Are you or your kids Bilingual?. If yes in what language?

[AGBF]

@kipari, you have children and they are certainly bilingual. Can you tell us about them?

 

[dk168]

I only communicate in spoken Cantonese with my mum now and again, and can just about read the menus if it is not in simplified Chinese.

DK

 

[Natylad]

I am fluent in Greek, English and French. Both my daughters are fluent in Greek and English and my youngest one is also learning Arabic and Spanish. Hopefully she won't get totally confused at the end!

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

@kipari, you have children and they are certainly bilingual. Can you tell us about them?

Hi Deb
Thanks for thinking of me! My children are fluent in French and German and the three oldest have basic English.

I always stress, though, that having a bicultural background is much more than the language alone. They also need the codes for each culture. It's funny how little leeway there is for a faux pas when you speak a language accent free....


I also have to say to say that true bilingualism (absolutely flawlessly written & spoken language on university level) is ALWAYS the fruit of hard work and some sort of schooling in that language - extracurricular courses, Sunday school or an exchange.
People often tell us what a gift it is that the kids speak both languages. Which is absolutely true. But past a certain point it is hard work as well.

I admire immigrants so much. Coming to a foreign place and building a new life is a very rewarding challenge but also a lot of work

 

[Polabowla]

@kipari how's the teacher situation going?

 

[Mreader]

We live in a predominantly Spanish speaking area and we teach French and Italian. My son is 5 and his preschool used to be mostly in Spanish, so when he was little he spoke both. Unfortunately the school transitioned to English more as the kids got older since at home they get Spanish (we are the reverse). Also when we would go abroad in the summer he would soak up French like a sponge. Now he resists Spanish - like WILL NOT speak it even though he understands. And with Covid we aren’t going abroad. I heard that kids start to resist bilingualism as they don’t realize what a gift it is!!! I hope he will stop resisting it soon.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

@kipari how's the teacher situation going?

Fighting!

 

[jordyonbass]

Alright, as someone whose entire mother's side of his family is no or tri-lingual - this is like voodoo black magic to me. I have no idea how they or anyone else can do it.

If anyone has seen my Facebook they'll know I've struggled with comprehending how knowing more than one language is even possible. They will have also seen my unfortunate attempts at learning another language where I have to do about two or three translations I'm my head to try learn something. But by that point it's like going down a track and forgetting which path you took to get there

By the way @Dancing Fire - Fob is also used here in the exact same manner, in Sydney it was used to describe Pacific Islanders when I was younger.

 

[peacechick]

I speak English and Mandarin fluently, and some French from my years in French Canada. Bilingualism is interesting because it involves a lot of decisions and commitment. It’s not just something you can achieve on a whim unless you are naturally talented with languages. Learning as an adult, like I did with French in my 30s, I’m not sure it’s possible to achieve native-like fluency at all.

When my son was born, I spoke to him in English and Mandarin, and his daycare only in French, and it was my hope he would soak them up like a sponge as I saw other kids do. But when he was diagnosed with severe speech delay at 2 (and ASD later on), we decided to only speak in English. And that has been the case until he turned seven. He is now speaking English a lot better, thanks to regular speech therapy, and we made the decision to reintroduce Mandarin with the help of a special-needs trained Chinese tutor. I felt like this was my last window to teach him Chinese without a lot of resistance on his part.

I’m not sure that my son will ever approach a fluent degree of Chinese proficiency but my goal is just to give him fundamentals: pronunciation, understanding of Chinese script, hanyu pinyin. Build a gateway essentially, and it’s up to him if he wants to explore it down the road.

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

Alright, as someone whose entire mother's side of his family is no or tri-lingual - this is like voodoo black magic to me. I have no idea how they or anyone else can do it.

If anyone has seen my Facebook they'll know I've struggled with comprehending how knowing more than one language is even possible. They will have also seen my unfortunate attempts at learning another language where I have to do about two or three translations I'm my head to try learn something. But by that point it's like going down a track and forgetting which path you took to get there

By the way @Dancing Fire - Fob is also used here in the exact same manner, in Sydney it was used to describe Pacific Islanders when I was younger.

