Bilingual Bedtime Stories - Books are Boundaries

At night, we gather the little ones for their nighttime routine of bedtime stories. We always read a scripture story first. My favorite scripture stories are from the Kinderbibel by Anne DeVries. 

 

The children are enthralled by these bible stories and they are perfect for reading aloud. Even the older siblings enjoy reading the stories to the kids. The older kids love them because I read the very same stories to them when they were little.

What I find linguistically interesting is how the children have drawn their language boundaries when it comes to books. We have mostly German children's books, but we also own quite a few English books. At first, I didn't want to read the English books to them, for fear that it would "contaminate" our German speaking home (ML@H). I worried that if I started reading English books, that the kids would then start communicating with each other in English. They would hear me reading in English and would assume that English is an OK language use at home. And I know from experience, that once they switch to English as their main communication language, the German becomes more and more obsolete.

Well, it turns out that books are in and of themselves a language boundary. They are a controlled exception to the rule. The book is a boundary or barrier which contains the English and prevents the English from seeping out and contaminating our German speaking home. The book gives us the license to use English and still makes it natural to switch (code switch) back to German when we close the book. It's quite amazing. 

In the video, I start out by reading a German bible story. The children ask questions and make comments about the story in German. I then pick up an English children's book. As I read in English, the kids participate in the "wishy washy weeeee" (English) part of the book. But they tend to make their comments and ask their questions in German. There is even a point, when I ask a question about the book in English and Jonathan answers in German. The kids understand where the language boundaries are and they understand when it's acceptable or "normal" to speak English and when it's acceptable or "normal" to speak German. 

I am amazed at the effectiveness of establishing language boundaries and rules and then sticking to them. The children will always use the language that feels more natural to them. If they have always used the target language (in our case, German) in a given situation, then it would feel unnatural for them to use the community language (English) in that same situation. But if you break the rule for them, then they will naturally follow and that will open the proverbial floodgates of the community language that you have been trying so hard to keep in check while you focus on the target language. 

Is French Feasible or Futile? Thoughts of Trilingualism

With our older children, we tried introducing French a few times. I checked out some French audio tapes from the library and I had a few French children's books that we would read now and then. Why French? Well, my sweet husband speaks French. He served a two year mission in France for our church when he was 19. I took two years of French in high school. I also took a few semesters in college. I am NOT fluent. I can understand basic words and grammar. I can say things like "Je m'apelle Nina." I think if I studied it again that a lot would come back to me. But since I haven't tried to keep it up, I have forgotten almost all of my French.

Anyways, so why am I blogging about French? Well, I am somehow convinced that I could give my kids the equivalent of two or three years of high school French. I don't expect them to become fluent or to speak native-like. However, I do believe that they have the potential to acquire much better pronunciation if we start at a young age than they would if we waited to introduce the language until they were teenagers. What are other reasons why I might want to introduce French? Well, why not?? I can speak some French, so why not pass what I know on to my kids. In fact, I can learn right along with them.

How do plan on doing this? Well, I'm not exactly sure yet. I've been showing them French children's videos since they were little. I have French apps on our phones and tablets, which the kids love to play. We have some French books and a daddy that speaks some French. I think that is enough to get started.

I have been mulling the whole French thing over in my head for a year or two. I realized that if I really want to push French, that I will probably end up pulling my kids out of school part time, because there just isn't enough time after school to really learn a language. I have some awesome ideas about that, but that will have to wait for a later blog post. All I know, is that I want start soon. They are at an age where they are just soaking so much up. I don't want to miss this precious developmental stage in their lives.

I find myself searching the internet often for any French material I can find. I'm also looking for a fun children's French curriculum that we can use. I'd prefer one designed for native German speakers who are learning French. If anyone has any ideas or recommendations, please share them in the comment section below.

As you can see in the video below, the kids already are enjoying French. They are fascinated by it. Being bilingual, they understand the concept of different languages and that there are different ways to express yourself. So, I think their little minds are very open to the idea of a third language. Maybe we'll start something like "French Fridays" and use that day to really focus on French. I'm getting super excited about the whole French thing. There is so much technology available to help me out. See my Technology Post.

The video shows the kids watching a cute French YouTube video. They had been playing outside in the pool. When they came in, I had it playing. They were sucked into it and didn't go back outside. I loved that they immediately started imitating the words and sounds. They thought it was neat that the French alphabet sounded more like the German alphabet. As I watched them, I realized that I need to continue to feed them French. I'm excited to find out where we'll end up on this new linguistic venture.

