Raising Bilingual/Bicultural Children

[edededed]

The key is the child's perception of the "other" country. Does the child like it, think it is cool? If not, it is likely that he will lose ability in the language, because why would he want to learn it? (If the child is exposed to an environment where the language is often used (in ABC's cases, this is often a Chinese church), they can keep understanding of the language, but they will still lose much ability to speak in it.)

For example, Korean-Americans tend to not speak Korean very well, while Korean-Chinese (Korean-race born in China) tend to speak Korean perfectly. Korean-Germans also do not speak Korean well, Korean-Russians speak well, and so on. I would say that this has to do with the perception of Korea vs. the country that they are living in.

So, in conclusion, the reason why most ABCs do not speak Chinese well is because they don't really like Chinese. Sometimes this is worse in mixed children, as they want to identify more with American culture than Chinese culture, rejecting the language further (it is often easier to go this route, as they often look more American than Chinese, anyway, and thus sort of "stick out" in Chinese communities as well).

[qiphlow]

my kids both understand tagalog (and i, after hearing it for 13 years, am finally making a little bit of sense out of it), but they don't really speak it with any kind of fluency.
your little one will probably be similar once she starts school. if you stick with chinese at home she'll probably retain more of the language.

[RobB]

Hi,

I'm from the UK, my wife is swedish and our 5 year old is currently pretty much bilingual. She decided that she was going to do her best to ensure that he spoke swedish. She only speaks swedish to him and if he wants to talk to her then it has to be in swedish. It's worked pretty well so far but it has been an effort on my wife's part. it also leads to some slightly odd situations where, for example, the english grandparents can't hear what is going on between mother and son which, while it isn't a problem, is out of the ordinary flow of conversation. It pays off when they all go to stay with the swedish grandparents in the summer. They've stayed there for up to 6 weeks over the last couple of years and it's always a bit interesting when I turn up at the end and my son starts trying to fit swedish vocab into english sentence structures and vice versa.

I think it's been worth it. His swedish is better than mine - because I'm a lazy arse when it comes to these things - but it's forced me to get better at it. He'll have that crazy bi-lingual brain wiring that will hopefully stand him in good stead in later life and he'll be able to talk to all the foxy swedes on the beach in future summers. How it progresses now he's at school remains to be seen.

Cheers

Rob

[Dmitri]

I've researched this topic a lot... I think it has everything to do with who stays at home with the child more. I.e. a "foreign-language mom" or nanny (i.e. she speaks language other than that of the country where the family lives) can ensure that the child is bilingual by always speaking in her native language to the kid all the time. As the child grows up, the environment of the country will take over and they will definitely learn the second language by necessity. I know a lot of families that have done this successfully. In one case, the father was German, mother Chinese and the baby had a Spanish-speaking nanny (who was asked to only speak Spanish to her), and not at 10 or 11 years old she is fluent in all three languages.

If it's the other way round though, i.e. the person who stays with the kid the most is not the foreigner, then it may not work out very well -- at least IME. But in your case Allan -- if your wife continues to speak Chinese to her, your daughter should become bilingual without any trouble.

One thing to note is that often these kids have a bit of a delay in early speech development, but that's temporary and not a developmental "problem" of any sort; once their little brains get through it, they'll be fine. It is actually a very good thing for early brain development, if I'm not mistaken.

Good luck...

[AllanF]

Many thanks for all the advice, one of the over riding points seems to be to make it enjoyable and make sure tat my wife only speak Chinese to her. When i get back to the UK i will be sure to invest in some books on the matter.

[gzregorz]

I've always believe that we learn languages out of necessity. There are those few who study a foreign language as a hobby but even in this case it is essentially necessity, the need to read literature in that language, the need to travel to that country, etc... (Except in this case the individual created that need.)

This is the same principle I've always used in teaching ESL, putting the students in situations where they have to use the (target) language I'm teaching.

I think probably the best thing you could do is send you kids back to their "other" country for a few weeks out of the year when you can. Because then they'd have no choice but to speak that language. Outside of that with the internet and satellite TV it shouldn't be hard to supply them with movies, books, and radio stations in that other language setting up an environment they "need" to know both languages.

My daughter is 2 and speaks a lot. Surprisingly she already knows the differences between English and Polish and doesn't mix the two in complete sentences. Probably due to my wife's genes. These days she tends to prefer English because the other kids in her environment don't speak Polish. When she used to speak Polish to them they'd just ignore her so it didn't take long for her to figure out which words to use.