I guess it depends when you learn the second, third language etc but after a certain point of fluency you don’t translate from one to the other, you just speak that language. It’s like being monolingual in multiple languages. You don’t relate one to the other.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

Alright, as someone whose entire mother's side of his family is no or tri-lingual - this is like voodoo black magic to me. I have no idea how they or anyone else can do it.

If anyone has seen my Facebook they'll know I've struggled with comprehending how knowing more than one language is even possible. They will have also seen my unfortunate attempts at learning another language where I have to do about two or three translations I'm my head to try learn something. But by that point it's like going down a track and forgetting which path you took to get there

By the way @Dancing Fire - Fob is also used here in the exact same manner, in Sydney it was used to describe Pacific Islanders when I was younger.

I see it with my 6 kids: language skills are a talent. Il not a neuroscientist, but it seems to be completely apart from other areas.

One of my kids just struggles so much more than all the others.
I also have friends who never went past a certain level in English despite their parents' attempts, very costly exchange programs at high fly boarding schools etc.

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

I speak English and Mandarin fluently, and some French from my years in French Canada. Bilingualism is interesting because it involves a lot of decisions and commitment. It’s not just something you can achieve on a whim unless you are naturally talented with languages. Learning as an adult, like I did with French in my 30s, I’m not sure it’s possible to achieve native-like fluency at all.

When my son was born, I spoke to him in English and Mandarin, and his daycare only in French, and it was my hope he would soak them up like a sponge as I saw other kids do. But when he was diagnosed with severe speech delay at 2 (and ASD later on), we decided to only speak in English. And that has been the case until he turned seven. He is now speaking English a lot better, thanks to regular speech therapy, and we made the decision to reintroduce Mandarin with the help of a special-needs trained Chinese tutor. I felt like this was my last window to teach him Chinese without a lot of resistance on his part.

I’m not sure that my son will ever approach a fluent degree of Chinese proficiency but my goal is just to give him fundamentals: pronunciation, understanding of Chinese script, hanyu pinyin. Build a gateway essentially, and it’s up to him if he wants to explore it down the road.

You're a wonderful mom, peacechick! Your child is very fortunate that you're listening to his needs and abilities while keeping the possibility of further learning open without stressing him out.
I know what a difficult path this is to travel!!!

 

[Sparkles88]

English is the primary language we speak at home but I can also speak Cantonese, mainly to my mum and sisters. Unfortunately I cannot read or write the Chinese characters, I was schooled in the UK and Australia I was never formally taught it.
When we used travel to Hong Kong for holidays they can tell I’m not a local...haha!

 

[jordyonbass]

I guess it depends when you learn the second, third language etc but after a certain point of fluency you don’t translate from one to the other, you just speak that language. It’s like being monolingual in multiple languages. You don’t relate one to the other.

That totally messes with my head because to me it doesn't seem possible, I have a primary understanding in English which everything gets tied back to in multiple ways.
I've been trying to learn some other languages lately for clients but it's been a matter of having to do a 'sounds like in English/actually means in English' translation kinda thing in my head for every single word. It's incredibly difficult to try remember all that for every word, I don't think I would ever be able to speak in another language

 

[yssie]

I guess it depends when you learn the second, third language etc but after a certain point of fluency you don’t translate from one to the other, you just speak that language. It’s like being monolingual in multiple languages. You don’t relate one to the other.

This...

Fluent in English and Tamil (a south Indian language), functional in French.

English is my primary language, but when I hear Tamil I don’t “translate” it mentally - the words just mean whatever they mean. And when I speak, I don’t think about how to structure my thoughts - it just comes out the way it would in English, even though grammar etc. differs. I know this because when I hear or speak French I do have to actively mentally translate!! My family tends to speak a lot of mixed English and Tamil, jumping between from one thought to another - sometimes half a sentence will be in one and the other half in another. It must be bizarre for a native speaker of one but not the other (like my husband) to listen to Me, I don’t even really hear or recognize the transition unless I stop to think about it. My responses tend to be in English unless the person I’m speaking with is more comfortable with Tamil (that’s rare these days though).

Some people pick up new languages with ease. Not me. Vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation all damn me. Except in English and Tamil. I’m really glad my parents raised me with both, it’s the only way I could possibly have become comfortable with both.

