As some of you may already know, I am Norwegian, and my husband is English. So, our wee lad will have to learn both, Norwegian and English, at the very least, to communicate amongst our families.
But, learning these two languages is also the norm for all Norwegian children, as English is taught early on in our school system. I also hope that he will speak French, Spanish or Italian, as well, some day.
I have read that it is easy for children to learn two languages, but also that they may start to speak later than other children. No wonder! Learning to talk is hard enough, but having to learn two languages at the same time can’t possibly make it any easier!
Now that my son is 15 months old, we frequently get asked about what words he knows. Everybody used to asked about his walking before he met that milestone. Strange, isn’t it? For a period of time, the only thing people were interested in was whether he was walking, or not, by saying, “Oh no. Isn’t he walking yet?”. But now, nobody asks that anymore. Now people are worried about his talking!
Speaking will come naturally, they say, but sometimes it doesn’t feel all that natural. For instance, his father will read him a book about animals and make the animal sound for a pig, “oink.” The next night I will read the same book, but then the pig says “nøff”, which is the sound the pig makes in Norwegian. How annoying must that be for him? And, we do it all the time without really thinking about how confusing it must be for the wee lad.
It is just very difficult to be consistent. Sometimes his father and I speak English together (well, most of the time, actually), and when I am alone with the wee lad, I speak Norwegian to him.
It doesn’t really come natural to me to speak to my son in English.
We have the same “challenge” at the dinner table. I will point at food and use the Norwegian word, and his Daddy will use the English word two minutes later. For instance, I tell him to eat his “potet”, while his Daddy says “potato”.
When referring to myself, I use the Norwegian word “Mamma”, different from the British English word, “Mummy.” As I mostly speak Norwegian to him, this is quite natural. My husband would like to be called “Daddy”, and I am still trying to remember to say “Daddy” and not “Pappa” when speaking Norwegian. I find this very difficult!
So, he has now started to say both, “Pappa” and “Daddy”, in reference to my husband, but I am still waiting for the “Mamma” (I would even settle for a “Mummy” 😉 )
We have childrens books in both languages, we even have English and Norwegian copies of some of the books. One of my (I mean his) favourites at the moment is “Baby Owl” – he is just the cutest! In Norwegian he is called “Lille Ugle”, and in English “Baby Owl” – yet another way to confuse our wee lad!
As we live in Norway, we expect that our son will probably learn Norwegian first because it is the language that is spoken everywhere, and it is, of course, on the radio and the telly a lot. However, English is prevalent in Norway, as well. Children, here, will start to learn English in school from around the age of 6 (in my day we didn’t start until the age of 9). So, in a way, he isn’t really learning anything more than what is the norm for all Norwegian children, which is why I feel he should start to concentrate on a third language, as well.
Oh dear, listen to me. I sound like one of those horrible pushy mothers who would like their children to be good at something they are not good at themselves!
I would love to speak French or Spanish myself (it is not too late, I hear you say, but I think it is). I don’t have the patience to learn Spanish. I tried on a holiday once, but the grammar was just too confusing for me. (And, I thought German was bad!) And, French is just not going to happen because there is no way I can pronounce those sounds! Anyway, enough about me…
In Norway most television programs and films are not dubbed, which means that we get to hear the original language and read subtitles in Norwegian. I think this is great, as it does make it easier to learn, but I have just discovered that childrens films are dubbed!
Since they can’t read subtitles yet, the characters need to talk in Norwegian! So, in addition to books in English, we will also get him some English DVDs, and I will probably make him watch Dora (in English), so that he can start to pick up a little Spanish as well! Poor lad, he will probably be sick of languages when he gets older!
In the meantime, he will learn both, Norwegian and English, as all children in Norway do. But, hopefully it will be a little bit easier for him, having an English dad.
What our your thoughts and/or experiences in raising bilingual children?
This is an original World Moms Blog post by Asta Burrows in Oslo, Norway. Asta can be found on her Facebook Page or on Twitter @AstaBurrows.
The photograph for this post is attributed to the author.
My son is a bilingual too. We speak ‘English’ and ‘Tamil’ at home and he has picked them both fluently. My husband’s mother tongue is ‘telugu’ though. And the national language in India is ‘Hindi’. So, he has to learn atleast 4 languages(English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu) to survive normally here in S.India(tamil), N.India(Hindi), amongst my relatives(tamil), amongst his pappa’s relatives(telugu) and generally in India(English). Whew!!! For now, he is just 5 yrs and knows 2 languages(English and tamil) only.
