languages would become so important and helpful. I'm glad my parents suggested picking up German and focus more on English. The thinking back then was not on being able to use the languages in real life but is still worked out perfectly.
The most important lesson regarding languages is the sooner a new language is learned, the easier it will be. Anything attempted before age 3 will be learned incredibly easy. Progress is a little less fast until age 6 but then starts slowing down. A 7 year old child will of course learn things quickly but not nearly as fast as a baby. And lets not get started on learning a language at age 20 or 30. It can be easy for some but usually required lots of effort to really "stick".
Start early and the effort will hardly be noticed. Start in college years and count of spending much time on learning and remembering new vocabulary.
Tell me about it - well we are trying hard to stick with Chinese (Cantonese) English (from school) and some Hindi — it’s hard… and probably confusing to the little guy. To top it of my wife has started playing Dora Dora in French.
Have a great time in Germany.
You have described one of my hot buttons–parents of two different cultures who do not honor both languages. It IS hard to be consistent, but it is so important. If not, as you wrote, the grandparents will suffer, the kids and parents often have regret later in life. We are doing our best to walk the walk here. It is slow going with dd. Her Swedish is not where I would like it to be. She does understand everything that dh tells her, but I wish I were the Swedish speaking parent as she already gets so much English from her school and friends. Thank god for Swedish dvds and a zone-free player! :)
Since my hubby has already responded I’ll just add my 2cents. Erik is actually doing great in the bi-lingual area! He speaks English at school (at least I’ve noticed) and when he comes home, he switches to words in Chinese (Cantonese). He’s only 14 months old so I’m amazed at what babies can do.
I was also reading a book where it really says that the language submersion is before the age of 7 years old! After that, its do-able but it will never be as fluent as a native speaker. I took Spanish when I was in high school and continued on when I was in college but I have to tell you speaking versus reading is very different! I would never be a fluent speaker in that language no matter how hard I try.
Yes, I’ve also introduced French but since both Chhimi and I don’t speak it, we just play Dora Dora for Erik in French instead. At first, he was a bit confused but now, he’s into it! I’ve constant asked Chhimi to speak Hindi to our son now, even just simple volcabularies will do him wonders later on!