Hello from Germany
Oct 14, 2014 19:34:38 GMT 9
Post by Maya on Oct 14, 2014 19:34:38 GMT 9
Hello everyone! My name is Maya.
I was born in Germany to my German mother and Scottish father who talked English to one another and moved to Scotland just before my first birthday. My mother talked German to me for the next two years, but as both my parents were at home a lot English was my majority language.
When my mum and me moved back to Germany when I was three she continued talking English to me when at home and German turned into the majority language. She once told me that in Scotland I had talked mostly English but after we moved I stopped talking for a couple of months and then switched to German completely.
As a child I spent a lot of time visiting family in Scotland (about 12 weeks a year) and listening and reading English books and tapes (yes, tapes! Those were the days...). When I was about five or six I told my mum I didn't want her to talk English to me, because it was "wrong". Of course my own English by that time wasn't perfect, but I understood as much as that this was not her mother tongue and that she had a strong accent.
After that I took extra lessons in English at school and am now fluent in English, although I do take a couple of days to get into it properly when I go visit. German is definitely my majority, and English my minority language.
I haven't had kids yet, but my partner and me have talked about possibilities of raising our future children bilingual. He is monolingual in German but his English is fluent and his active vocabulary is greater than mine. (At least I still know a few more swear words or diminutives!).
I probably shouldn't worry too much about raising children bilingual in the large town in Germany we live in, we have bilingual or even complete English speaking playgroups, nurseries, kindergartens, schools, libraries with English books for kids, but I still think it will be good to have thought the whole thing through beforehand.
I am looking forward to reading about your experiences and through the website Bilingual Monkeys and I'm sure it will be the best kind of preparation possible on this subject!
Greetings!
Maya
I was born in Germany to my German mother and Scottish father who talked English to one another and moved to Scotland just before my first birthday. My mother talked German to me for the next two years, but as both my parents were at home a lot English was my majority language.
When my mum and me moved back to Germany when I was three she continued talking English to me when at home and German turned into the majority language. She once told me that in Scotland I had talked mostly English but after we moved I stopped talking for a couple of months and then switched to German completely.
As a child I spent a lot of time visiting family in Scotland (about 12 weeks a year) and listening and reading English books and tapes (yes, tapes! Those were the days...). When I was about five or six I told my mum I didn't want her to talk English to me, because it was "wrong". Of course my own English by that time wasn't perfect, but I understood as much as that this was not her mother tongue and that she had a strong accent.
After that I took extra lessons in English at school and am now fluent in English, although I do take a couple of days to get into it properly when I go visit. German is definitely my majority, and English my minority language.
I haven't had kids yet, but my partner and me have talked about possibilities of raising our future children bilingual. He is monolingual in German but his English is fluent and his active vocabulary is greater than mine. (At least I still know a few more swear words or diminutives!).
I probably shouldn't worry too much about raising children bilingual in the large town in Germany we live in, we have bilingual or even complete English speaking playgroups, nurseries, kindergartens, schools, libraries with English books for kids, but I still think it will be good to have thought the whole thing through beforehand.
I am looking forward to reading about your experiences and through the website Bilingual Monkeys and I'm sure it will be the best kind of preparation possible on this subject!
Greetings!
Maya
Very positive podcast review of my book Bilingual Success Stories Around the World at Kletsheads 
