Ciao da Italia!/Hello from Italy!
Dec 4, 2014 16:52:55 GMT 9
Post by Cristiana M. on Dec 4, 2014 16:52:55 GMT 9
Hello! I'm Cristiana, I'm 26, and I have two children who will be bilingual, and two more on the way!
A really darn long "back story" (skip if you want, haha):
I moved to Italy after setting myself up well in my (previously) lifelong home country, America, as an interior designer. I began learning Italian as a hobby in 8th grade, knowing right then that my life was going to be dedicated to living here in my future. I first visited Italy when I was a senior in high school, because I was taking a college course in the language, as I was already a level B1 and my high school didn't offer Italian. I met a lot of people, including a 19 year old named Niccolo, who I continued to communicate with via IM for a couple years.
I became an interior designer for a company almost straight out of high school thanks to networking with contractors and other designers, and took online college for my accreditation. I completed that, saved my money, and moved to Italy at 19, and Niccolo and I started dating. He showed me the entire country while I was still able to do my work, and he proposed to me in Venice almost a year and a half later. This is about when I became an Italian citizen and changed my name from Christina to Cristiana.
It's been almost 5 years since our wedding, and since then, we've had two children (Davide [Dah-vee-deh] and Fiorella [fee-or-ella]), and are expecting two more (I'm six months pregnant), all of which will be bilingual! I don't want to sound cocky, but sometimes I tear up just thinking about how far I've come and how right I was about wanting to come here when I was younger. Without it, I might never be as happy and successful as I am now.
Niccolo and I have decided to raise them in both Italian and English, not because of my origins, but because English is such a widely spoken language and will be a great help to them in their future. Of course, we want to completely encourage them to take up other languages of their choice when they're older (hopefully under 8, so they have the capability to speak it without thinking/natively) - our little polyglots.
The best advantage of living in Italy is the fact that the schools enforce both English and Italian, and offer other language courses, something they might never have had the opportunity to do in America!
However, I have a problem. Davide has already been speaking for over two years, but sometimes he mixes Italian with English, such as, "Mamma, voglio un dog" (Mommy, I want a dog) or "grazie very much" (thank you very much). I've tried helping him differentiate between the two by telling him about the sounds the languages make differently so you can tell between them, or reading bilingual books and telling him when it's English and when it's Italian, but he still gets confused. Will he grow out of this, or is there something I'm doing wrong? Fiorella has just started speaking and doesn't seem to have any problems with Italian vs English, and Niccolo and I have taught them both the same way. Any suggestions?
Sinceramente,
Cristiana✌
A really darn long "back story" (skip if you want, haha):
I moved to Italy after setting myself up well in my (previously) lifelong home country, America, as an interior designer. I began learning Italian as a hobby in 8th grade, knowing right then that my life was going to be dedicated to living here in my future. I first visited Italy when I was a senior in high school, because I was taking a college course in the language, as I was already a level B1 and my high school didn't offer Italian. I met a lot of people, including a 19 year old named Niccolo, who I continued to communicate with via IM for a couple years.
I became an interior designer for a company almost straight out of high school thanks to networking with contractors and other designers, and took online college for my accreditation. I completed that, saved my money, and moved to Italy at 19, and Niccolo and I started dating. He showed me the entire country while I was still able to do my work, and he proposed to me in Venice almost a year and a half later. This is about when I became an Italian citizen and changed my name from Christina to Cristiana.
It's been almost 5 years since our wedding, and since then, we've had two children (Davide [Dah-vee-deh] and Fiorella [fee-or-ella]), and are expecting two more (I'm six months pregnant), all of which will be bilingual! I don't want to sound cocky, but sometimes I tear up just thinking about how far I've come and how right I was about wanting to come here when I was younger. Without it, I might never be as happy and successful as I am now.
Niccolo and I have decided to raise them in both Italian and English, not because of my origins, but because English is such a widely spoken language and will be a great help to them in their future. Of course, we want to completely encourage them to take up other languages of their choice when they're older (hopefully under 8, so they have the capability to speak it without thinking/natively) - our little polyglots.
The best advantage of living in Italy is the fact that the schools enforce both English and Italian, and offer other language courses, something they might never have had the opportunity to do in America!However, I have a problem. Davide has already been speaking for over two years, but sometimes he mixes Italian with English, such as, "Mamma, voglio un dog" (Mommy, I want a dog) or "grazie very much" (thank you very much). I've tried helping him differentiate between the two by telling him about the sounds the languages make differently so you can tell between them, or reading bilingual books and telling him when it's English and when it's Italian, but he still gets confused. Will he grow out of this, or is there something I'm doing wrong? Fiorella has just started speaking and doesn't seem to have any problems with Italian vs English, and Niccolo and I have taught them both the same way. Any suggestions?
Sinceramente,
Cristiana✌
(Kids will say hilarious things sometimes. Bilingual kids will say even more hilarious things. Write it down to remember.)
