Hello from an English-Cypriot family
Jun 6, 2022 6:57:33 GMT 9
Post by Leo C. on Jun 6, 2022 6:57:33 GMT 9
Hi, my name is Leo and I live with my family in the UK. I'm Cypriot and my native language is Greek (albeit like most Cypriots I speak the Cypriot dialect and not the standard written Greek language) and my partner is English. Our daughter is 5 years old. I always speak to her in Greek whereas my partner speaks English to her. When communicating with my partner at home we speak English as my partner speaks very little Greek. I'm the only family member who interacts in Greek with my daughter on a constant basis, as her Cypriot grandparents are back in Cyprus. I read Adam's book when my daughter was born and got so many ideas and inspiration which still guides me since this day 5 years later.
The bilingual journey has been amazing for our family. My daughter pretty much learned to understand Greek solely from me talking and reading to her and from the TV. (One of the advantages of streaming services is that we can get many spoken languages on TV.) Her English is naturally advancing faster than her Greek but she still shows an interest in Greek and indeed other languages. She also appears to enjoy the fact that she has two cultures and along with trying to teach her the Greek language I try to speak to her about the Cypriot culture too.
Our daughter has done great job learning Greek, her minority language. Her comprehension of spoken Greek is pretty much equal to her comprehension in spoken English. My current challenge/concern now is that she has gradually worked out that I can speak and more importantly understand English and she is now talking to me in English even though I only speak to her in Greek. It has been a slow transition that started about a year ago, if I remember right, but it has accelerated since she started school. It feels she is following the path of least resistance which makes sense from her point of view. On the other hand, I don't find it constructive to constantly keep insisting to speak to me in Greek as it can get to the point that takes the fun away.
In order to remedy this I found two strategies one relatively easy and one more difficult. The easy one is going to a Greek language school for two hours every week (we are lucky to have that option in our area) and the other is travelling back to Cyprus and play with other children there. My daughter definitely enjoys both, but of course the Greek school is limited to once a week and travelling abroad frequently is costly. Some other things we try are video calling with her grandparents, however she is not fun of video calling (in any language
). I would be grateful for any suggestions for more strategies to motivate my daughter to speak more her minority language.
Lastly, even though my partner speaks very little Greek she's been from the beginning extremely supportive of this bilingual journey. She is doing everything possible to keep me motivated and more importantly she is always up for visiting Cyprus when school holidays allow. She also devised a series of rewards for our daughter for when she keeps up her minority language efforts but still our daughter's motivation to speak the minority language is somewhat diminishing.
On a more general note I have to say I'm completely fascinated by bilingualism. I can speak okay English that I have learned mostly as an adult over many years and the children's ability to learn another language seemingly effortlessly, coupled with the ability to self-correct when speaking even in the minority language, will never cease to amaze me. As an aside, I also like to joke that the downside of talking Greek to my daughter all the time is that my English has become worse.
I look forward to reading other people's stories and learn as much as possible about bilingualism.
The bilingual journey has been amazing for our family. My daughter pretty much learned to understand Greek solely from me talking and reading to her and from the TV. (One of the advantages of streaming services is that we can get many spoken languages on TV.) Her English is naturally advancing faster than her Greek but she still shows an interest in Greek and indeed other languages. She also appears to enjoy the fact that she has two cultures and along with trying to teach her the Greek language I try to speak to her about the Cypriot culture too.
Our daughter has done great job learning Greek, her minority language. Her comprehension of spoken Greek is pretty much equal to her comprehension in spoken English. My current challenge/concern now is that she has gradually worked out that I can speak and more importantly understand English and she is now talking to me in English even though I only speak to her in Greek. It has been a slow transition that started about a year ago, if I remember right, but it has accelerated since she started school. It feels she is following the path of least resistance which makes sense from her point of view. On the other hand, I don't find it constructive to constantly keep insisting to speak to me in Greek as it can get to the point that takes the fun away.
In order to remedy this I found two strategies one relatively easy and one more difficult. The easy one is going to a Greek language school for two hours every week (we are lucky to have that option in our area) and the other is travelling back to Cyprus and play with other children there. My daughter definitely enjoys both, but of course the Greek school is limited to once a week and travelling abroad frequently is costly. Some other things we try are video calling with her grandparents, however she is not fun of video calling (in any language
). I would be grateful for any suggestions for more strategies to motivate my daughter to speak more her minority language. Lastly, even though my partner speaks very little Greek she's been from the beginning extremely supportive of this bilingual journey. She is doing everything possible to keep me motivated and more importantly she is always up for visiting Cyprus when school holidays allow. She also devised a series of rewards for our daughter for when she keeps up her minority language efforts but still our daughter's motivation to speak the minority language is somewhat diminishing.
On a more general note I have to say I'm completely fascinated by bilingualism. I can speak okay English that I have learned mostly as an adult over many years and the children's ability to learn another language seemingly effortlessly, coupled with the ability to self-correct when speaking even in the minority language, will never cease to amaze me. As an aside, I also like to joke that the downside of talking Greek to my daughter all the time is that my English has become worse.
I look forward to reading other people's stories and learn as much as possible about bilingualism.
), but it was definitely an enjoyable and effective way of engaging her in the minority language.
