Marta in UK moving to Spain
Jul 22, 2014 22:32:39 GMT 9
Post by Marta on Jul 22, 2014 22:32:39 GMT 9
I am from Catalunya, a region of Spain where we speak Catalan (which is a different language from Spanish).
I have lived in the UK for 11 years, my husband is English and we have a son who is 3 years old (who attends full time nursery in English), and we have a newborn daughter, she is just 4 weeks old.
I have always spoken Catalan to my son since birth, so he understands everything I say. When he started to speak at about 16 months old, he was using some words in Catalan and some in English. He would use mainly Catalan words when talking to me, but now that his English is very fluent at 3, and he can make proper sentences, he doesn't speak Catalan to me anymore, which is very sad. I have worked full-time since he was 9 months old, and he attended English full-time nursery since then.
We are moving to Catalunya in September while I am on maternity leave. We will probably be there for 9 months. My son will go to school in Catalunya from September (as they start school at 3 years old in Spain). I am hoping that he will start speaking Catalan once we are there.
I am very grateful to have found the Bilingual Monkeys website, as I find the articles very inspirational, with lots of practical advice and ideas to do with the children. I admire Adam and people like him, who are succeeding in raising their children bilingually. I have been reading books, forums, blogs...about raising bilingual children since I was pregnant with my first child, and I knew how difficult it was to raise children bilingually. Even though I knew it, I feel I have failed. That is why we have decided to move to Spain.
Once we are back in the UK, (after 9 months) I am determined to have either a minority language au pair, or nanny, as otherwise the children will not be bilingual, as I see it is not enough just me being the only source of minority language.
As well as Catalan, I would love my children to speak Spanish too (as I am also native in that language). For now I will concentrate on them learning Catalan and in the near future we will think about introducing Spanish, probably by getting a Spanish au pair or nanny when they are a bit older and Catalan has settled down a bit more (hopefully!!).