Our challenge now is keeping the Polish alive. Yet more than likely we're going to move to Poland and being that Polish has always be tough for me I know my kids will have no choice but to speak English with me. Besides which most Europeans spend years studying English so I know she'll pick it up either way.

If we stay here, (which could happen) it would be tough. But soon she'll have a sister so between the three of them I'm pretty sure they're going to hang onto their Polish. But if they decide not to I'd be happy with them at least understanding Polish. Yet I'd probably try to put her in Polish "cultural" classes so she's around other Polish speaking kids before I let it get that far.

Create the necessity and it'll happen.

[Michael]

Greg, you should really polish your Polish.

[cdobe]

But soon she'll have a sister so between the three of them I'm pretty sure they're going to hang onto their Polish. But if they decide not to I'd be happy with them at least understanding Polish. Yet I'd probably try to put her in Polish "cultural" classes so she's around other Polish speaking kids before I let it get that far.

Create the necessity and it'll happen.

Congrats, Greg ! You don't waste any time, don't you ?

[shawnsegler]

Greg, you should really polish your Polish.

Derf, derf, der!

[gzregorz]

But soon she'll have a sister so between the three of them I'm pretty sure they're going to hang onto their Polish. But if they decide not to I'd be happy with them at least understanding Polish. Yet I'd probably try to put her in Polish "cultural" classes so she's around other Polish speaking kids before I let it get that far.

Create the necessity and it'll happen.

Congrats, Greg ! You don't waste any time, don't you ?

Time? What's that?

Greg, you should really polish your Polish.

I plan to. If I had known how good their judo was in Polska I would have trained while I was there. If I go back I'm going to train first to learn their judo but also to learn Polish by making it a necessity.

The cool thing is they have Russians teaching sambo there in Russian, maybe I'll learn to two languages.

I know if it hadn't been for my teacher in China I probably would have only picked up a few words of Chinese, I'm not fluent but I can communicate with the locals.

[Miro]

A friend of mine, Slovak, married Slovak lady of Hungarian origin. They have three children, 14, 8, 3. Father speaks with them English, mother Hungarian. Because they live in Prague (Czech Republic), children speak Czech and Slovak (they spend summer vacations usually in Slovakia with grandparents). The oldest girl (14) studies at French school so she speaks French too. Last September they moved to Beijing and all children learn Chinese. Father hopes that they will stay in China for several years and then they move to some Arabian country...

[Leimeng]

~ If they want to learn the second and third language they will. It is all a matter of creating the environment where they are incentivised(sp?) to do so.
~ And despite the myth of kids learning languages easier than adults, most of my linguist friends and associates and colleagues would disagree. Adults learn easier and in a shorter time, presuming we are willing to get rid of some of those other nasty preoccupations like work and bills and relationships...
~ Continue to discuss amongst yourselves...

Peace,

Leimeng

Flatulo Ergo Sum ~~~

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

(***Insert Personal One Liner Here***)

[yeniseri]

As long as the children have a nuturing environment, they will choose the language they want to associate with!

The key is the child's perception of the "other" country. Does the child like it, think it is cool? If not, it is likely that he will lose ability in the language, because why would he want to learn it? (If the child is exposed to an environment where the language is often used (in ABC's cases, this is often a Chinese church), they can keep understanding of the language, but they will still lose much ability to speak in it.)

For example, Korean-Americans tend to not speak Korean very well, while Korean-Chinese (Korean-race born in China) tend to speak Korean perfectly. Korean-Germans also do not speak Korean well, Korean-Russians speak well, and so on. I would say that this has to do with the perception of Korea vs. the country that they are living in.

So, in conclusion, the reason why most ABCs do not speak Chinese well is because they don't really like Chinese. Sometimes this is worse in mixed children, as they want to identify more with American culture than Chinese culture, rejecting the language further (it is often easier to go this route, as they often look more American than Chinese, anyway, and thus sort of "stick out" in Chinese communities as well).

A good point! Some of the family in Canada (Ontario) speak Urdu and Polish but when they come to USA, they have tended to speak only English! Host country dynamics also plays a major part in the dominant 'foreign' language.

[Bär]

'Loper, is your last name Levine by chance?

[Michael]

Sssshh! She's an undercover agent. Her last name is Caine-Palmer.