Showing posts with label trilingual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trilingual. Show all posts

Friday, September 11, 2020

FINAL UPDATE ON MARC´S PROGRESS - Mission "completed" 13 years - última actualización - Misión "cumplida" 13 años

 Review at 13 years old- Repaso a los 13 años

A continuación repaso los momentos destacados de los últimos 13 años y donde está ahora con su nivel de inglés, catalán e español. 

I thought this would be a good moment to review and give some highlights of Marc’s thirteen years. After this post I’m going to focus on bilingual families in general.

In the beginning I used to write down or record so many of his words and phrases, but as he’s got older it has been more difficult as he speaks so fast and he doesn’t make enough mistakes to point out.

However, it will wrap up this period leading up to the teenage years with a few points that parents can think about and briefly speak about the upcoming book AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE:  

THE 5 KEY STRATEGIES of SUCCESSFUL BILINGUAL FAMILIES.

1.       The important thing from the very beginning is to give as much exposure as possible. Even if you have to sacrifice some “me time”, if you are serious about your child speaking your language, you need to provide interactive input as much as possible.

2.       . Use the OPOL method, One Parent, One Language. Although some parents may ‘get lucky’, only speaking your language to your child is going to give you the biggest chance of success

3.       Make sure your child speaks back to you ONLY in ONE (your) language. 1L2U.  Don’t accept anything else!

4.       Accept that there will periods of resistance and language mixing in many cases. As long as you stay on track and keep up the exposure and OPOL – 1L2U, the chances of this happening are going to be reduced.

5.       Think of other sources of input apart from yourself. Schools, child-care, study trips abroad, and all media in your language in your home language world.

 

These are some of the key strategies. You can find out about these and much more in the book as well as strategies for non-native speakers who want to raise their children in a language that is not their first one.

Where is Marc right now with his language?

By employing the strategies above, he has always been at an average native level for his age, and now I feel that the first major stage is complete as he moves into adolescence. He is absolutely indistinguishable from a native English speaker of his age.

He spends a lot of time on YouTube (I mean hours and hours) watching gamer tutorials mostly, but all in English. I have noticed that even foreign children pick up a lot of English from this media as long as the content is comprehensible and age appropriate. He does read, but not enough, and trying to get him to do it turns into a real struggle. The important thing is to be as disciplined as possible. Firm but fair. He also needs to improve his English writing and spelling. Recently he started writing a Star Wars story in English, which will certainly help in this respect couple with the input he gets at school.

 

In September of last year, he began what was supposed to be full school year at a boarding school in England. In the end, due to the Corona Virus, he had to come back after the second term at Easter, and go back to his previous school.

 

 

Language forms

He started using ‘mate’ (tio) at the end of phrases to me, and he uses the adjective ‘decent’ all the time. “That game is pretty decent.”  He can create words like a native such as this morning when he came out with “shotgunning people in that game.”

He’ll use young people’s phrases from listening to Youtubers like “Let’s bounce” (let’s go), or “Did you know you are a ‘boomer’ Dad? (‘old person’ from Baby boomer generation ). I’ve heard many parents tell me about children using phrases they hadn’t taught them through social media and television exposure. 

Occasionally there is transference from Spanish / Catalan into English. I’ve heard him say ‘discussion’ instead of ‘argument’ for example. And sometimes he translates phrases from English into Catalan, “No es mi cosa.” “ It’s not my thing.”

Bilinguals will also have some transference, however well-balanced they are. Studies have shown that even second language learners get influenced by the language they are learning. This is a small sacrifice for being multilingual, don’t you think?

Recently, I heard him tell a Welsh PS4 gamer through the Discord app that gamers use that he thought English was his strongest language rather than Catalan.

He is becoming aware of his strengths and weaknesses in the languages he speaks. He feels that he needs to improve his Spanish since he gets little active practice. His mother, and friends all speak Catalan. He surprised me two weeks ago when he suggested I speak Spanish to him to help him improve. I reminded him that I am his only main English contact so that wouldn’t be a good idea and does not follow the One Parent One Language strategy.

  I suggested that his mother speak to him in Spanish from now on, as she is a bilingual Spanish-Catalan speaker, but she doesn’t want to. We will have to see how we help him in this respect. It may seem strange to some parents that a child living in Spain doesn’t speak Spanish up to a very high level, but this can happen in bilingual areas of countries in circumstances when there is a little contact with the ‘dominant’ language. I will speak about this further in a later Blog entry.

To sum up, these first thirteen years have been hard work! But seeing the results has made it all worth-while. This next stage during the teenage years is sure to bring up many challenges, but if you plan it well, you reduce some but not all the unpredictable moments.

Let me know how you are doing.  

 

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Update / actualización March 2019 . 11y 10 months

11 years and 10 months.
This is an update that's long overdue!
I've been keeping a note of his Language,  especially native English expressions and the input sources.
Language and expressions. It used to be easy to keep track of his Language Use, but now there's so much I just jot down examples that are noteworthy.
The following are the ones that I managed to note down:
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
These brands come up with the wackiest ideas
Phoskitos . Tumbler . Barril. 
Bet you dude perfect has made a video with those those 
I can wait to sink my teeth into this chicken. 
This chicken isn't as good, not by a long shot
Gave her a run for her money.
Stop rubbing it in my face
Growley is smelling a bag like there's no tomorrow. 
How did you get on with your cousins? 
Messed up crazy baby things. 
A sights for sore eyes
Phone me, I don't keep track of time
It was sick! 
This trick is so old-school. July 
I unloaded everything single-handedly (in supermarket)
August.  I'm lolling at everything.  
What in the World was that?! ( In surprise at result in video game)
It's gonna be epic! 
I haven't got a bull's notion! (An Irish expression he remembered )
That old guy was going up and down the street like there was no tomorrow. 
I'm in quite a bit of a pickle
I'm shedding skin 
Gravity went haywire 
My Play Station is busted
Speak of the devil, I found my mobile
Language Use in general.
He speaks fluently at a bilingual native level on all topics with occasional pauses for some words.
Input has moved now to YouTube. Especially Australian gamer ones who give tips on improving skills on Fortnight or Battlefront for example.
Apart from films in general,  he watched American TV cartoon series for his age on Netflix. With me he watches Star Trek Discovery, The Orville and Elementary.  They all have scenes which are borderline appropriate . This is where we could enter into a discussion of Internet use and the appropriateness of the content.
ADVICE
As usual, it's important to plan as much time together in your schedule where you can have language rich interactions. This sounds very formal! Just talk as much as possible .
The one area needing work is writing and spelling still. And the school is trying to help in this respect.