German Language Boundaries at the County Fair

Jonathan and Simon help with grooming

I have written quite a few posts on this topic, but I am continually amazed at how ingrained our unwritten language rules/boundaries are. This past week, we put those boundaries to the test a few times and it was interesting to see the kids' response.

Watching the steer show with friends

Each year, we spend a week at the county fair. Our older kids are in 4-H and I'm a leader of a 4-H club. In the past we've had market lambs, market pigs, market goats and market steers, as well as chickens and dairy goats at the fair. The kids also enter many static exhibits, such as artwork, photography, baking, creative writing, etc.

Kandra shows her market lamb

They love their big brother

Dallin with his market steer

Because we're at the fair all day, every day, we are, of course, surrounded by English. One of our unspoken rules is that it's OK to speak English when we're in the company of English speakers. So, needless to say, we spoke a lot of English with the kids this past week. We still often speak German when around other English speakers, but, the kids know that it's acceptable to speak English as well.

One of the days, Karl (husband) and I were walking through the fairgrounds with just our family members. We had the three young ones and one or two of the older kids with us. Usually, this would be a time when we would only speak German, because there were no one else with us. As we headed over to the ice cream booth, I asked the kids in English if they wanted ice cream. Right away, Simon objected, and said "Du sollst nur Deutsch sprechen" (You should only speak German). I was amazed, that with all the English that we had been speaking, at how aware he was that we had broken our unwritten language rule. He was very aware that we were not in the company of other English speakers. Yes, they were all around us; but he could tell that this conversation was a private family conversation. My question was not intended to include anyone outside the family. Even though he's only 5 years old, he very well understood that a language boundary had been breached and he called me on it.

Now with my older kids, I started breaching that rule way too often (addressing the kids in English when we were in a family setting), and because of that, our family language switched to mostly English much earlier than it has with our younger kids. In fact, with the younger set, our German has remained so strong because we have made such a concerted effort to really stick to our rules. We're trying very hard to keep the boundaries in tact, so that the childrens' German will continue to develop to a higher level than the older kids achieved. I guess, we'll just have to wait and see what our linguistic future holds, but for now, we'll just stay on our present course. It seems to be working.

Countdown to Goodbye! Life is Good.

I can't believe, we'll sending our Michaela off to Europe in just over 30 days. Michaela's Mission Call Video We won't see her for 18 months. That's a long time to say goodbye to one of your babies. Will we miss her? Yes, we will. Do we still want her to go? Yes, we do! Why? Because this is a dream come true for her. She has wanted to serve a mission for the LDS Church her entire life. Is she prepared? YES! She has been preparing for this since she was small. She is so excited to serve her Savior and to help others to feel His love. She has spent the last few months, since she's been home from college, studying her scriptures, the missionary manuals, and taking care of all the travel logistics (passport, visa, etc). She's been studying the German language her entire life, but these last few months, she has really upped her intensity. She has been studying grammar like never before...and it's slowly starting to make more sense to her. It's fun to see the grammar finally start to click. Just today, she pointed out that "Wir gehen ins (in das) Haus hinein" and that we use "das" because it's accusative! Yay!! I think she's getting it!! She constantly comes to me with grammar questions and it's so fun to see her intense desire to really learn.

Apparently, her German is good enough that she tested out of the language training in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). They had her call in and do a phone interview, after which they told her that she would be training with the other native German sisters and that she would only be in the MTC for 2 weeks instead of the usual 6 weeks (required when you're learning a foreign language).

We started a blog for her and she did her first post today: Miss Michaela On A Misson! It's hard to think that we only have just over a month left. Her little Simon is already missing her so much. He and Michaela have such a special bond. It will be very hard for him and for Clarissa and Jonathan, as well. But they  understand that serving a mission is a good thing. They are so proud of their oldest sibling, Ben, who is currently serving a mission in Wisconsin: While in Wisconsin. They pray for him every single night; they talk about him and they draw him LOTS of pictures, which we mail to him regularly.

We are so excited for all the fun adventures that Michaela will have in Germany. We're happy that she gets to make some wonderful memories in a country that is dear to our hearts. It will be fun for her to learn more about the local culture and to get to know the wonderful people. It makes me excited just thinking about it. There is just so much to be grateful for! Yes, life is good!!