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Bilingually raised children | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Bismuth Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 4356 days ago 30 posts - 46 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian Studies: Icelandic, Spanish | Message 1 of 16 26 February 2013 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wondered about this topic and couldn't find an existing one. Hope it's okay to start it here:
What do you think about children, who are raised bi- or even trilingually (maybe even more languages?) ? What are your experiences with those children ? I got this topic on my mind right now, because my parents decided to have another child a few years ago, who is now 3 1/3 years old. I followed his entire development closely up till now and I really got interessted in how bilingual raising works. This thread will be pretty exciting to me as I can't wait to see what some of you language experts think about all this, as I'm not even sure about my very own opinion. I obviously care a lot for my little brother and I'm wondering what would've been the best for him ? About him: As I said, he is 3 1/3 years old, he lives and goes to kindergarten in Germany and is being talked to in russian. He is very very far from being fluent in any of those languages, which is already something pretty apprehensive. Pretty much of all the other children at his kindergarten already speak in a very reasonable and fluent way, whilst my brother is only able to drop a few German words here and a few russian words there. I'm very concerned about his lingual development as he is quickly growing out of his save status as a 'baby'.. by october he will be 4 years old already, which is an age you are expected to be able to speak in sentences. Obviously I also grew up bilingually, but I was much much faster in picking up the German language as my brother currently does. I moved to Germany a few months before I turned 3 and started speaking fluently after a year. I was already able to communicate when I went to kindergarten.. that's the point where it gets depressing.. my brother was born here and is going to the same kindergarten for 1,5 years already.. his low level at both his languages is depressing. What makes it even horrible is that my parents absolutely fail to see how crucial this is.. my brother is clearly underdeveloped, which is also shown by the fact that he just won't stop asking for breast feeding. I'm absolutely not aware of how urgent his current state is, but I can tell you that my parents are taking it way to lightly.. I already talked to them, but they absolutely won't listen to me. It's really depressing.. I'm starting to question bilingual raising as it makes it clearly a lot more difficult for my brother. I clearly see the potential of raising a child with 2 languages as I'm only profiting from it, because it's giving me a much better perspective on how languages work.. but when I see my brother, I'm starting to think about that for a second time. If you think about it, especially my brother wouldn't have any use for his russian as I'm pretty sure he wouldn't move there anyway. It really annoys me that my parents are only speaking russian to him, even though he won't have any other use for it in the future. For me it's the only occasion to speak russian and I even started to despise it. I would much rather wanted my parents to be british, australian, american, etc. as it would be much more reasonable and way more fun to speak English imo. Concidering that a lot of parents are teaching languages with an even minor chance of use, it would be pretty awesome to hear something about someone who grew up speaking.. I don't know.. cambodian, cantonese, swahili, or what ever ? I am absolutely not sure what to think about my brothers bilingual raising.. I want him to have a normal and fair life, but I'm pretty concerned that he will have a lot of problems, when he needs to go school.. It would probably kill me to see him going to school while he is not able to communicate fluently and without mistake. What are your thoughts ? Edited by Bismuth on 26 February 2013 at 2:06pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4712 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 2 of 16 26 February 2013 at 2:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Some people take a bit longer to speak. In my experience being raised bilingually is only
ever an advantage. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Majka Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic kofoholici.wordpress Joined 4662 days ago 307 posts - 755 votes Speaks: Czech*, German, English Studies: French Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 16 26 February 2013 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Be aware, that 3 1/2 is still pretty young and that every child is different.
I have seen it in my family with my nieces. They are sisters, raised exactly the same way, and very different in their development at the same age. The older one was an "old" child. She started doing puzzles at 11 months, started to speak very early in quite complex sentences and around 2yo learned playfully some English words. Her sister is a "normal" child. Her language development was in comparison much slower (same level took almost 18 months more), she has no patience for puzzles even now (aged 5). When she was 4yo, you couldn't get her to talk to you on the phone. She was listening but not talking. Now, she is the "newsperson" in the family. Call her and you will learn everything. The difference you see may have nothing to do with raising your brother bilingually and everything to do with him as a child. I wouldn't take it seriously until pre-school. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4460 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian | Message 4 of 16 26 February 2013 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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The slower learning speed is most likely due to the child's own natural rate of development than the bilingual
environment. Adopt your parents' attitude and wait awhile. Things will work themselves out in time. If not, then the child may need some special attention for language development. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bismuth Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 4356 days ago 30 posts - 46 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian Studies: Icelandic, Spanish | Message 5 of 16 26 February 2013 at 11:38pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm pretty sure it's not that simple, don't you agree ? How can being bilingually raised always be an personal advantage to you ? You should concider personal situations and also rethink whether there could be also languages, which don't help you get along at all.. examples listed above. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4712 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 16 27 February 2013 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I considered them and all other personal examples I have witnessed of it and in no case
are they off worse, you just need some patience. Not every child develops at the same rate. Some children just learn to speak late. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nonneb Pentaglot Groupie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4756 days ago 80 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Ancient Greek, Latin, German, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, Hungarian, French | Message 7 of 16 27 February 2013 at 5:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't speak in sentences until the age of four and I was raised monolingually. How do
you know the bilingualism is causing difficulties for the child? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 8 of 16 27 February 2013 at 5:40am | IP Logged | ||
What do you propose? That your parents should speak to their child in German? Would they be comfortable doing that? I think there's something inherently sad about a mother speaking to her child in a foreign language, but I guess we're talking about the practical side of things here, so... Here in the US, children who grew up speaking another language at home had no problems whatsoever acquiring native fluency in English. The ones I knew, at least. The universal problem for the parents of such children was maintaining that other language. It was often the case that Russian parents would raise their child exclusively in Russian (with Russian books, cartoons, trips to Russia, etc.) from birth, only to see their efforts destroyed by just a few years of American schooling. The child would start speaking to them in English, and if the parents failed to enforce a strict "No English" policy at home, the child would grow up to have a passive understanding of Russian with fairly weak speaking skills. Are things different in Germany? Did you have classmates who spoke another language at home? Were they hindered by it? I do agree with others on the the merits of bilingualism. Last year, there was an article in The New York Times about the certain mental flexibility it gives you. I also agree with Majka; your brother is much too young. Give him time. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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