Bilingual Baby!
26 January 2005
Currently, A. and I have no kids, nor are we planning to in the near future. That, however, doesn’t stop me from thinking now and again about what kind of environment our child might grow up in. For as long as we live in Germany where German is the most common language and since English (or “American” some would say) is not only my native language, but what A. and I speak together, our child would have no choice but to grow up in some sort of bilingual environment. What kind of bilingual environment, however, is up to us.
I think that growing up truly bilingual is a magical gift to bestow upon a child and I grieve for the fact that A.’s Greek father never took it upon himself to speak Greek with his children. I find it terribly sad that if his father would have made a conscious decision to do so he could have helped his children become bilingual, but instead A. only knows a few words of Greek. I would hate to deprive my child of such a chance.
I do wonder though, exactly how to successfully help your child become bilingual. I don’t think that exclusively speaking one language at home while living in a country where another is the norm is enough. I have read of many cases where immigrant children learn the country’s language outside the home, but only speak their “mother tongue” at home. Apparently it “works,” but there have also been direct correlations made between this haphazard way of becoming bilingual and poor grades and/or behavior problems. It seems to me that tossing bilingualism around in this manner would hinder, rather than benefit my child.
I have also found many references to what is referred to as the “one parent, one language” method.” This technique is employed by each parent exclusively speaking his or her native language to the child from birth. This seems to be a fairly painless method for the parents and the easiest to employ since it appears that as the child grows, his or her brain automatically adapts and wires itself not only to understand both languages, but eventually think in them as well. However, this method leaves me wondering what language family discussions are conducted in and whether or not it confuses the child to hear his or her parents speaking one language and not the other together.
In our situation, though German is A.’s native language, he will be one of the first to admit that he is more socially adept in English than in German. In addition to that, he finds speaking German around me uncomfortable and has indicated he isn’t sure he could follow this “one parent, one language” method if he was the one that had to speak German! If we lived closer to his parents, I suppose we could easily transfer the German responsibilities to his mother, and I guess that just having German-speaking grandparents would go a long way in the bilingual development of our child, but I have my doubts as to whether or not our child would develop a natural German fluency based on such limited contact.
A. also believes that by merely living in Germany any child of ours would naturally pick up German and, to an extent, I agree. However, by shirking what I see is a bilingual duty to our child, I am afraid he or she would end up in the situation where German was only spoken because he or she had to do it and that I definitely would not want.
I know that quite a few parents living in a bilingual environment read this blog, and I wonder what your feedback on the subject is. As I said, A. and I have no plans for children in the near future, but that doesn’t stop me from realizing what a potentially difficult environment we might be bringing a child into if we don’t thoroughly think the matter over.
