DS - Can’t speak language abroad

[LangoLanguage]

Sorry for the long post. Myself and my husband have a 2 year old son and currently we live in London. I was born and raised in the UK and he was born and raised in Zurich and moved here for work.

We regularly go to Zurich often and have recently decided we would like to try and find jobs there and move there. In his industry this is quite common and he is a citizen so has all the passports etc, and for a while I’d be a SAHM. We have a lot of friends and nearly all family there.

We both naturally speak to my son in English, although we have been trying with German more and more. The state schools in Zurich are pretty great and we’d quite like to send him to one if we moved (as opposed to international school) and he’d start with a few days at age 3.

Is this a stupid idea? Sending him to school that speaks a language he doesn’t understand? Friends have said at this age they’re like sponges and absorb, but im
worried. This is also a future problem as we haven’t even moved!

ETA I tried to post this but it crashed so hopefully it hasn’t posted two separate threads!

He is three he will pick up the language easily .
Kids do.
Don't worry
Give him a week at nursery hexwill be speaking German or absorbing it anyway

At age 3 it isn’t really “school” so I don’t think it’d be an issue, and he’d learn pretty quick.

We moved to Germany and our my eldest in kindergarten at age 2.5 when she didn’t speak any German. She never had any issues and is now in a regular German school.

It gets harder as they get older so I’d do it sooner rather than later.

Your German speaking husband can start now only speaking German
Don't worry if he replies in English

There are bilingual kindergartens if you wanted to give him a softer start and several of the International schools teach in both. A little colloquial Swiss German may be useful in the playground, high German less so.

Your DH should only speak German.

At 3 he will be fine.

It would be amazingly shitty of your DH to just drop him there without teaching him the basics first. Of course your kid will pick it up but he will be scared and overwhelmed first.

We wouldn’t just do that! That would be cruel.

That’s really reassuring! Did she settle nicely?

Absolutely this. He’ll pick it up very quickly at that age.

He’s 3 don’t worry. If he was 10 that’s different

You could start with finding German cartoons/children’s shows for him to watch. There are bound to be some aimed at young children

I wouldn’t worry.

we had Ukrainian refugees live near us and within a few months both children aged 8 and 12 on arrival were practically fluent.

Kids absorb language much quicker and easier than adults.

Thank you all so much. This is really reassuring and love some of the ideas. I guess I’m just nervous that his classmates will be talking in a language he doesn’t understand.

But on the continent, DCs do start at school at 3. (in some countries)

DH really should start speaking now! (I know it seems odd, but it works) Buy books etc for bedtime.

Fab idea. He really does try but when I’m around he naturally switches to English, I need to ensure he sticks to German even around me!

I think people saying it will definitely be fine are being a bit naive but it will probably be ok. I met a few kids at international schools who had struggled to integrate in local schools/nurseries.

Also, sometimes the local education philosophy isn’t a good fit even where the language isn’t a problem so best to keep an open mind.

At age 3 it won't be an issue. He will pick up the language around him very quickly. The longer you leave it, the harder it will get, so if you're going to make the move I would do so sooner rather than later.

Thank you this is something to consider.

Also we will be making this our home forever so want him to integrate.

I’d highly recommend looking into the OPOL (one parent, one language) model for bi/multi-lingual families to fully immerse their children in both languages.
It really does work and I wish we’d stuck to it.
You would only speak to your son in English and your husband would only speak to him in German.
I have a friend who’s married to a Dutch guy and they really stuck with OPOL. By the time her children were 4 and 5, they would be having a conversation with me in English about their new doll, their dad would call from the kitchen asking in Dutch “what would you like in your sandwich?”, they’d respond in perfect Dutch and then go right back to speaking to me in English.

I work in a school and we had a young lad from Portugal, who started Year 4 in September last year - he couldn't speak a word of English. No one in school speaks Portuguese, so it was a case of using Google Translate. He now speaks reasonably good English but understands much more. We also had a Ukrainian girl in Year 4, who started in Year 1, and her English was limited. She's now fluent in English. Your son at 3, will learn German pretty easily, as they do soak up information.

I went to schools that had plenty of children who didn’t speak English. They all picked it up quickly. Lessons are tough and boring but when you’re immersed in the language, you figure it out quickly. I did the same as an adult by travelling around South America for a year to learn Spanish.
My niece wanted to join the kids club on holiday in Egypt a few years ago. We didn’t realise all the other kids were Russian until dropping her off in the morning. She insisted she wanted to go back and by the end of the week could tell us quite a few Russian phrases. She figured it out by gestures and body language.

Wow I will google this! Do you think at 2 it is too late though?

That’s incredible!

How did they find adapting/making friends?

Exciting times, OP!
We’re moving to Germany (we’re citizens) and our son is a year old. We haven’t spoken German to him much but we’re working on that, and we’re letting him hear German children’s songs etc on YouTube. We’ll be putting him in kita as soon as we arrive, and I am confident it will be ok. My cousin’s daughter was 3 when she started kita with no German knowledge, at the age of 4 and a half she is as fluent as any other 4 year old German child. Don’t panic, you’re doing the right thing! All the best for the move!