My daughter is bilingual… She is only 18 month old but I can already say for sure, she understands and speaks 2 languages – Russian and Greek. Her active vocabulary, meaning the words she can pronounce, in Greek is around 30 words and in Russian – around 35. And this is not including names, sounds of animals and few English words she sometimes happily throws around. I believe it’s a very good result and it’s reasonable to share some of the techniques my husband and I used, after having read tons of articles and opinions on this issue.
No. 1. We have eliminated the third language in between us – English. The reason is – none of us is a native speaker of this language so we couldn’t give the best of it. It was a bit tough on me because the second common language for us was Greek and I had to break a habit of communicating in English for so many years. At the end of the day it was the best thing I did because my Greek is on a very good level now.
No. 2. We “cleaned up” our languages. Seems strange but the truth is we do not realize how many slang words or words from other languages we use on the daily basis. When we started being careful about what we speak, it “slowed down” the way we talk. Don’t you sometimes forget the word in your language so you use a Greek/English one instead? Apparently that’s what I was doing all the time. Did you ever think of how it affects your child? It is common sense that if you cannot express yourself in one language – neither will your kid. So now, for the sake of my baby, I speak pure Russian and really enjoy the absence of long pauses in my speech.
No. 3. We sing and rhyme a lot. Even before Anna was born my hubby was singing his favorite Greek songs to the baby in my belly and so was I in Russian. By the way she still loves those songs and smiles every time we sing them. Music and poems prove to be easier absorbed by infants and develop their ability to pronounce words and make sounds.
No. 4. I developed a system based on the method of Glenn Doman. To put it down in a few words, according to this scientist a parent can teach a child from the age of 1 to read by showing him/her cards with pictures and words written with big red letters. By showing such cards with animals, fruits, vegetables, means of transportation, etc., you are giving your child a huge passive knowledge and vocabulary, which becomes useful once a child starts communicating. I found this theory quite reasonable and moved on to prepare my own cards, even though you can easily download those from Internet for free. I took same pictures but printed out one set in Greek and one in Russian. You are supposed to show the cards to your child very quickly (few seconds each) but very often (minimum 5 times a day) and stop before the baby gets bored. Guess what. Anna is never bored and many times she brings me to the table where I keep our cards and loudly asks for more. That is why I prepare new cards every little while.
No. 5. We are watching cartoons in both languages. It’s important not to show favoritism choosing your TV or Internet entertainment for a kid. It can be hard because I personally know lots of great Russian songs and cartoons and nearly nothing of a kind in Greek. Since I don’t know – I ask and search. It wouldn’t be fair if I only showed products of my native culture and leave the Greek part to my husband who works while I’m at home with the child all day long. I do my best to balance both languages.
No. 6. When my husband comes home we play a game which can be called “let’s read the same book in different languages”. Anna has a favorite book; she brings it to me and points at some characters, animals or objects, which I name in Russian. Then I ask her to go to daddy so he would read her the same book, naming the same characters, animals or objects in Greek. At the beginning Anna liked my version better, probably because I was showing more emotions while daddy was tired most of the times and his version was not so exciting. The solution came unexpectedly. Once daddy tried to get out of the reading and pretended to be asleep when Anna came to him. She was very surprised; poor kid turned to me with a puzzled look and asked me in a very dramatic manner: ”papa???”. I found it so funny that it was simply impossible to hold my laughter. In a few moments daddy “woke up” and also started laughing out loud and Anna really loved this part. We do the same scenario nearly every time and she started loving daddy’s version because she needs to earn his attention first, he is very good at playing a hard cookie!
No. 7. Last but not least – communication with people of both nationalities. Luckily enough we have lots of friends and relatives from both sides, so Anna hears both languages not only from us. I think it’s very important because if she would hear other people speaking Greek only, eventually she would come to the conclusion: why do I need this other language my mum uses all the time? Thanks heavens I have my parents living permanently in Cyprus, but even having their help I’m still looking for more Russian speakers and gladly make friends with other moms, whose kids are in the same situation. Right now our babies simply enjoy understanding little words of each other. In a few years’ time these kids will realize that they have an advantage of speaking a language that other children do not know, like a little secret language! That’s a huge thrill and good motivation for them to use this language and not keep it in a passive stage.
