I need some support!

[Psammead]

Hi! Brit living in Germany.

Anyone else find it hard to speak English all the time to your child? I often find myself slipping into German in mixed company. This is harder than I thought!

Holiday in England will help for sure

Hi! Brit in Germany too.

I've been banned from talking German to DS1 by the Kindergarten. I'm still learning and have been confusing the poor chap with my attempts to talk! Mutterzunge only, here.

Are you German then, or just brilliant at the language?

I'm in Brazil - DH and I are bilingual too (we grew up here). We speak English only with the DCs when at home but mix the languages when with others. Otherwise I feel we're being rude...

I'm in Japan - it IS difficult isn't it. I'm afraid I overcompensated for being very obviously NOT Japanese (no blending in here, however well you speak the language!)

I speak (and read) Japanese fluently and with a native-like accent (or so I'm told), so I wanted to "show" people that I could indeed speak the language, however foreign I looked.

I also immersed myself in my local community, going to only local playgroups etc. so I just tended to speak Japanese most of the time.

And of course, trips back to the UK are only every two or three years...when we do go back, the DCs are actually very good at communicating with family. And there is Skype, for more practice.

I did try to speak English only at home, and I read to the DCs in English A LOT, so they do actually have a receptive understanding.

They are 11 and 12, and are actually speaking more and more English. There was a time when they were very anti-English (didn't want to be "different" in front of their friends etc. and I didn't want to push it, with my being a big blue-eyed furriner to boot!)

Keep speaking as much as poss, I have days when I regret not being stricter with myself...ho hum. Well, at least they will learn English at school and uni here

Yes it`s not easy, especially if I pick ds up from German speaking kindergarden. Sometimes I don´t realise it and speak German.As soon as possible I switch to english.
My ds did the same. Refusal,but I carried on. Now with learning English abc it´s easyer. He has to read and he has to answer the questions.I think he´s a bit lazy too, as he mostly answers back in German.

If they answer in the "wrong" language just pretend not to understand. They don't have to believe you - just to realise that, unless they really can't say it in the weaker language, you're not going to speak the "wrong" language just to make their life easier.

Works for me (daughter 27 months).

I've never been totally strict on this, but I do pull myself up from time to time when I notice there is not enough Swedish spoken. Often it helps to read a few extra Swedish books to them, or watch films together and talk about them, or generally introduce subjects that will make it easier and more natural for me to think in Swedish. I certainly don't want to end up in situation where we are all so unused to speaking Swedish that it feels like an effort.