My children are now two years and three and a half years old which are ages where language develops so quickly. I find it really fascinating to see how they deal with the different languages that we speak at home so thought it would be a good idea to record the different stages.
Our language background
We’ve got quite a mix of languages in our family which is nothing unusual when you live in London where pretty much every second family we know speaks more than one language at home!
I was born and raised in Germany, my husband was born and raised in France and my kids were born and are being raised in England. I speak German with them, my husband English (sometimes French) and we speak French together.
I’ve written my post Raising multilingual children and learning “Gerfranglish” exactly a year ago and it contains a lot of tips for multilingual families so do check it out when you have a moment!
So where are we now?
My daughter who is three and a half has started nursery in September so is surrounded by a lot more English speakers than a year ago. I wouldn’t actually say that this has made a difference as already a year ago she spoke more English than French or German.
She speaks English without any accent but she will once in a while throw in a German word or use German grammar. “I don’t want this Handtuch”.
She might also translate from one language to the other which doesn’t always work “I want to present him a box of chocolate” (present as in a present, translated from the German “schenken” which cannot directly be translated) or “Ich bin nicht kalt!”
She often mixes up genders in nouns and possessive pronouns but generally her German is fluent (if she wants to speak it) even though she does have a cute little accent! “Das Hase hat nicht a lot of room” (a sentence which was a comment on tonight’s bedtime story) kind of sums up where we are!
She knows exactly who speaks which language, however! We see my family from Germany quite a bit and we also have a few German speaking friends over here so she knows who to speak in German to and not.
As for her French, she has started going to French classes six months ago which has made a big difference! It’s only 45 minutes per week but she shows much more interest now. What also helps is that she has French cousins her age so hopefully her French will improve quickly.
For me personally it becomes much harder to be consistent and only speak German with the kids. When we are out and about I often want people to understand what I’m saying so will naturally speak in English with them. When we are at home and having an argument it’s often easier for everyone to have the argument in English as that’s the language that comes to us all spontaneously (you need to be able to reply quickly in an argument!)
We are continuing our efforts, however – and it helps that we now have quite a good network of German and French speakers so that the kids get to hear all languages. I also really want to get more German books as my daughter is very interested in stories now which she wasn’t so much a year ago and need to get some more kids apps for the ipad!
As for my son who has just turned two, he is at that wonderful age where he will just repeat everything no matter what language you speak to him! Having a big sister who mainly speaks English, however, means that he will generally say things in English with a little bit of German mixed in.
Do you speak more than one language at home? Let me know how your efforts to raise your kids with different languages are going! Do you have any tips or language apps that you want to share?
Great article and I can relate to that, although we just have German and English! My daughter, nearly 6, has become a lot more confident since we go to Germany for long periods in the summer plus she also attends German school on a Saturday. As with yours, she knows a lot, but I think due to laziness often answers in English, but I persevere in German (although it’s hard for me after 20years here!). Reading in the language really helps though and now that she can read in English she has also picked up readying in German well. Plus watching German programmes on YouTube or dubbed versions of their favorite programmes helps too..
She’s really picked up learning Spanish at school too, I think due to having been exposed to another language already. My little one is like yours and mixes the two languages, but understands quite a bit. As long as can explain to them how lucky they are to have those skills and as long as we persevere even though it’s hard we’re doing them a favour!
Thank you for your comment Carmen! I love hearing about other’s people’s experiences. That’s really interesting that your daughter has also picked up reading in German now. You’re right, we are doing them a a favour so it’s good to stick with it even if it gets difficult sometimes! x
I believe kids can adapt any language easily at early state in their life, unfortunately, I haven’t applied it to my son, I supposed to teach him my native tongue language, I find it hard now.
Thank you for sharing your stories with us, you are doing the right thing.
I am originally from Philippines.
It’s never too late! I’m sure he will take an interest at some stage!