Are we confusing our toddler?
May 23, 2019 23:01:10 GMT 9
Post by Marieke on May 23, 2019 23:01:10 GMT 9
Hi there, bilingual zoo community.
My husband and I are raising our 19-month-old son bilingually. My native language is Dutch and my husband's is American-English. We live in the Netherlands, which means that Dutch is the majority language. My husband and I speak English with each other but we both speak our native language with our little guy. He's currently on the brink of saying his first words besides some inconsistent use of papa and mama and we are really excited to watch him take his first steps into the magical world of language.
1) He is a bit on the slow side (not saying anything other than papa and mama, and even that is pretty inconsistent) and I am wondering whether the fact that we offer him two different languages has something to do with this? I found that there is no research that suggests a delay in language acquisition due to speaking more than one language but I'm wondering what the actual experiences of the people here on this forum are?
2) As I said, we're both speaking our own language when interacting with our son. Given that we're living in the Netherlands, most reading material and such that he's exposed to is in Dutch, which means that my husband oftentimes reads the same books as I do but in English (e.g., translating on the fly). I'm wondering if this might confuse our son, that the same book is sometimes containing lions and tigers and other times 'leeuwen' and 'tijgers'? Should we invest in more English-language material and make a strict division where I only use Dutch books/material and my husband only English books/material?
3) My last question concerns the fact that I oftentimes speak English as well as Dutch to our son. I work in an English-language workplace and my written English is quite close to that of a native speaker. My spoken English is also very good but not without an accent and definitely not as natural as my own native language. However, English is the only way my husband and I can communicate so our son is inevitably exposed to my non-native English as well as my husband's native English and I'm wondering if he will know which one is 'the right one'? The most commonly used strategy I have read about when raising a bilingual child seems to be what we're doing; both speaking our own language with our son, but this seems to be really hard when it's the three of us. Do people here find that this indeed poses somewhat of an extra challenge?
Hope to hear from some parents of bilingual kids, thanks!
My husband and I are raising our 19-month-old son bilingually. My native language is Dutch and my husband's is American-English. We live in the Netherlands, which means that Dutch is the majority language. My husband and I speak English with each other but we both speak our native language with our little guy. He's currently on the brink of saying his first words besides some inconsistent use of papa and mama and we are really excited to watch him take his first steps into the magical world of language.
I have some questions about the best way to support him on this exciting journey:
2) As I said, we're both speaking our own language when interacting with our son. Given that we're living in the Netherlands, most reading material and such that he's exposed to is in Dutch, which means that my husband oftentimes reads the same books as I do but in English (e.g., translating on the fly). I'm wondering if this might confuse our son, that the same book is sometimes containing lions and tigers and other times 'leeuwen' and 'tijgers'? Should we invest in more English-language material and make a strict division where I only use Dutch books/material and my husband only English books/material?
3) My last question concerns the fact that I oftentimes speak English as well as Dutch to our son. I work in an English-language workplace and my written English is quite close to that of a native speaker. My spoken English is also very good but not without an accent and definitely not as natural as my own native language. However, English is the only way my husband and I can communicate so our son is inevitably exposed to my non-native English as well as my husband's native English and I'm wondering if he will know which one is 'the right one'? The most commonly used strategy I have read about when raising a bilingual child seems to be what we're doing; both speaking our own language with our son, but this seems to be really hard when it's the three of us. Do people here find that this indeed poses somewhat of an extra challenge?
Hope to hear from some parents of bilingual kids, thanks!