Post by Sandra P on Dec 27, 2017 19:11:14 GMT 9
Hello everyone,
I've joined this forum after enjoying reading threads for some time. I find it really interesting and inspiring.
A bit of background about us: we live in the UK, me Italian, husband half Italian half English, our children were born here in the UK, they're 7 and nearly 3. At home we speak ml Italian (so both parents).
Our eldest is bilingual, and at the moment I would say his English and Italian are more or less on the same level, at least orally, speaking and listening, whereas probably due to school education being in English his writing and reading may be slightly better in English. I do see how English is getting more and more dominant, as I see this is also true for a lot of people here when it comes to the ML, and now he does sometimes start a conversation with us in English at home, but we try and always reply in Italian and eventually the conversation reverts back to Italian
for now...
In order to keep the ml as strong as we can, apart from speaking as much as possible in ml, he attends an Italian class once a week (not much maybe but I hope better than nothing), we read in both languages and I try to get as many books and resources in Italian as possible and we try to meet up with other Italian friends with children, although now the kids tend to speak English when among other Italian kids 😩 again. I saw that coming and while I don't want to force them to speak Italian when they are playing, we also just talk to them in Italian.
As for going back to Italy, we try to go once or twice a year for holidays. We would love to go more often but it's not always easy as we usually work during the school holidays too. Having the whole environment around us 100% in ml when we do go is a great help and then he never uses ML, so it is a great reinforcement.
Our little one instead does not speak much yet
only a few words. She does understand both languages and will happily interact with people whether they speak ml or ML to her, but she's still not using either very much. I keep hoping she'll suddenly start and in the meantime we're looking into speech therapy possibly, not sure yet. Any advice welcome. 😊
I ordered Adam's book and I've been reading the first few chapters, very interesting and inspiring already, and pleasantly written too. 😊
Thank you for this lovely forum, looking forward to reading more and more.
Sandra
P.S.: Sorry if I haven't changed my avatar yet and it's still the default one, writing from my mobile at the moment, will try soon.
I've joined this forum after enjoying reading threads for some time. I find it really interesting and inspiring.
A bit of background about us: we live in the UK, me Italian, husband half Italian half English, our children were born here in the UK, they're 7 and nearly 3. At home we speak ml Italian (so both parents).
Our eldest is bilingual, and at the moment I would say his English and Italian are more or less on the same level, at least orally, speaking and listening, whereas probably due to school education being in English his writing and reading may be slightly better in English. I do see how English is getting more and more dominant, as I see this is also true for a lot of people here when it comes to the ML, and now he does sometimes start a conversation with us in English at home, but we try and always reply in Italian and eventually the conversation reverts back to Italian
for now...In order to keep the ml as strong as we can, apart from speaking as much as possible in ml, he attends an Italian class once a week (not much maybe but I hope better than nothing), we read in both languages and I try to get as many books and resources in Italian as possible and we try to meet up with other Italian friends with children, although now the kids tend to speak English when among other Italian kids 😩 again. I saw that coming and while I don't want to force them to speak Italian when they are playing, we also just talk to them in Italian.
As for going back to Italy, we try to go once or twice a year for holidays. We would love to go more often but it's not always easy as we usually work during the school holidays too. Having the whole environment around us 100% in ml when we do go is a great help and then he never uses ML, so it is a great reinforcement.
Our little one instead does not speak much yet
only a few words. She does understand both languages and will happily interact with people whether they speak ml or ML to her, but she's still not using either very much. I keep hoping she'll suddenly start and in the meantime we're looking into speech therapy possibly, not sure yet. Any advice welcome. 😊I ordered Adam's book and I've been reading the first few chapters, very interesting and inspiring already, and pleasantly written too. 😊
Thank you for this lovely forum, looking forward to reading more and more.
Sandra
P.S.: Sorry if I haven't changed my avatar yet and it's still the default one, writing from my mobile at the moment, will try soon.
