Austrian in the USA (English/German/Estonian)
Sept 19, 2017 5:55:28 GMT 9
Post by Patricia on Sept 19, 2017 5:55:28 GMT 9
Hello,
I'm very happy to have found this community of bilingual and multilingual families! I have a 2-year-old son and live in the U.S. (upstate New York) with my American husband. I left my native Austria 10 years ago to work in the U.S. My parents and siblings (and all extended family) live in Austria. My husband's parents came to the U.S. from Estonia when they were children.
A recent challenge brought me to Adam Beck's book - and to this community: My son has not started speaking yet. I began to question whether I may be creating a confusing environment for my son as I am the only person speaking the minority language (my native German) with him, while speaking the majority language with my husband and in-laws. I considered sticking with English to form a more "coherent front" with my husband in encouraging our son to start enunciating words. The resources on this site (especially the reference of "The Speech Stop" and the guest post by Ana Paula G. Mumy about bilingualism and speech delay) have provided great encouragement.
My efforts continue to be geared towards my son being able to communicate in German (maybe even using Austrian dialect) with his grandparents and cousins in Austria. In addition, I would like to encourage my mother-in-law, who is our "nanny/granny" during the workday, to continue sharing her native language (Estonian) and culture with my son. My husband does not speak German (aside from a few words and phrases to make our Little One laugh), but he is highly supportive of my efforts.
My mother-in-law used to speak and sing Estonian to our son in his first year of life (and even I learned some songs and phrases from her), but she stopped being comfortable doing so as he crossed from baby to toddler. This might be rooted in a negative experience her son (my husband) had when starting kindergarten in the U.S.: He spoke no English, as the language spoken at home was Estonian (his Estonian-speaking grandparents lived with them). His peers - and the kindergarten teachers - didn't quite know what to make of a child who couldn't communicate in English, and building proficiency in English was a painful process for him. This negative experience as a 4-year-old led to my husband's Estonian becoming entirely "dormant": as an adult, he is not able to speak or understand Estonian. Bottom line, beyond encouraging my mother-in-law not to abandon providing some exposure to Estonian, I am currently not making any additional efforts towards Estonian exposure for my son as I have no functional knowledge of the Estonian language.
I would love to hear from parents in this community, and would be happy to provide any input that might be of use with respect to German -- or Austrian dialect, where the resources are more scarce.
With my warm wishes to all of you,
Patricia & Family
I'm very happy to have found this community of bilingual and multilingual families! I have a 2-year-old son and live in the U.S. (upstate New York) with my American husband. I left my native Austria 10 years ago to work in the U.S. My parents and siblings (and all extended family) live in Austria. My husband's parents came to the U.S. from Estonia when they were children.
A recent challenge brought me to Adam Beck's book - and to this community: My son has not started speaking yet. I began to question whether I may be creating a confusing environment for my son as I am the only person speaking the minority language (my native German) with him, while speaking the majority language with my husband and in-laws. I considered sticking with English to form a more "coherent front" with my husband in encouraging our son to start enunciating words. The resources on this site (especially the reference of "The Speech Stop" and the guest post by Ana Paula G. Mumy about bilingualism and speech delay) have provided great encouragement.
My efforts continue to be geared towards my son being able to communicate in German (maybe even using Austrian dialect) with his grandparents and cousins in Austria. In addition, I would like to encourage my mother-in-law, who is our "nanny/granny" during the workday, to continue sharing her native language (Estonian) and culture with my son. My husband does not speak German (aside from a few words and phrases to make our Little One laugh), but he is highly supportive of my efforts.
My mother-in-law used to speak and sing Estonian to our son in his first year of life (and even I learned some songs and phrases from her), but she stopped being comfortable doing so as he crossed from baby to toddler. This might be rooted in a negative experience her son (my husband) had when starting kindergarten in the U.S.: He spoke no English, as the language spoken at home was Estonian (his Estonian-speaking grandparents lived with them). His peers - and the kindergarten teachers - didn't quite know what to make of a child who couldn't communicate in English, and building proficiency in English was a painful process for him. This negative experience as a 4-year-old led to my husband's Estonian becoming entirely "dormant": as an adult, he is not able to speak or understand Estonian. Bottom line, beyond encouraging my mother-in-law not to abandon providing some exposure to Estonian, I am currently not making any additional efforts towards Estonian exposure for my son as I have no functional knowledge of the Estonian language.
I would love to hear from parents in this community, and would be happy to provide any input that might be of use with respect to German -- or Austrian dialect, where the resources are more scarce.
With my warm wishes to all of you,
Patricia & Family
The Goethe Institute website has a link with some resources for children (https://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/spr/unt/kum/dfk/dff.html). She enjoys the Felix und Franzi cartoons, actually, so I might have to buy the puppets at some point! I'm still hoping to find the German equivalent of 
One year down the line and still bringing our kids up in our 2 mls, my daughter is fine (speech therapist found no disorder; just a session a week to support her upon therapist’s suggestion) and trilingual. Listen to your heart, and stick to your guns. 
