3rd language only between parents - good idea or not?
Jun 19, 2018 23:24:32 GMT 9
Post by Sasha on Jun 19, 2018 23:24:32 GMT 9
Hello!
I am a Slovenian married to a Dutch man, living in the Netherlands. We have a now 2-year-old daughter, who also attends Dutch kindergarten, 4 days a week.
We are, basically, sticking to the one-person-one-language principle (that said, my daughter still hears me speak Dutch in public, and half the time when I speak to my husband). I never use it while speaking directly to her.
Both my husband and I are also proficient in French and we use it half the time as we speak to each other, but never directly to our daughter.
I am wondering what would be best for our daughter in regards to our priorities: 1. her aquiring Slovenian before school starts (at age 4 here). 2. her learning Dutch well enough by age 4 not to fall behind her peers.
(We consider her picking up some French as only a by-product with much less importance.)
I think that, although I am her main caretaker, our daughter has enough exposure to Dutch at the kindergarten and among her friends.
What I am wondering is, just how much her hearing me speak Dutch (especially if I speak to her father) takes away her need to use Slovenian. In this respect I am wondering if it is better for me to use French when speaking with my husband, since that way she would get less input from me in Dutch. Or is it better, as we thought until recently, to drop French so as not to hinder her aquisition of her first languages. (At the kindergarten we hear she should be hearing more Dutch, too).
At the moment (she was 2 at the end of May and is actively using only single words, about 7 of them always in Slovenian and about the same number (a different repertoire) always in Dutch. We have heard her combine two words together in the past 2 months, but it is not happening regularly yet.
Opinions and advice, please!!
Thank you,
Sasha
I am a Slovenian married to a Dutch man, living in the Netherlands. We have a now 2-year-old daughter, who also attends Dutch kindergarten, 4 days a week.
We are, basically, sticking to the one-person-one-language principle (that said, my daughter still hears me speak Dutch in public, and half the time when I speak to my husband). I never use it while speaking directly to her.
Both my husband and I are also proficient in French and we use it half the time as we speak to each other, but never directly to our daughter.
I am wondering what would be best for our daughter in regards to our priorities: 1. her aquiring Slovenian before school starts (at age 4 here). 2. her learning Dutch well enough by age 4 not to fall behind her peers.
(We consider her picking up some French as only a by-product with much less importance.)
I think that, although I am her main caretaker, our daughter has enough exposure to Dutch at the kindergarten and among her friends.
What I am wondering is, just how much her hearing me speak Dutch (especially if I speak to her father) takes away her need to use Slovenian. In this respect I am wondering if it is better for me to use French when speaking with my husband, since that way she would get less input from me in Dutch. Or is it better, as we thought until recently, to drop French so as not to hinder her aquisition of her first languages. (At the kindergarten we hear she should be hearing more Dutch, too).
At the moment (she was 2 at the end of May and is actively using only single words, about 7 of them always in Slovenian and about the same number (a different repertoire) always in Dutch. We have heard her combine two words together in the past 2 months, but it is not happening regularly yet.
Opinions and advice, please!!
Thank you,
Sasha
I recently had the opportunity to hear a 33-month-old monolingual child speak and yes, my 27-month-old did not speak that well, but trust me she understands absolutely everything! My little one just juggles more vocabulary than her monolingual peer. However, she will make up for it. Studies have said bilingual kids have a slower language acquisition but catch up with their monolingual peers by age 5. (And my 6 year old does speak our ML like her peers.)
