AdventureDad

Our tri-lingual adventure with our children continues and we have seen good progress after our 5 week stay in Mexico.  We're still using our languages in the same way as when we started.  I'm speaking Swedish only to the kids, wife speaks Spanish only, and we speak English with each other.  Our 3-year old son has had a good understanding of Spanish for quite some time but our Mexican stay really improved his verbal skills.

Young children have some incredible learning abilities.  Especially for languages.  While some (uninformed) think three languages is too much for children fact is that young kids can learn six languages at once. Or perhaps more. And young children will learn simply by listening to conversations, not by studying or taking any kind of formal lessons.  It's quite amazing.

Daniel's understanding of Spanish is good but he has chosen to speak mostly Swedish  to both of us for the past year or so.  That's likely because of his previous Swedish only day-care. While my wife wishes he would speak only Spanish to her we are not worried.  It's very common that bi-lingual or tri-lingual children  act a little irrational with their languages during  younger years.

My feeling is that Daniel has been a little shy in wanting to speak Spanish but it could just be my imagination.  We've noticed he uses his Spanish vocabulary better while playing with children his  age than with adults.  It's more natural for him.  It seems that he learns much by listening to adults speaking and likes to use the words while playing with his Mexican cousins or while hanging out with some of his Latin friends at home.

Since December 2006 he's also in a bi-lingual Swedish/English class at his school.  He's definitely picked up some English phrases but it's the language we're least focused on.  We both think it's by far the easiest language to learn and something he will easily pick up in school later on.  But it's good to build a base right now in case we move to another country and he has to attend English school.

I'm spending some time this summer in Germany for a little work and also  playing tennis so we are again going quad-lingual.  In addition to Swedish, English, and Spanish we also add German to our language mix during this time.  The first few days are fun since my son looks at me and laughs every time I speak German to my friends.  Maybe this year he will be used to it? 

We spent a couple of fantastic weeks last summer at Château Sibbel and it was a great experience for Daniel.  We will do the same this year but I will also  be flying down a couple of weekends to help out my team.

My 9-month old daughter is so far not saying any words but I have a feeling it won't be long until she starts speaking. Right now we are  busy running behind her since she's starting to walk.   She's already a complicated women at this young age and seems incredibly impatient and curious to learn new things.  It will be very interesting to see her progress compared to Daniel.