Share your opinion and experience of living with three languages or raising trilingual children.

 


Comments

Gosia
02/05/2009 04:37

I have a friend who was raised up with three languages (French, German and Polish) - her parents (from Pl and Fr) had met in Germany where they studied German and had her when they were students so she was raised up in her first years mainly by her grand-parents in Poland. Her parents spoke to her and her siblings in their respective mother tongues and used German when they spoke to each other and especialy when didn't want their children to understand them. However the children learned German that way...:) She is living in Germany now and is perfectly threelingual :). I used to work with her as an interpreter for Polish, German and French. The funny thing was that she didn't know any Polish "bad" words.. ;)

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renata
02/08/2009 08:42

Hej,

this is a very similar situation to my own: me- Polsh, my husband Irish - we met in Germany and this remains our language. we have two children (4 and 2 years) and they have three languages on a daily basis, as I would speak to them polish, my husband and his relatives plus the whole outer world (as we are living in Ireland)english but they listen to us speaking German to eachother all the time.


I have noticed recently- while visiting my friends in Germany- that my kids do understand a lot German and after only few days were able to pick some new words.

I don't see any confusion, delays in speach development or other negative aspects of this situation.

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Liza
12/15/2009 05:45

I grew up with three languages: German as my mother tong and French in creche/school. My mother is German, I was born and raised in Belgium and my Italian father spoke Italian to me.
By 4 years of age I spoke all tree fairly well, at 16 I was sent to the US and learned English. I now speak all four fluently and accent free. I was never confused as a child but now that i'm in my thirties I tend to forget some words if i don't use one of my languages for a while. I think this is normal though.

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Vicky
02/24/2010 02:15

Hi there,

I am originally from Flanders (Belgium), so my mother tongue is Flemish (Dutch). My now 3-year old daughter was bron in Ireland and has been going to creche and pre-school in English. From when she was bron, I have made a conscious effort to speak to her in Flemish only, even in the presence of people who don't understand Flemish.At the beginning I used to worry about whether or not this was appropriate or polite, but I don't really care anymore at this stage, as it's become entirely natural to me and my daughter.
Her dad is Polish, so she has a good understanding of that language as well.
It's a pity that he hasn't been more consistent in speaking only Polish to her, as her Polish is significantly less developed than her English and Flemish.
1 parent, 1 language is the best strategy, in my opinion!

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