Bilingual through school. What do I do at home?

[hollyw]

Not sure that title makes much sense!

DS1 is due to start a Welsh Medium school in September. DH and I are both English speaking.

Is anyone else in a similar situation?

I'm wondering how I approach things at home. Do I try and help out with the Welsh learning or do I leave that to school and just carry on with learning the alphabet/phonics etc etc in English.

xx
H

I have a friend who was in a similar situation. She went to an evening class so she knew basic Welsh and makes sure they watch Planed Plant, have Welsh language story books etc. but usually speaks english to her kids. She normally speaks English to the kids but they speak Welsh to each other (the other reason for the evening classes was so she could understand what they were plotting). Friend has been told that after a year in Nursery there was no difference between her DD and the kids from Welsh speaking homes. She is in Cardiff where the situation is commonplace.

I am a single English speaking mum and I live in Catalunya with my 5yr old who goes to a local school where all the subjects are taught in Catalan. At home and with my English friends I always speak to him in English although we do his reader (homework) in catalan which I understand although I speak it really badly. He also speaks Spanish with his father and many other friends and doesn;t seem to have any problems switching from one language to another. In fact, he gets annoyed if I even try to speak to him in Spanish or Catalan! I have workbooks for learning to read and write in English and we watch the tv in all three languages depending whats on. So my advice is, let the school do the welsh bit and concentrate on the English at home!

I'd say wait and see what happens and maybe ask the teacher for advice. If you feel up to helping with homework in Welsh, go ahead with it. If not, I think it's fine to just concentrate on the English and, if need be, you can always organise a tutor to help ds with his Welsh homework later on.

Hope it all goes well.

I think having one language for each situation - Welsh at school and English at home - is a good one. You have to keep speaking English only at home if this is what you've always done. But you may find that your son has trouble telling you about his day at school in English because this is Welsh territory for him. You may also find that there are things he can only say in one or the other language (if for example he learns how to use a computer at school he's more likely to have a Welsh computer related vocab than English).

I'm going to try to put some links here as I've written on this topic before. Here goes.....

anusefulthread

anotherusefulthread

Oh, good, it worked! I'll post this and then do another post.

I've tried below to say things that I haven't already said in the other threads but sorry if I have repeated myself in places!

I'd advise against the suggestion of "having one language for each situation - Welsh at school and English at home." If you want your child to be truly bilingual then each language needs to feel natural to them and I think pigeonholing them would be counterproductive.

Also, in my experience, kids have no trouble going from one language to the other and telling you in English about their day which has been all in Welsh won't be a problem. They'll just say "What is "cath" in English?" (or whatever) and you'll look it up and say "It's 'cat'" and that is how you and they learn. Okay, that's simplified, but that's how it works, basically.

I can be on the phone to my children (now in secondary school - Welsh medium) and say "Ask Dad where he's put the cheque book" and they'll instantly say it in very natural Welsh to him, get the answer in Welsh and immediately repeat the answer to me in English. They don't repeat it word for word in the way I used to do French in school (i.e. badly!) but they use a natural spoken language. Friends of mine who both speak Welsh fluently (1st language) even say that the children speak to the mum using her North Walian words and translate (not literally, you understand, just the words that the parents wouldn't use themselves in normal speech) instantly to the dad using his South Walian words.

I'm not saying that it's going to be easy or without times of feeling like it's hard work and also you might feel that you're missing out on their schooling as you don't understand their schoolwork, but I wanted my children to be bilingual and they are and I'm so glad of that.

I'm impressed by the bit in one of the previous posts on this thread about children plotting in the language that the parent doesn't have! I remember saying to my dd that it must be great to listen in to other people's conversations and she said that the thought wouldn't enter her head! If my siblings and I had been able to speak a language that a parent couldn't, I'm sure we would've taken advantage and listened into conversations! My children don't speak Welsh with each other naturally as English is their first language being my only fluent one, but that's understandable. It would be lovely if they did, though.

