Post by Olga on Apr 16, 2017 12:06:02 GMT 9
Hi, I am new to this forum. This has been weighing on me for a while and hopefully I can articulate it here and get some advice or feedback. My native language is Russian and I moved to the U.S. at age 9, so English is my dominant language. I have two kids (4 and 1 years old). My goal is to raise my kids bilingual English/Russian. In our household I speak to them in Russian and my husband speaks to them in English. We speak English amongst ourselves.
What I'm struggling with is that my Russian is not as good as my English. I can definitely express myself better, easier and faster in English. My Russian is ok but I do make mistakes sometimes and forget words, and frankly because I went to school, university, and work here, there are certain topics that I wouldn't be able to even articulate in Russian, which I guess is normal.
I have read that the best thing is to speak to kids the language you feel more natural speaking and for me that would be English. However I don't do that, I have spoken to them in Russian and almost never in English (in 4 years!). But, I feel like a) I'm not sure if this is best for their language development because my Russian vocabulary is not as rich as my English and b) I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. I can talk to the one year old in Russian all day long but the 4 year old sometimes stumps me and I don't know how to explain something to him in Russian. Of course this would only get harder as he gets older. I'm also a little afraid I won't be as close to my kids as I would if I was speaking English. Or maybe that's my own insecurity about forgetting my native language.
Hopefully this long post made sense. Just looking for some input, advice, or anyone who has been in a similar situation. Help
To add to this, I have never been back to my country since moving (haven't had the opportunity), and really only have my parents here that speak Russian. Most of my friends are English speaking and although I do try to arrange Russian play dates, those are hard to come by and feel more forced to me. I do try to watch Russian shows/read blogs etc and have noticed an improvement in the past few years but feel like I've reached the limit.
What I'm struggling with is that my Russian is not as good as my English. I can definitely express myself better, easier and faster in English. My Russian is ok but I do make mistakes sometimes and forget words, and frankly because I went to school, university, and work here, there are certain topics that I wouldn't be able to even articulate in Russian, which I guess is normal.
I have read that the best thing is to speak to kids the language you feel more natural speaking and for me that would be English. However I don't do that, I have spoken to them in Russian and almost never in English (in 4 years!). But, I feel like a) I'm not sure if this is best for their language development because my Russian vocabulary is not as rich as my English and b) I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. I can talk to the one year old in Russian all day long but the 4 year old sometimes stumps me and I don't know how to explain something to him in Russian. Of course this would only get harder as he gets older. I'm also a little afraid I won't be as close to my kids as I would if I was speaking English. Or maybe that's my own insecurity about forgetting my native language.
Hopefully this long post made sense. Just looking for some input, advice, or anyone who has been in a similar situation. Help
To add to this, I have never been back to my country since moving (haven't had the opportunity), and really only have my parents here that speak Russian. Most of my friends are English speaking and although I do try to arrange Russian play dates, those are hard to come by and feel more forced to me. I do try to watch Russian shows/read blogs etc and have noticed an improvement in the past few years but feel like I've reached the limit.
And I am not embarrassed about looking up a word in a dictionary in front of my kids; they will have to learn to use one someday so I feel it is rather a positive example. Plus, it can also make them feel more comfortable with the fact that sometimes bilingual people look for their words (we're only human). 
