Ciao from Wisconsin
Mar 15, 2016 15:59:59 GMT 9
Post by Dominick on Mar 15, 2016 15:59:59 GMT 9
Here we go:
I'm the father of two bilingual kids ages four and two. They speak primarily Italian in the home: with me and with our au pair, and English with their mother and everyone else.
I am a native Engiish speaker; I learned Italian as a second language but I am rather good at it I'd like to think. I lived and worked in Italy and my accent, while not native, is good enough to where people can't really tell where I'm originally from.
I've been very strict these last four years with speaking only Italian to my children, never ever English.
I have read a few books on children and bilingualism and try to follow all the advice I have learned there: I read to them every day, we play games, when I do give them TV (very little) I have amassed a sizable multimedia collection in Italian for them to choose from. We have a decent book collection as well, and I have had to learn to "translate on the fly" with books written in English. My older one has learned that another language exists: Spanish, and asks me to read him books in Spanish sometimes. I do not shy away from speaking to them in public in Italian, and will and have alienate someone if need be in order to communicate with my kids in Italian in public. That said I never put them on the spot or force them to show off their language skills; I want to make sure our interactions are natural and not some sort of trick to show off.
I am struggling at the moment because of a number of things. Trying to find my children a "community" of ml speakers has been very difficult in Wisconsin. They speak on Skype with my friends and the little sibling of our au pair who is about my older kid's age, but other than that they have only papá and the au pair to interact with in Italian and I am not a native speaker. While I have worked a great deal to get my Italian skills to where they are, I can't help but feel self conscious about what I am still lacking in, and I don't want this to negatively impact their acquiring of the language, or even my effectiveness as a parent. Also, outside of my group of friends I'm afraid I'm not going to be seen as a "true" member of an Italian community and I want to make sure my children feel like they can belong to that community since Italian language and culture has been a big part of their life up until now. Our au pairs have been a big help in this so far but in September they will both be in school, where the language is obviously English, and I am very concerned the shift in exposure time will have a great effect on their bilingualism.
All that said, I would say that we have managed a lot so far; my four year old is well aware of his bilingualism and very proud of it, he sometimes "brags" about it to random people. He seems to be able to infer the correct language in which to address new people he meets. I would consider him a balanced bilingual; his English and Italian skills are more or less on par with each other.
My younger one is definitely stronger in English however. She will even "push English" on me when I initiate the conversation in Italian. She understands everything I say without issue, but responds in English anyway. They speak with each other in pretty much whatever language they happened to hear last.
I'm the father of two bilingual kids ages four and two. They speak primarily Italian in the home: with me and with our au pair, and English with their mother and everyone else.
I am a native Engiish speaker; I learned Italian as a second language but I am rather good at it I'd like to think. I lived and worked in Italy and my accent, while not native, is good enough to where people can't really tell where I'm originally from.
I've been very strict these last four years with speaking only Italian to my children, never ever English.
I have read a few books on children and bilingualism and try to follow all the advice I have learned there: I read to them every day, we play games, when I do give them TV (very little) I have amassed a sizable multimedia collection in Italian for them to choose from. We have a decent book collection as well, and I have had to learn to "translate on the fly" with books written in English. My older one has learned that another language exists: Spanish, and asks me to read him books in Spanish sometimes. I do not shy away from speaking to them in public in Italian, and will and have alienate someone if need be in order to communicate with my kids in Italian in public. That said I never put them on the spot or force them to show off their language skills; I want to make sure our interactions are natural and not some sort of trick to show off.
I am struggling at the moment because of a number of things. Trying to find my children a "community" of ml speakers has been very difficult in Wisconsin. They speak on Skype with my friends and the little sibling of our au pair who is about my older kid's age, but other than that they have only papá and the au pair to interact with in Italian and I am not a native speaker. While I have worked a great deal to get my Italian skills to where they are, I can't help but feel self conscious about what I am still lacking in, and I don't want this to negatively impact their acquiring of the language, or even my effectiveness as a parent. Also, outside of my group of friends I'm afraid I'm not going to be seen as a "true" member of an Italian community and I want to make sure my children feel like they can belong to that community since Italian language and culture has been a big part of their life up until now. Our au pairs have been a big help in this so far but in September they will both be in school, where the language is obviously English, and I am very concerned the shift in exposure time will have a great effect on their bilingualism.
All that said, I would say that we have managed a lot so far; my four year old is well aware of his bilingualism and very proud of it, he sometimes "brags" about it to random people. He seems to be able to infer the correct language in which to address new people he meets. I would consider him a balanced bilingual; his English and Italian skills are more or less on par with each other.
My younger one is definitely stronger in English however. She will even "push English" on me when I initiate the conversation in Italian. She understands everything I say without issue, but responds in English anyway. They speak with each other in pretty much whatever language they happened to hear last.
