Tri-Lingual Update - Mamma Mia, We’re Learning English
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November 23rd, 2008
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Our tri-lingual adventure continues and as the kids get older it just keeps getting more interesting. What became clear early on was to get ready for surprises, one never know at what pace children will pick up a new language (or three). Our latest surprise was a huge boom in English language and also singing in all three languages after the kids started watching the newly released Mamma Mia movie. Our son has in the past two weeks started singing songs in all three languages, it started with English but then spread to Swedish and Spanish. Our 2-year old daughter Annika language skills are also booming. She can be heard in her room singing "Money, Money, Money" all the time. First credit cards and now this…..
I've talked quite a bit about raising tri-lingual kids, it's completely natural for us to speak three languages at home and not something we think about. When I occasionally reflect on this I feel very happy, it's great that our kids are speaking three languages at such an early age. I downloaded purchased Mamma Mia for Foxy Wife a couple of weeks ago and didn't even think of the kids. Who would have thought they were such huge ABBA fans?
I don't know what it is about the movie but the kids loved it from the first moment. We've watched it over and over again in the past two weeks. What's interesting is how this movie led to such huge jump in language development for both kids. My son was quite shy speaking English before and didn't like singing in any language. Now he can't stop himself.
Raising tri-lingual kids has meant plateaus and huge jumps, not steady development. Our kids remain at one level for a few months and then jump three levels from one day to another. It's really cool and interesting to watch. Our daugter, the most energetic toddler in the world, is perhaps most impressive. Her lanugage skills are already great at two years, she speaks far more than most mono-lingual kids and is at least 6 months ahead of her big brother when he was the same age.
No only is she already a woeld canpion at saying "No!"but she also speaks non-stop throughout the day. Poor boys, she's going to toy with them during the teenage years.
I went to see this movie in the theaters with my husband and our then-six-week-old (I think) baby. (Maybe 8 weeks? 7? Anyway, very young.) She DANCED almost from the start! There is something about ABBA songs that are inherently dance-able even if you really don’t like the lyrics all that much (or, for that matter, Pierce Brosnan’s singing. Thank goodness they kept that to a minimum!)
So cool that your kids are learning to speak three languages. My daughter’s friend speaks English and Spanish and I witnessed her translating from English to Spanish for her little sister. It was adorable.
My kids too love the songs from Mamma Mia. Thought I was past my “Dancing Queen” phase…
hi there i want to learn meaning and spelling for all abba’s songs specially mamma mia could you help me?