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

That totally messes with my head because to me it doesn't seem possible, I have a primary understanding in English which everything gets tied back to in multiple ways.
I've been trying to learn some other languages lately for clients but it's been a matter of having to do a 'sounds like in English/actually means in English' translation kinda thing in my head for every single word. It's incredibly difficult to try remember all that for every word, I don't think I would ever be able to speak in another language

I know what this struggle feels like because I’m like this in every other language other than English and Hindi! I’m just lucky I’ve been speaking them both since I was a kid.

If you were able to immerse yourself in another language it would help you obtain true fluency, which is what I described. So for example, say you want to learn French, watch a tv show or a movie you’re very familiar with with French audio and French subtitles. This is way more successful if you already speak enough French to have an idea of sentence structure but even if you don’t, this is the way you would’ve acquired English as well - immersion. It’s the more frustrating way, sure, but it’s the best way to learn a language.

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

This...

Fluent in English and Tamil (a south Indian language), functional in French.

English is my primary language, but when I hear Tamil I don’t “translate” it mentally - the words just mean whatever they mean. And when I speak, I don’t think about how to structure my thoughts - it just comes out the way it would in English, even though grammar etc. differs. I know this because when I hear or speak French I do have to actively mentally translate!! My family tends to speak a lot of mixed English and Tamil, jumping between from one thought to another - sometimes half a sentence will be in one and the other half in another. It must be bizarre for a native speaker of one but not the other (like my husband) to listen to Me, I don’t even really hear or recognize the transition unless I stop to think about it. My responses tend to be in English unless the person I’m speaking with is more comfortable with Tamil (that’s rare these days though).

Some people pick up new languages with ease. Not me. Vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation all damn me. Except in English and Tamil. I’m really glad my parents raised me with both, it’s the only way I could possibly have become comfortable with both.

We’re the same, except instead of Tamil I speak Hindi I think it’s an Indian thing, speaking both languages in a hodgepodge. There are some words I couldn’t tell you the Hindi word for if you paid me, and the same way around in English. Listening to me talk was an absolute treat for my friends overseas who didn’t speak Hindi because they could follow some but not all of the conversation, even though I never realised (unless I stopped to think about it) which language I was speaking in at that moment. I have to actively mentally translate all other languages though (which I have with varying degrees of fluency).

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

We’re the same, except instead of Tamil I speak Hindi I think it’s an Indian thing, speaking both languages in a hodgepodge.

Nope, all our kids from the bilingual school do it too! It's really funny, they seem to use the easier word each time and there's no rule whether the structure of the sentence is German or French.
The teachers find it horrible though

 

[chrono]

I only consider myself fluent when I no longer have to translate it in my head. Like several others here, I usually speak this weird hybrid to my parents where English and mother tongue blend in seamlessless and everyone understands it without blinking an eyelid.

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

Nope, all our kids from the bilingual school do it too! It's really funny, they seem to use the easier word each time and there's no rule whether the structure of the sentence is German or French.
The teachers find it horrible though

Oh good to know this is a bilingual thing! It’s really funny to me because that’s exactly how I (unconsciously) pick my words - I go with what is easier. Like something I just noticed - I say ‘table’ as in the English word, but ‘Kursi’ as in the Hindi word for chair. So I’ll tell my parents that I’m “moving the kursi closer to the table” for example, without noticing.

 

[yssie]

Nope, all our kids from the bilingual school do it too! It's really funny, they seem to use the easier word each time and there's no rule whether the structure of the sentence is German or French.
The teachers find it horrible though

Oh yeah, that, totally!

Sentences in Tamil are constructed very differently from English - my other half lived in Germany, so I know that’s true of German!
My parents, for whom English is a second language (although very very fluent), when they hodgepodge they’ll use English nouns with Tamil verbs and Tamil filler. I’m actually more of an equal opportunist than they are - I’ll finish a Tamil sentence in English but keep Tamil grammar, which puts parts of speech in really weird places for the English context

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

Oh good to know this is a bilingual thing! It’s really funny to me because that’s exactly how I (unconsciously) pick my words - I go with what is easier. Like something I just noticed - I say ‘table’ as in the English word, but ‘Kursi’ as in the Hindi word for chair. So I’ll tell my parents that I’m “moving the kursi closer to the table” for example, without noticing.

Sounds exactly like my house!!

"Oh nein, Mama, les poules sind auf der pelouse!"

