Has anyone ever been stared at??

[belgianmama]

I've got 2dc's and I'm sure some of you must know they're Dutch/English bilingual. I'm quite strict with the OPOL strategy and always talk Dutch to my 2. They find it only natural and are not embarrased or anything. If anything they'd find it odd of I speak English to them. Anyway. The other day I was in Asda and I'm used to people's head turning when I speak Dutch, but it's usually for a second and then they carry on. This time, though, this man started staring when he heard me speak Dutch and then he just kept on staring during my whole conversation. When I challenged him he didn't appologise or anything . I was sooooo . It's so rude to stare. It's not like I'm the only person the area that speaks a different language!

we always speak in Italian to dc. Sometimes we get stared. Most of the times we don't. ds is a bit puzzled because his friends at nursery haven't learnt italin yet....

Yes Pitchou,I know what you mean re France.
I speak French and my sister is married to a French guy and has four children so I know what you are getting at.

I have lived in Brittany though and have a fair few Breton friends (many of whom speak Welsh) who weep with envy at what we have here in Wales copared to what they have.

I have an English mother and am happy to speak English but my Welshness is stamped through me like a stick of rock.

Hugehead,the secret is to be really proud of your culture and to 'big it up' as well as pointing out to your children how great it is not to be like everyone else.
My father always did this.His love and pride at being Welsh shone through always.

In our family we eat Korean food,listen to French music,read Welsh books and so on.
I know that all the children in it are immensely proud of our cultural melange.

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I'm sure they will.
If you are,then they will be!

Where were you?
Somewhere like Tahiti?

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Lets see...French...Polynesia.

Was it great?
My sister teaches (lycee)and applied for a transfer there.
She didn't get it but got martinique,where she and her family are now.
I think it was better in the long run.
Caribbean is new territory for us all whereas going back to the Pacific might have been sort of reinventing the past I think...

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Thank you for your comments, moondog. Yes, our family is proud to be dutch, but I'll emphasise it a bit more. Perhaps that helps. It's funny but here in Cambridge it's very normal to be bilingual (so he's not that different). I believe at his school there are about 23 different nationalities! And he's got many friends that are bilingual too (japanese, spanish, german, dutch, hungarian, canada etc). So it shouldn't be too hard to persuade him, really. I'll hang in there.

I must say that from schools I've only got positive remarks or no remarks at all. At day nursery both dc's sometimes used to mix languages, so they asked my for a list of commonly used words.
I do find that people that don't know us tend to be amazed when I tell them that yes they know English or the other way around, at home I keep having to remind people that yes, they speak Dutch. Bilingualism seems to be a hard concept to grasp for so many people . I keep having to tell family in Belgium not to speak English to the children.

Aah, Belgianmama, that's because the Dutch (or Flemish perhaps too?) love to show off their knowledge of foreign languages and grab every chance to practise. I know of english people living in Holland, who really wanted to learn to speak Dutch, but every time they started to struggle the Dutch just switched to english. They didn't get a chance!

I've heard the same complaint from my dh who used to work on a ferry that went to Rotterdam, hugeheadofhair. He tried to speak Dutch, but just was never left to try it. He doesn't try at home, because he thinks I'm not patient enough. Also it really throws me when he tries, because I don't expect it.

Despite the fact that my ex-p and i split before my DS was born i made the conscious decision to speak to my DS only in German when we arrived back in Scotland from austria when he was only 8 weeks old - my theory being that everyone else around him would be speaking english so to keep my language skills fresh (after ten years in austria i considered myself billingual), the fact that he is after all half austrian and to ensure that if and when his father ever 'finds himself' enough to decide he does want to be a parent it will be nice for my DS to tell him in his own language what an A*hole he is.
But the amount of opposition from members of my own family made it very difficult but i have stuck to my guns and do find it amazing that my Ds (nearly 3) knows which person to speak which language to.....

TT