Greetings from Maryland, USA
Oct 19, 2021 1:15:10 GMT 9
Post by Ilyah on Oct 19, 2021 1:15:10 GMT 9
Hi everyone!
My name is Ilyah. I am originally from Russia, and live in the US - my family moved here when I was 12. In Russia, I went to an English-focused school, and was pretty much fluent by the time I moved to US. Here in the US, we also had a significant Russian-speaking community of close friends, and until I went to college I had frequent continued exposure to the language. My family (parents and brother) always speaks Russian amongst ourselves. This allowed me to develop my Russian into “adult” territory.
That said, I never had a significant Russian-speaking peer group, and as I continued into adulthood, English became my primary outside of family context. This also means I don’t know many local families with bilingual Russian children. Nonetheless, I consider Russian to be my native language, albeit certain things are admittedly easier in English now.
My wife is a native-born American. English is her first language, with limited French and Spanish background. Although she has been around my family for quite some time now, and even took a community college Russian class, she does not speak it (“produce”), and understands only a limited amount (she won’t admit exactly how much).
We have a 2-year-old son, whom we would like to be bilingual. To me, it is most natural to speak to my child in Russian, and from day one in the delivery room, I’ve only ever spoken Russian to him. We follow the one-parent, one-language strategy. We’ve had some successes, including:
We also have some (all?) of the challenges common to our situation:
I am also somewhat concerned that, if we don’t provide enough variety of voices in ml – different people, speaking in different tones of voice and inflections, frequently enough – that in a year, he may only understand me, but not necessarily an unfamiliar Russian speaker.
Another concern I have is that promoting ml whenever I can may cause delay in ML development, which is of course also important.
Anyway – that’s our story and journey so far. I look forward to exploring the resources and experiences posted on this forum, and will be posting back with our progress as time goes by!
-Ilyah
My name is Ilyah. I am originally from Russia, and live in the US - my family moved here when I was 12. In Russia, I went to an English-focused school, and was pretty much fluent by the time I moved to US. Here in the US, we also had a significant Russian-speaking community of close friends, and until I went to college I had frequent continued exposure to the language. My family (parents and brother) always speaks Russian amongst ourselves. This allowed me to develop my Russian into “adult” territory.
That said, I never had a significant Russian-speaking peer group, and as I continued into adulthood, English became my primary outside of family context. This also means I don’t know many local families with bilingual Russian children. Nonetheless, I consider Russian to be my native language, albeit certain things are admittedly easier in English now.
My wife is a native-born American. English is her first language, with limited French and Spanish background. Although she has been around my family for quite some time now, and even took a community college Russian class, she does not speak it (“produce”), and understands only a limited amount (she won’t admit exactly how much).
We have a 2-year-old son, whom we would like to be bilingual. To me, it is most natural to speak to my child in Russian, and from day one in the delivery room, I’ve only ever spoken Russian to him. We follow the one-parent, one-language strategy. We’ve had some successes, including:
- He understands everything I say to him, at a level comparable to when my wife addresses him in English;
- He enjoys watching Russian language TV programs, mostly cartoons – some of his favorites are actually Russian ones!
- We have an extensive collection of kid’s Russian books, and he enjoys playing with them as much as English ones;
- I read to him in Russian regularly;
- He has picked up counting (up to 10), letters of alphabet, and names of shapes and colors, to a similar degree in both languages;
- He says a significant number of words in either language, often depending on linguistic context.
We also have some (all?) of the challenges common to our situation:
- I am not the primary caretaker, as the sole ml speaker in the household;
- My wife does not speak Russian, and we use English exclusively between the two of us (except when I occasionally forget to code switch);
- My wife’s extended family consists of 15 aunts and uncles, and all the resulting family connections. My family living in US consists of 3 other people. Family exposure to ml is significantly limited, relatively speaking;
- Russian language and material is not widely spoken or available in US, in a way that Spanish or French might be;
- His 9:00-17:00 daycare program is fully English language – although I am looking to put him into a half-day weekend Russian program, which are available in our area;
- Currently, his only other exposure to “live” Russian language is when we visit with my parents. Even then, when my wife is around, many times we default to English;
- When we go to events, like a party, the default language is most often English – I always feel guilty speaking English in his presence, even though it’s not “child-directed language”.
I am also somewhat concerned that, if we don’t provide enough variety of voices in ml – different people, speaking in different tones of voice and inflections, frequently enough – that in a year, he may only understand me, but not necessarily an unfamiliar Russian speaker.
Another concern I have is that promoting ml whenever I can may cause delay in ML development, which is of course also important.
Anyway – that’s our story and journey so far. I look forward to exploring the resources and experiences posted on this forum, and will be posting back with our progress as time goes by!
-Ilyah