Of course, everything I’ve mentioned until now, works for us in our particular case. Every child and family is different. Not all the parents can (or want) to eliminate a third language in between; may be some of the mums do not have time to create their own Doman Cards; it also happens that a mother is the only source of minority language and her relatives/friends are far away. Here is my point of view: the more you deal with the issue and try to work out your way, without letting it go or flow on its own, the more chances of success you have.
Irina Evangelou
LPN Mum
LPN is a pure community based site that adopts the true spirit of Blogging. As such we feature unedited raw content from our readers.
No. 1. We have eliminated the third language in between us – English. The reason is – none of us is a native speaker of this language so we couldn’t give the best of it. It was a bit tough on me because the second common language for us was Greek and I had to break a habit of communicating in English for so many years. At the end of the day it was the best thing I did because my Greek is on a very good level now.
No. 2. We “cleaned up” our languages. Seems strange but the truth is we do not realize how many slang words or words from other languages we use on the daily basis. When we started being careful about what we speak, it “slowed down” the way we talk. Don’t you sometimes forget the word in your language so you use a Greek/English one instead? Apparently that’s what I was doing all the time. Did you ever think of how it affects your child? It is common sense that if you cannot express yourself in one language – neither will your kid. So now, for the sake of my baby, I speak pure Russian and really enjoy the absence of long pauses in my speech.
No. 3. We sing and rhyme a lot. Even before Anna was born my hubby was singing his favorite Greek songs to the baby in my belly and so was I in Russian. By the way she still loves those songs and smiles every time we sing them. Music and poems prove to be easier absorbed by infants and develop their ability to pronounce words and make sounds.
No. 4. I developed a system based on the method of Glenn Doman. To put it down in a few words, according to this scientist a parent can teach a child from the age of 1 to read by showing him/her cards with pictures and words written with big red letters. By showing such cards with animals, fruits, vegetables, means of transportation, etc., you are giving your child a huge passive knowledge and vocabulary, which becomes useful once a child starts communicating. I found this theory quite reasonable and moved on to prepare my own cards, even though you can easily download those from Internet for free. I took same pictures but printed out one set in Greek and one in Russian. You are supposed to show the cards to your child very quickly (few seconds each) but very often (minimum 5 times a day) and stop before the baby gets bored. Guess what. Anna is never bored and many times she brings me to the table where I keep our cards and loudly asks for more. That is why I prepare new cards every little while.
No. 6. When my husband comes home we play a game which can be called “let’s read the same book in different languages”. Anna has a favorite book; she brings it to me and points at some characters, animals or objects, which I name in Russian. Then I ask her to go to daddy so he would read her the same book, naming the same characters, animals or objects in Greek. At the beginning Anna liked my version better, probably because I was showing more emotions while daddy was tired most of the times and his version was not so exciting. The solution came unexpectedly. Once daddy tried to get out of the reading and pretended to be asleep when Anna came to him. She was very surprised; poor kid turned to me with a puzzled look and asked me in a very dramatic manner: ”papa???”. I found it so funny that it was simply impossible to hold my laughter. In a few moments daddy “woke up” and also started laughing out loud and Anna really loved this part. We do the same scenario nearly every time and she started loving daddy’s version because she needs to earn his attention first, he is very good at playing a hard cookie!
No. 7. Last but not least – communication with people of both nationalities. Luckily enough we have lots of friends and relatives from both sides, so Anna hears both languages not only from us. I think it’s very important because if she would hear other people speaking Greek only, eventually she would come to the conclusion: why do I need this other language my mum uses all the time? Thanks heavens I have my parents living permanently in Cyprus, but even having their help I’m still looking for more Russian speakers and gladly make friends with other moms, whose kids are in the same situation. Right now our babies simply enjoy understanding little words of each other. In a few years’ time these kids will realize that they have an advantage of speaking a language that other children do not know, like a little secret language! That’s a huge thrill and good motivation for them to use this language and not keep it in a passive stage.
Of course, everything I’ve mentioned until now, works for us in our particular case. Every child and family is different. Not all the parents can (or want) to eliminate a third language in between; may be some of the mums do not have time to create their own Doman Cards; it also happens that a mother is the only source of minority language and her relatives/friends are far away. Here is my point of view: the more you deal with the issue and try to work out your way, without letting it go or flow on its own, the more chances of success you have.
Irina Evangelou
LPN Mum
LPN is a pure community based site that adopts the true spirit of Blogging. As such we feature unedited raw content from our readers.
