I'm shootin' for the world record for the shortest Non-Native Bilingualism post ever published...let's see how I do.
Tonight, after Kaya got back from her grandparents for a few days, I couldn't help but feel astounded at the shift that seems to have occurred in her language tendencies. She's become a little German chatterbox, enunciating clear as a bell, using past tense completely accurately, telling me about things I can't believe she even notices. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what it is has shifted...but it's clearly something, and I wanted to get it down in fine print so that I could refer to it later should I ever feel like re-examining the various stages of language development (or some friendly reader wants to shed the light on it for me!). As I was riding home with her in the car tonight, not to mention walking around downtown with her today, it was like the German was just rolling out of her mouth and into my ears.
Truly a dream come true.
p.s. As I was sitting at the table tonight, one day after writing this, I realized what it is that's so different: speaking with my daughter in German suddenly feels like I'm speaking not only with a kid (vs. a baby or a toddler), but with a native German speaker who is simply speaking her mind vs. trying to find the right words to express herself...!
YAY!!!!!! I knew you could do it... I hope that many parents trying to raise their child(ren) in the same way (or maybe don't even know that it is a possibility) stumble across your blog and are utterly motivated to move forward with their attempts as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sara! It's been wonderful to not only have you along for this whole journey, and then some, but to have your never-ending support through it all! Love ya!
DeleteIt just goes to show, all our efforts that seem to be rolling off into nowhere are actually going in little by little. Now it's payback time... enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI know, huh?! It does feel like payback time (minus the NEIN, NEIN, NEIN..ich WIWWW nicht!)...this time between being at home nearly full time where she gets so much German input, and heading off into the greater English-speaking community...thanks!
DeleteWahoo..... This is brilliant news. Well done Kaya & well done Tamara for getting you both to this wonderful place!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Nichola...without you, we wouldn't be in this same place...of that I'm confident!
DeleteMy jaw is on the floor! Perfect past tense? German rolling off her tongue? It really IS a dream come true!! How thrilled and proud you must be! Congratulations!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kate! As always, your support is immense and quite enjoyable to take in, thank you! I am very thrilled, indeed! =)
DeleteOh, wow. That's so exciting! All your hard work is paying off :) It's amazing how these things happen. So proud of you and little Kaya. Can't wait for the next big shift :)
ReplyDelete- Lila J.
Thanks, Lila! How wonderful to share the excitement with a stranger (though perhaps we know each other?)...or at least hear about how exciting you think it is! Thank you so much.
DeleteWhat is your story?
Hehe, no, I'm just a visitor who gets inspired by this sort of thing (i.e., non-native bilingualism). I'm studying Spanish and hope to be able to do the same in the future when I have a family of my own.
Delete- Lila J.
Hi Tamara
ReplyDeleteI've been following your blog for the past couple of years after googling non native bilingualism when I decided to raise our twin girls in Italian. I've enjoyed reading your posts which have been relevant to our situation too. So happy for you that your bilingual adventure is progressing so well!
I've also recently had that realization that our two and a half year old girls really are native Italian speakers. Listening to them chattering to each other in Italian and most importantly using Italian when talking to themselves and realizing that right now Italian is the language they think in. So satisfying after all the hard work I've put in, especially when they were tiny and couldn't reply! We're very lucky to have an Italian au pair too so they have a native speaker in the home and I have the opportunity to improve my Italian on a daily basis.
I've never commented before on your blog but I decided to do so now as my family and I are moving to Portland probably in November and I was wondering if you might possibly be interested in meeting up? Except through internet contacts I don't know anyone else who's doing the non native bilingual thing and I would love to know someone else who's as passionate about this as I am, even though the languages we're using are different (although incidentally I do speak German as I studied it at school and university).
If you'd like to, please feel free to send me a friend request on facebook (my name is Alison Deer Squillante) or tell me another way to contact you privately.
Thanks
Alison
Hi Alison,
DeleteWhat a GREAT response, thank you so much! How very exciting that you're moving to the NW, to Portland! I would LOVE to meet up, and I've sent you a FB request so we can figure out all the details. How cool...SO looking forward to this. You probably know so much more than I'll even realize, even though we've never met. How unique..!
See you soon!
Tamara