The 'weak' language

[Pitchounette]

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Wow, I think it is wonderful that your parents moved to be close to you.
I would be concerned too about mixing up the languages.
I hope someone with the experience you mention comes on here to give you advice.

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Sorry to hijack...

I am a native English speaker, married to a German, living in Germany with one new DD. We would like her to become bilingual and the basic plan is I will always speak English to her, DH always German and the family language is German as that is what DH and I speak to each other.

Can anyone recommend any reading material on raising bilingual children because I would like to find out more / get some tips / know what pitfalls to avoid.

Any advice gratefully received!

Sound like you have it sorted. I believe the main thing is to be consistent.

You can introduce her to different accents and expressions via DVDs, CDs and obviously lots of reading aloud.

Good luck

Yes, stick to just speaking english all the time to your dd even if you get funny looks outside. We did that with ours and at first it felt strange because I had been speaking German all the time to try and learn it!
Even on the odd ocasion when they speak German to me now I always answer in English. Good luck.

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I think fruitscone if you speak German to your dh at home and you live in Germany, it will be difficult to maintain her English. German will become her dominant language unless you choose an English language nursery, schooling and once she notices you understand German (via your conversation with dh etc), she will not be highly motivated to progress with English. It can be quite an uphill struggle.

Whereabouts are you in Germany? Do you have bilingual schools there?

I personally, reflecting back on the mistakes I have made, would consider sending her to a purely English language nursery if you can so she is really well based in Englsh before she starts school. German she will pick up naturally from her father, his family and the general environment.

fruitscone, this is exactly our position (escept we have a 2-year-old ds and a second arriving any day) Sandy is right when she says your situation can cause English to be behind - my ds certainly uses his German more, just because of having more contact with it (dh; ILs; others around us; hearing it from me) but I don't necessarily think his English is suffering as such - he understands everything, mixes languages in his sentences and sometimes comes out with the most amazing, grammatically perfect things in English. Just make sure you always (as admylin said, even when out and about) speak English to her, create a treasury of English books, try and find English-speaking activities, friends and playgroups (we have more or less decided against English-speaking or bilingual kindergarten for a few reasons, so are aware this will be a constant challenge, but feel fairly prepared for it).

(sorry, that is ds hears German from me because I speak it with dh. I always speak English with ds)

I'd also recommend going to see friends and family with children similar age as much as possible, or even invite them to visit you for a holiday/short break. My DD has Italian as her dominant language but we've had people over this summer who are English speaking only and DD's English has really come on leaps and bounds - this after me despairing she'd ever say anything apart from her stock few words.

I also plan to "park" her at relatives in the UK in the summer holidays when she's a bit older, but we'll have see how that pans out as I haven't yet put it to said relatives .

English nursery for us is not an option as quite simply there isn't one locally and the nearest British school is too bloody expensive

Wow - thanks for all your responses.

We are in Bavaria but out in the sticks so there is no scope for English / bilingual nurseries or suchlike. So it's all down to me (and my family) to make sure she learns English.

We had kind of naively assumed that English would be her dominant language since I am a SAHM and she is currently more exposed to my English. So DH and I had been discussing if it would be a problem for her if her German was lagging behind in a few years time. Never even considered that her English might be the struggle!

Pitchounette - can I ask what the OPOL approach is??

Thanks again.

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hi fruitscone, we are in bavaria too, out in the sticks east of munich.

my children speak mainly english between themselves, and with me, so english is still ahead of german. But I think that english is very easy to pick up. do you use the english bookshops in munich?

Pitchounette - have you read Le Défi des Enfants Bilingues by Barbara Abdel-Bauer? I found that quite useful.

Aha thank you Pichounette!

Nightynight - DD is 8 weeks so we're not at the English bookshop stage yet! Out of interest, I remember there being one on Schellingstrasse about ten years ago but I'm not sure if it's still there. Can you tell me where any more are? I am east of Munich too incidentally - very close to Austrian border.

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Pitchounette - I was typing from memory and the author is in fact Barbara Abdelilah-Bauer. The book is published by La Découverte. I'm sure you can order it from FNAC. Personally I thought it an excellent book and I think it will answer a lot of the questions you are asking yourself. It certainly helped me understand that OPOL is NOT the be all and end all of bilingualism.

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I'd take solution 1. Definitely.

But I'd do it this way:

Mum: Do you want to go to the park?

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The big takeaway I got from the book is that every bilingual family/situation is different and it really is up to both parents to be committed to bilingualism and to ensure that children are receiving as equal dose as possible of each language.

So, since I live in Paris and the language of the family and the environment is French, the vast majority of our books, DVDs etc are in English and I make major efforts to ensure my daughter hears and speaks loads of English.

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Sorry to hijack, but I have a quick query!

If I speak to my child in English (my first lang) and my partner speaks in Spanish (his first lang), does it have an impact what language we choose to use together? We both speak each other's language fluently, though obviously it's not like listening to a native speaker, accent or otherwise. Would there be an impact choosing one language over the other, even though the child would hear both languages from each of us? Also, would we have to choose and use one language consistently as a 'family' language or could we chop and change?

(I'm pg at the moment, so doing some research!)

great thread

ds is 4 yrs old like yours pitchounette, and he does exactly the same. Mixes both languages. Tbh I've put it down to it being the bilingual 'phase' he is in, since it seems to have come about naturally since he started speaking. I feel that he'll separate the languages out when he is ready. To complicate matters though he speaks a third language in nursery but interestingly not once has he mixed that language in with his two home languages. I'm assuming it is because it is a more recent addition and it has a definite place/people association for him.

So not a scientific or informed opinion but thought I'd share because both boys are the same age!

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