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coccolone hat geschrieben:

anjali hat geschrieben: And it's always funny when the little German kids at the playground look at me quizzically and ask "warum sprichst du denn so komisch mit ihm???"

anjali hat geschrieben: I wish there were some more bilingual moms in my area to meet up with.

Whereabouts do you live?

Oh, I completely missed this - sorry! I live in southern Bavaria, close to Garmisch.

Our kids grow up bilingually as well, even though we're both german. I had been babysitting in an german/american family starting when the little girl was 1 1/2. For years, they took me to Boston for the summer vacations, staying in her sister's house there. After my "Ausbildung", I even stayed at her other sister's for several months, taking care of her baby. A full summer in Manhattan with no expenses and even lots of benefits like tickets to a broadway show, a paid hotel room for when my husband (back then he'd still been just the boyfriend) came to visit me and more.
When I was pregnant, I decided to give it a try raising my child bilingually. So I spoke english to her right from the beginning, we attended an english music group once a week and when she was 1 1/2, she started going to an american daycare (Tagesmutter) for 3 days per week while I was working. At first, it had been kind of an experiment and especially my in-laws, who don't know any english, had been less than supportive because they feared, Sara would not understand or speek any german. But as soon as the realized that she understands both languages equally, their attitude changed towards being proud of it.
Now she's 4 1/2, understands everything but refuses to speak a single word - before we've moved houses, the friends she had all had been attending that daycare, so they understood her when she mixed the languages in one sentence. After the move, she found herself in a surrounding where no kid understood the english part of her sentences. So she declared that she'd she forgotten all her english and stopped speaking english completely.
So right now it's just watching english movies and reading english books. But i'm positive that once it's "cool" to be able speaking english, she'll change her attitude and eventually speak again. And it's so familiar - my babysitting girl refused to speak a single english word as long as she was in Germany but as soon as we'd landed in Boston, she switched to english.

Perlchen, that really is completely normal. I grew up with German and English, and we moved back and forth across the Atlantic several times. My parents tell me that I refused to speak German when we first moved to Germany, and when we moved back to the States, I didn't want to speak English at first. Of course, that all changed with time and I adapted mainly to my surroundings. While we were in the US, my parents insisted that I speak German at home, which was a good thing since otherwise I would have encountered some problems when we moved back to Germany and I started going to "Gymnasium" here.

Another bilingual family here. We live in the US, my husband is American, I'm the German part here. I only speak German with the kids and am happy to see that they are finally coming along with their German. It's tough for them since mostly all they hear is English. I have few German friends and we spend a lot of time so the kids hear other people than me speak German. Next year - I hope, if we can afford it financially - I'll send them to German saturday school. It's only two hours a week but they'll hear even more people speak German, a lot of kids, too etc. I've noticed that my son (he's 3 years and 9 months) is really trying to throw more and more German words in the mix but it's still very English-heavy. Sometimes he cracks me up saying things like "Mama...schmuse me" or "No, you lass mich in Ruhe". The only thing that comes out completely English and accent free is "Mama, ich moechte eine Milch, Jacke, Kekse, Nutellabrot etc etc bitte".

Oh, that's adorable! 'schmuse me' *gg* Soph continues to mix both German and English, using a bit more German than English most of the time. I love hearing her talk in her own special way

Back in Germany I was a bit scared that they loose all their english. But it´s sooo funny when the boys are playing they start talking english.
Luca´s still a scottish accent We´ve started our english lessons with a mom and two boys who lived in America for a while. It´s a funny mixture. Scottish, american and english accent

Mami22As hat geschrieben:Another bilingual family here. We live in the US, my husband is American, I'm the German part here. I only speak German with the kids and am happy to see that they are finally coming along with their German. It's tough for them since mostly all they hear is English. I have few German friends and we spend a lot of time so the kids hear other people than me speak German. Next year - I hope, if we can afford it financially - I'll send them to German saturday school. It's only two hours a week but they'll hear even more people speak German, a lot of kids, too etc. I've noticed that my son (he's 3 years and 9 months) is really trying to throw more and more German words in the mix but it's still very English-heavy. Sometimes he cracks me up saying things like "Mama...schmuse me" or "No, you lass mich in Ruhe". The only thing that comes out completely English and accent free is "Mama, ich moechte eine Milch, Jacke, Kekse, Nutellabrot etc etc bitte".

Where in TX are you? ....my dd is born in El Paso

we're in the Houston area...only a mere 16hrs from El Paso .

I put the kids in the car today and Allie's hair was all over the place, in her eyes etc and she said "Siehst ja gar nix" ...cute.

I, too, have bilingual children. My son at 4 months pronounces a perfect "th", but at that age they can all still speak anything... My daughter (5 years) couldn't manage a "th" to save her life - she seems to have inherited her daddy's "frängisch". Actually, her accent is much worse than his, and I have no idea what happened there (he's not allowed to speak English with her, as a non-native speaker). I was a bilingual child myself, born and raised in Canada with German (one could almost say fanatically German) parents - and I have to say that bilinguality worked exceptionally well with, and for, me. Of course, having both parents as native other-language speakers helps a lot. My children are adressed by me exclusively in English (from conception on), but my husband and I have always spoken German to each other and I can't suddenly switch now, and of course my children hear me speaking German to everyone else. So I march bravely on, speaking English and being answered in German. My daughter is a true diva and brags continually "ich kann englisch" and then steadfastly refuses to do so. We're spending next summer in Canada and I'm planning on getting her many play-dates with the anglophones, and she'll either sink or swim.
The funniest bilingual confusion thing she produced was, no... there were 2: one was "die Sheepen die sleepen", the other was last summer during melon season when she insisted on buying "Zitronen". Now, there's no German way of getting Zitronen and Melonen confused, is there? But it shows that her brain has english pathways where lemons and melons cause metathesis.
Greetings from the franconian frontier, where there are no bilingual schools, kindergartens or anything of the kind.

Hi there ,

I am English, but grew up here, bilingual. We spoke and still speak English at home (at may parents), I learnt German in kindergarten. My husband is German, and "our " language is German, but I exclusively speak English with the children. They understand everything but speak more or less only German themselves, throwing in the odd English word or phrase. "Would like milk" is a favourite of my youngest, and my eldest is very good when she wants something "may I please have another ginger biscuit, please" . They have never really had to speak English, as everyone who speaks English with them also understands their German, e.g. my parents. They unfortunately live 180 km from us. So it bis mostly me who talks in English to them, and it does feel a little strange when I usually only get German back. The children haven't complained, yet .
One of the funniest things that happened: My elder daughter was telling me something and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was talking about, it sounded something like "elkorve". After a while she said: "Mensch Mama, Lorry!" She'd meant "LKW" .
The closest I get to "Mummy" (I have a northern accent) from my eldest is "Mami", the little one uses both. My younger one always starts off with the English, but with her sister talking mainly in German, she rather copies her than me . and what really gets me is when she copies the German accent when they do early English in kindergarten
Oh, and they can both sing various English nursery rhymes

I'd love to meet English speaking mums and dads, so if anyone happens to live anywhere around Hannover/Braunschweig/Bremen....

Looking forward to reading from you,

Niamh.

P.S.: I like "die sheepen die sleepen"
Reminds me a bit of my little one 6 months ago: we went past some geese, and she kept saying: "Geese. *pause* Geese. *pause* Geese. *pause* Kanne."