We are working on Hindi, which he understands a bit and I hope telugu too eventually.
There, I got it all out!!! Sorry for hijacking.
Yours is an awesome post and today when people transcend cultural, lingual, national barriers to be with their loved ones and beget children, I am sure children pick up things naturally and casually.
That’s a lot of languages! 🙂 Great that he speaks two of them already!
As you know, I too covered the bilingual topic in my first WMB post! It is interesting isn’t it? I do find that my son ‘speaks’ and understands more Arabic. He seems to respond more to that. I think that it doesn’t really matter which language is more prevalent first, they’ll soon pick up both main languages when the time comes. Just keep reading/ talking to him!
Hi Alison, yes I read your article as well, it was good to read that this whole bilinugal thing might actually work 🙂
We are so monolingual here. (Maori is an official language but not widely spoken.) I found it acutely embarrassing when I was travelling and people *had* to speak English to communicate with me. I think learning to speak two languages from birth is brilliant and having the tele in the original language is a great way to learn. The sad thing for our family is that although Craig’s Dad arrived in NZ speaking only Dutch he never passed it on to the kids (only a few nursery rhymes), whereas his aunt and uncle who were both Dutch raised bilingual children.
Here in Norway we don’t really have a choice and we have to learn another language to be able to communicate with anybody outside of Norway 🙂 I hear many people say they are embarresed when travelling as they only speak English, but I only speak English when I am travelling, not French or Spanish or Italian, so I still feel a bit quilty then that I don’t speak the “correct” language 🙂
I am so envious! I would love for my children to be bilingual, but I don’t speak any other language well enough to speak it to them in everyday settings.
Young children are amazing at picking up languages, I’m sure your son will do very well and I hope he appreciates your efforts later in life!
Thanks for you comment, yes I hope he picks it up soon 🙂
Asta,
I’m raising my daugter bilingual in English and French, and she goes to Chinese preschool on Saturdays. I love languages, and I hope that they open up new doors and friendships for her in life. 🙂
We have Dora the Explorer in French! And, we read her a French book every night. My daughter understands, but she only recently started saying some words… One day!
Didn’t know Dora came in French as well, I’ll put that on my shoppinglist for when he gets older. His GodMother is French so I will give her the task of teaching him French 😉
Your daughter is very lucky to be exposed not only to different languages, but also the cultures, I know you wrote about the Chinese preschool previously, and it sounded great!
How wonderful! While it maybe confusing, it’s a gift to your son to learn 2 languages at home. My family falls into the typical American stereotype: just English. My grandmothers’ generation was the last in my family to be bilingual. But my older son gets lessons in preschool of basic French, Spanish, and some Chinese. He also is in school with bilingual kids who are first generation Americans. One friend is Lebanese and speaks English, French & Arabic. So perhaps the typical American stereotype is changing after all ;-). I’d love for my kids to learn other languages and will encourage them to do so! For me…I’m like you….interested but not confident at picking it up at this stage.
Wow – that’s an impressive list of languages – and not only does he learn languages, but he also learns about different cultures through his friends. I guess that is the most important thing of all, to have an understanding of other people and cultures
How wonderful! While it maybe confusing, it’s a gift to your son to learn 2 languages at home. My family falls into the typical American stereotype: just English. My grandmothers’ generation was the last in my family to be bilingual. But my older son gets lessons in preschool of basic French, Spanish, and some Chinese. He also is in school with bilingual kids who are first generation Americans. One friend is Lebanese and speaks English, French & Arabic. So perhaps the typical American stereotype is changing after all ;-). I’d love for my kids to learn other languages and will encourage them to do so! For me…I’m like you….interested but not confident at picking it up at this stage.
I wish our children were bilingual. Many children in San Francisco are bilingual and often worry that my girls will fall behind or feel left out. What I mean by “left out” – when you go by the public schools, you will see children in groups speaking their native language (usually Spanish or Mandarin). So this concerns me about where my girls will fit in. Little kids are sponges – don’t worry about your wee lad – he is just taking it all in 🙂
I am sure they will fit in and maybe even pick up some words here and there 🙂
Don’t worry. Albert Einstein didn’t talk until he was 4 and his parents weren’t bilingual neither he lived in a binlingual or bicultural environmet.
