I would like your comments and advice on the following, please: We are portuguese and me and my daughter (6 yo) arrived in Zurich in January (her father has been here for 4 years). She joined kindergarten then - so, almost six months ago. She is barely speaking German. She is very sociable and has been making friends and is very happy and communicates with the other kids. I don't want to rush her into the language - my main concern is not to be able to evaluate if we are doing ok on relying solely on her daily interaction at school or if we should get her formal extra support with the language. What is your experience and opinion on this? I thank you in advanced.
Hello,
At that age, don't worry. Many children 'listen' for quite a long time and then suddenly begin to talk fluently. As long as she seems happy and it doesn't worry her, I'd wait another couple of months at least.
Thank you for taking the time to reply.
The only thing I would add to Longbyt's reply is to suggest that if the rest of her life is in a non-German speaking bubble then that won't be particularly good for her (or your) German.
One of our children's friends had extra German lessons, but the rest of their life was in an expat bubble - that child regarded German as a sort of "special punishment" until about 8, although they spoke German well enough with the other children.
For my kids, 6 months was about the turning point for starting to speak. They were fairly fluent (still with mistakes) at about the year and a half mark.
It takes about 7 years of immersion to get to the proficiency/native speaker stage according to literature I 've read in my teacher training.
My daughter took about six months before she really started speaking. I think some children prefer to wait until they feel comfortable with the language. It's not that they don't understand or can't speak, it's just that they prefer to wait.
And rather than formal lessons, I'd consider a fun activity in German, like a group music class or something sporty. My daughter did a music class (singing, rhythm etc), which she loved and which I'm sure helped. Check out your local music school, as they'll probably run something similar.
And ask at your local Gemeinschaftszentrum ( http://www.gz-zh.ch ) about other activities, whether sport or art/craft or whatever. Anything that involves interaction with other kids.
Otherwise, lots of time at your local playground will also help. At this age I think it's all about immersion and getting her comfortable with the whole thing.
Hi Ana,
I can see you're Portuguese as me.
I moved to Zürich 3 years ago with my wife and daughter of 4 years. She started in the kindergarten in September (already a month after it began) and she didn't speak any word of German and her teacher asked us if we wanted to put her in an extra German class but we refused the offer as we didn't want to force her to learn German quickly.
She spent the first 3 months only listening and they were teaching her new words every day. She then started to talk German after those 3 months listening period and just 3 more months and she was able to speak quite good with her teacher and new friends on German.
Today she's at primary school and can read and write German as other colleagues at her class. Even people says that her Swiss-German sounds like native speakers.
So, it's only a matter of time and this may vary from kid to kid.
Just be patient and everything will be ok.
@tildaoz: thank you very much! That is a great suggestion and both music and arts would be a good idea for her!
@vmontalvao: Thank you. This assures me a lot, actually
@Ana CC
What does the kindergarten teacher think? Is she worried? How does she help other immigrant children, and what does she advise?
Not worried at all and actually does not make "comparisons" with the other children - which I think is a very good thing.
The question here is more if usually parents do get extra formal support for their kids or not (and I should just relax and enjoy the summer!)
I had very different experiences with my two children — one had lessons, and the other didn't. Both went through the silent "absorption" phase in the first year of (Swiss-German) Kindergarten, but it took much longer for my daughter (the youngest and now 7) to really find her voice, and it wasn't until mid-way through the second year that she was comfortable communicating in Swiss-German. I didn't have extra lessons for her, however, with my son, the oldest (now 10) I did organise extra lessons while he was at Kindergarten (a private teacher who came to the house weekly, and played, read books, etc), and looking back I think this one-to-one really helped him with his confidence.
My two are both native English-speakers and are going through the local school system in Zurich.
Wendy, thank you very much for taking the time to reply with detail.
You will definitely need to be a little patient and ensure that the kids are exposed to german a bit after school as well - it could be something simple like reading out a story for like 15-20 minutes, putting on a a quick cartoon - just do it without any pressure and you'll be surprised how quick they respond...GL
Thank you - cartoons are a good idea.
Every child is different. If she's happy and making German speaking friends in the community, she'll learn, but you can't put her on a timeline for fluency. In Kindergarten, the most important stuff is social and the rest follows in it's own developmentally appropriate time.