Is actually the sentence I just heard


Also, if they can't find the German word for an object at once, they sometimes pronounce the French word the German way and add en "e" at the end.

Which works sometimes as it might even sound slightly fancy, but sometimes I just burst out laughing.

My DD asked for a "fourchette" (fork) and thought no one would notice (
German word would have been "Gabel" , so not even close). It's good fun!

 

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

Sounds exactly like my house!!

"Oh nein, Mama, les poules sind auf der pelouse!"

Is actually the sentence I just heard


Also, if they can't find the German word for an object at once, they sometimes pronounce the French word the German way and add en "e" at the end.

Which works sometimes as it might even sound slightly fancy, but sometimes I just burst out laughing.

My DD asked for a "fourchette" (fork) and thought no one would notice (
German word would have been "Gabel" , so not even close). It's good fun!

Do you have chickens? That’s such a cute sentence (and mental image)

I will often do the thing your husband does as well - I’ll conjugate Hindi verbs with english rules and it sounds ridiculous but it’s so funny!

For example yesterday I couldn’t remember the correct way to say “grinding/making chutney” so when my SO asked me what I was doing I said “I’m peeso-ing chutney for the kebabs” (peesna is the verb for crushing/grinding/mashing in Hindi).

 

[yssie]

Sounds exactly like my house!!

"Oh nein, Mama, les poules sind auf der pelouse!"

Is actually the sentence I just heard

 

[munchee]

I’m trying to get my DD to be bilingual but it’s hard, she’ll pick up my mother language when she spent the whole summer in my parents house but then completely forgot how to speak it once we’re back in the States. But I’m glad she never told me: “This is America, speak English!” Like my friend’s DD told my friend whenever my friend speak our mother language. Her DD is at the same age as my DD, and told my DD and me to just speak English because we’re in America and not speaking other language. I’m afraid my DD will get the same idea, so at that time I told my DD, its ok to speak other language and its cool if we can speak more than 1 language. When my 1st DD was little we only speak our mother language but everything changed since my 2nd DD was born because she has disability so I’m afraid it’ll confuse her more, since then we speak mostly in English (my broken English)

I was thinking of getting my DD Mandarin language course over the summer in Taiwan for 3 weeks, but Covid happened.

 

[yssie]

But I’m glad she never told me: “This is America, speak English!” Like my friend’s DD told my friend whenever my friend speak our mother language.

That’s so unfortunate - having the ability to communicate effectively with people with perspectives different from your own is such a gift. Especially if your friend’s DD happens to have a talent for language that’s being suppressed by this mantra

As an aside - this is an interesting topic. I will say that I have little patience for immigrants who come to the US without knowing English and who don’t do what they can to learn English once they’re here - to try. I’m glad we have a “no citizenship without proof of competence in our national language - the language of our heritage and our trade and our law” requirement, and I personally would support demanding fluency rather than mere competence, as some European countries require. I think anyone who has a right to vote has a responsibility to do his best to fully comprehend what he’s voting on.

 

[elle_71125]

Sadly, no. I can only speak English. I took 5 years of Spanish in school and I’ve retained almost nothing. I know how to ask if I can go to the bathroom (which isn’t as handy as my Spanish teacher led me to believe) and how to say there’s a cat in my pants. I can’t even remember why my friends and I came up with that particular saying.

I feel bad for my husband. He’s Portuguese. His entire family was fresh off the boat from one of the islands....yet he speaks absolutely zero Portuguese. As it turns out, his parents wanted to be able to hold private conversations, without their kid‘s chiming in, so they only spoke to them in English.

 

[KaeKae]

DD1 took American Sign Language in high school and says she could still communicate using it now. She did use it a little during a short mission trip in Jamaica at a school for the deaf, several years back.
DD2 took French and was able to use it when she studied abroad in Paris a couple years ago. Not sure how much she had to use, other then ordering a drink or food, but I'm glad she found it helpful.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

this thread is fascinating

 

[jordyonbass]

I usually speak this weird hybrid to my parents where English and mother tongue blend in seamlessless and everyone understands it without blinking an eyelid.

My Greek family does this too, but I only understand the English side of it. To me it sounds like:

*Lots of Greek words*
"Yeah, John from across the road!!"