Guest blogger: Teaching your child a second language
Guest blogger Tiziana
Barrow is a mother of a very active 4 year old girl, wife to the “man in plaid
pants”, living in DC. Born
and raised in Italy and has since lived in the UK, Holland and across the US.
Tiziana is a founder of “A Family Village”, where she and her team encourage families
to find their family's match: www.afamilyvillage.com
Have you ever regretted not learning something when you had
the chance? A second language… your grandmother’s recipes… a green thumb with
plants?
I really want my little one to be able to converse and enjoy
my side of the family, so she has to be bilingual. I left Italy in my late
teens and my all family still lives in Italy and speaks only Italian.
I wish that my husband would become fluent too. There will a big wedding in September and my
enjoyment and his is going to be heavily dependent on how much he can truly communicate
with my dear cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and parents.
My hubby has taken a course, listened to CDs, has several
grammar books; yet to learn a language
you have to be fully immersed in it. Immersion is what I did when I first moved to
England. I am an experiential learner
so I would seek out any opportunities to meet new native speakers and expose
myself to the culture to speed my learning process.
With my little one, I’ve tried the one hour of Italian a
day, the cartoons, the singing – that works some. She is learning words and
fully understanding the gist of most sentences, but she is not able to
converse. Last year, after two weeks of being with my parents and me only
speaking Italian, she was forming full sentences.
So I am taking the
plunge: I am going to be consistent and only speak Italian to the
pair of them. It might take some
time for them to understand everything, but with time and patience they will
both get there. Also, I’ve been seeking
out Italian families with young
bi-lingual children, hoping to offer them the full immersion experience once in
a while.
I would be delighted
to hear any suggestions that have worked for you.
* * *
Molto grazie, Tiziana!