Sorry to waffle. If you need any advice or support and you are able to, please CAT me if you want to and I can give you details of organisations which are set up to help English speaking parents whose children are being schooled through the medium of Welsh.

At the Welsh Medium school my dds go to, I would say 90% of the parents don't speak Welsh - about 8% of the families have one parent who is Welsh speaking, and the other 2% have both parents Welsh speaking. From my experiences, it makes no difference to the kids at all.

In our house, I am English, I understand some Welsh, but can't string a sentence together. Dh is 1st language Welsh. We tend to speak Engligh at home, although when with Dh's family, the dds speak Welsh. They have never had any problem talking about their day in English (when they agree to tell me anything at all lol!) - I have been astounded at how easily they picked it all up.

With respect to doing things in Welsh at home, I would advise you at least try and get some understanding of how to pronounce things, if not take classes. I do find it feels a little "excluding" sometimes when I'm at the school and everyone is chatting away in Welsh - however, they send all letters home in Welsh and English, so we don't miss out on vital bits of information (well, we do, but that's nothing to do with the Welsh and everything to do with the incompetence of the school).

Not sure I've written anything useful there, hope it made some sort of sense...

My dd1 is in Gaelic education in Scotland (primary 2) and ds is in Sgoil Araid (preschool). Dh and I are both English speakers.
We encourage Gaelic at home with counting, numbers, colours, simple instructions) which dd1 has taught us (so she is the expert and knows it!).
My dd1 gets Gaelic reading books (they will start English in p3) and a tape home so I can listen to the tape and the reading and make sure her pronounciation is OK. When she was learning a poem we got a tape of that too. Her maths homework sheets are in Gaelic and I have a little 'homework instructions' translation book to help figure out what to do. She does so well - went from only basic nursery level to fluent speaker in a year. She is amazing. Ds is also coming on well with it and understands the instructions he gets at nursery.
Dont know about the English alphabet. Dd1 is always keen to write things in English and I spell them out for her in English phonics at home, referring back to Gaelic if she gets stuck (e.g. 'i' in Gaelic makes the sound 'ee', so if she doesnt get the 'i' sound I would say 'its 'ee' with a dot inGaelic) and it seems to work.
I think bilingual education is a fab thing and hope your ds loves it - you will learn a lot too!

Oh and we watch Gaelic TV. Its dreadful, but they like it!. And sometimes I put the Gaelic radio on in the background for them. Just to hear it used.

Lots of good advice (partic. from Ivor)

Holly,I am Welsh and my dd attends a Welsh medium school,although we are abroad a great deal of the time.
I am also a speech and lang. therapist.
It is better to speak English at home with him,as that is your native tongue (although I know many amazing non native Welsh speakers who choose to speak Welsh with their children.)

Schools generally do all they can to support parents who don't have Welsh as a native tongue.You will also find a wealth of bilingual resources-CDRoms,books,games and activities.

Are you planning to learn some Welsh yourself? It will help a lot,althoguh you will absorb a lot through your ds's schooling.

BTW,I grew up in the Tropics and although my schooling was through the medium f English,we always spoke Welsh with my father (although not my mother,who is English)and all speak good Welsh (I do most of my work through the medium of Welsh)
In those days,therewas no e mail,nice resources,or support networks,and we returned to Wales once a year!

Best of luck-bilingualism opens so many doors.

Check out this organisation's website too,which is aimed at supporting parents who want to raise their children through the medium of Welsh/English.

Twf

Hello All

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread.

Thanks everyone for all the tips and links.

We've been learning a few words and have been playing a Welsh CD lots over the last few weeks.

He starts tomorrow so we'll see how he gets on.

My stomach is in knots! He seems ok though

xx
Holly

How did your ds get on, Holly? I hope it went well. Come back and tell us, whether it did or not. I'm sure we can help you through any glitches (especially as I've probably been through most of them myself!)