Last month my mom sent me a package filled with Polish books, and I’ve been reading them to my daughter more often that any other books in English. I know she’ll pick up English very fast and she won’t have problems with that, but most of all I want her to speak Polish. I know it will be much harder because my husband doesn’t speak Polish and we speak English between us. The TV is in English and everybody around us speaks English.
You should start to read books about raising bilingual children. I have one but can’t remember the author and the book is hidden somewhere in a garage (we moved recently). All those books agree on the matter that to lear kid to speak second language (in my case Polish) we (as a parent who speak that language) MUST be consistent in speaking our language with them and asking them to respond in the same language.
Anyway, I wish you luck as well as to all those ladies who teaches their kids the second language!!!
Hugs from my corner!
Thank you for the words of encouragement! I will definitely start looking for some books that might help me! 🙂
I had a friend who was from North Belgium and his wife was from South Belgium – so they spoke French and Flemish. Since they lived here in the states they also spoke English! I remember being most impressed that their toddler could speak all 3 languages! Sounds like you are going the right way about it. It’s easier to pick up at that young. And don’t worry if he doesn’t speak too soon. Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was 3 years old! As for my little one, she will only learn English at this young age and probably some Spanish when she enters school. But I’ve enjoyed hearing her adding “ma ma ma ma ma ma” to her babble this Mother’s Day weekend 🙂 I doubt she connects the dots of Mama to me yet but it’s cool to hear the sounds!
Happy mothers day! I am sure she will say “mama” one of these days. My wee lad is also saying ma-ma-ma-ma, so hopefully it will not be long 🙂
I had a friend who was from North Belgium and his wife was from South Belgium – so they spoke French and Flemish. Since they lived here in the states they also spoke English! I remember being most impressed that their toddler could speak all 3 languages! Sounds like you are going the right way about it. It’s easier to pick up at that young. And don’t worry if he doesn’t speak too soon. Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was 3 years old! As for my little one, she will only learn English at this young age and probably some Spanish when she enters school. But I’ve enjoyed hearing her adding “ma ma ma ma ma ma” to her babble this Mother’s Day weekend 🙂 I doubt she connects the dots of Mama to me yet but it’s cool to hear the sounds!
Happy mothers day! I am sure she will say “mama” one of these days. My wee lad is also saying ma-ma-ma-ma, so hopefully it will not be long 🙂
My son is bilingual (Norwegian and English). I am Norwegian, my husband is Iranian and we live in England (yep, we are quite the mix). In addition, he also understands a lot of Farsi, speaks Latin, some French and some Spanish. He has only lived about 2 out of his 15 years in Norway, but speaks fluently without any accent. He might make the odd prepositional mistake, but he can easily pass as being ‘fully’ Norwegian. The way we solved this was reading a lot to him. I would read to him in either Norwegian or English and then translate the same text to the other language. Tapes, dvds, frequent visits and speaking the languages amongst yourself will make this normal to him. He calls me mamma or mummy (depending on what language), but he calls his dad Baba which is the Persian word for dad. So, don’t worry. It will all happen very naturally. Make sure you visit England a lot and leave him with non-Norwegian speaking relatives for some days at a time during holidays, if you can. Good luck! Klem Mette
Thanks for you comment,I am sure she will say “mama” one of these days. My wee lad is also saying ma-ma-ma-ma, so hopefully it will not be long.http://www.mirchi9.com
The problem is not with the way we call(Mommy,mummy,mom, maa) our mother. Yes in today’s world most of the people forgot the real meaning of the mother. In some parts of the world they are just leaving the mother away from their life. Mother became just a need to them after their needs and standing on their own feet they are just taking them as a burden to bare them. She is not a product or a service to use for a particular period and throw away. She is the existing god who stays with us till her entire life. She only cares about her children and husband, she don’t even take care of her happiness, because her happiness lies only within the children and husband. If she thinks that her life is only for children and husband then why can’t we(humans) give her love back. Mother’s love is the only love which is unconditional in the world. I’m not saying father is not a important part of life, he is also a important part of life without his support how can we grow. He is the backbone to our families without him we can’t even stand our self. In my words, Mother is the breathe and father is the backbone without them we are no more. My sincere and humble request to everyone in this world “Don’t ever and ever loose your parents.” they are the everything. Priorities should not be effected on your parents, because they are the must. If I say more it will not end because we can’t describe mother in just a paragraphs. These are my heart feelings towards mother in the world.