Bi-Lingual Children

[Veggie]

I am looking for friends for my two year old daughter that are growing up to be bilingual (German-English)in the Bromley, Kent area.
Would also like to chat to parents of bilingual children.

Veggie, I would love to - dd is 2, nearly 3, and is growing up trilingual (including English and German). Only problem is we don't live in the UK at the moment! Good luck with finding some friends for your dd.

Hi Sprout
So which country do you live in?!
And can you tell me what "dd" actually stands for? (I guessed it's referring to daughter...).
Have you had any problems, or rather has your daughter had any problems coping with three languages?!

Hi Veggie

My dd is also growing up bilingual (italian and english), she'll be 2 in May.
(I used to live in Bromley when I had dd, but have moved away now, sorry, I would have been very interested to meet you!!)

Hi Veggie,
dd is "dear daughter", ds "dear son", dh "dear husband" etc. I think there's a thread somewhere with all the useful abbreviations.
I'm from the UK, dh is German and we live in a part of Belgium where most people speak French - hence the three languages! Dd is not quite 3, so she's still learning to speak properly. I posted a few weeks ago on another thread about bilingualism. I still don't know how to do a link, but I expect it would be easy to find using the seach feature.

Hi Webmum: do you still live in the UK?
and Sprout: Are you you fluent in French? I'd like to move back to Germany, for several reasons, i.e. as I find making friends in the UK incredibly difficult. Most of my friends over the years were other Europeans, i.e. French, German, Austrian and all moved back to their homecountries eventually. However, my partner speaks only a few words of German (mainly picked up from me talking to our dd), so has the perfect excuse not to be able to relocate to Germany with us, as he wouldn't get a decent job (if any). So I'm kind of interested what you and your dh are doing in Belgium.

Hi veggie- we lived in Bromley until last March. My son who has language problems has his own language that only I understand...... not quite the same though

hello everyone,i moved here now so veggie you dont have to keep coming and going,im the same as you id love to go back to spain but my english husband refuses,saying he cant get a job if he doesnt speak spanish and is putting a lot of strain in our relationship as i feel like im sacrificing too much for him and today i asked him if i could go home for a month as hes always working and too tired to even talk to me or the children and he said no because hell miss us,but what about me?i miss my family and friends and everyone there is missing us as well,it`s really hard!!

At least my doh (darling other half) lets me go to Germany when I want to, even though he missis us. But visiting isn't quite the same as living there! The stupid thing with us foreigners/us who live abroad is that we can compare and of course want to best of two worlds which we can't have of course. Even though, having said that, I will go to Germany in April for an operation, as the NHS/doctors can't or won't help and as I dread having an operation done in a hospital here!
I was following a program on BBC2 on Tuesdays over the last few weeks about people selling up in the UK and trying to make a living abroad. Rather interesting, but doh isn't adventurous enough...
Jimjams: read a comment of yours on a thread about nurseries. You took ds out of one... Was that a Bromley one? If so which?
Christ is that the time?! Only wanted to check for replies quickly...! - Good night!

yep- veggie it was a Bromley one and I have very grave concerns about that particular nursery (especailly having moved ds1 to another nursery - the difference is staggering). Not sure I'm allowed to name and shame it has 2 words in it's name- and is quite close to a big square roundabout. Feel free to email me offlist- get my address from tech and I'll let you know whether it's the same. We're still dealing with issues from that nursery and it's 2 years later!! Oh and I did hear of other stories and other people who removed their children.

hi veggie

yes I'm still in the uk, only we're now on the opposite side of london (southgate area).
I understand your problems in making friends here in the uk, must admit that most of mine are not british, but since I was working before dd, I managed to keep in touch with a few of my prechildren friends, both british and foreign.
Whereabouts in Bromley do you live?

Hi, my DSs are being brought up to be Bi-lingual, English (Mum) and Italian (Dad). I live SE, near Winchester/Southampton, would love them to meet other Italian speakers.

However, DS understand Italian perfectly, but always replies in English, we can't get him to speak Italian. Does anyone else have that problem?

hi eve
my dd is the same i talk to her in spanish and she answers back in english or english with a few spanish words shes 2 1/2,its a good sign that they understand but i have an english friend in spain and her 12 year old ds understands perfect english but wont talk in english

I live near Plaistow Green...
At the moment dd speaks in German. But as she has started nursery now, she will probably end up speaking English (I think most children do, may be because they don't want to be "different", but still understand German...
Her father speaks to her in German (broken German) und sometimes in English. I heard that each parent should speak to the child in their mother tongue, but on the other hand I'm the only one who speaks to her in German (at least in this country) and he needs the practice...

Hej.
I wonder if there is any Swedish mums out there. I would love to get contact to Swedish or foreign mums living in the uk and who sometimes (especially after having children)suffer from home sickness.Looking forward hearing from you.

does Australian and English count as bilingual - I do know sometimes Dh (english) thinks I am speaking a different language!!

oops forgot the

Yes if you do not speak the queens english your can call yourself bi lingual...or that is what my dh (english) thinks.