older child starts to translate for her brother polish to english wich makes me crazy. i want them to speak in polish but this getting really difficult. in agust we are moving to Switzerland and will come 4 th language french qnd probably İ will not have any more polish speaking friends around so will be really difificult to keep them speak polish.
Hope my children will switch to my language one day. İm polish, still living in England with Turkish husband and 2 kids 8 and 6 years old. Both of them born in England, going to english school. before they started english school they spoke very nicly polish and turkish. now they switched to english completely. They always play in english, talk in english answers me in english, puttin in middle of sentence sometimes polish word most used at home. İ always talk to them in polish, but now it starting to become funny cos my
Jumping on this thread a bit late, but had the same experience only insert 'french' for swiss german.
I spoke exclusively english to my daughter since birth and she always responded in French, for at least 3 years. What really helped was that we took a vacation to my homeland when she was 3 years old, where grandma only speaks english, and being immersed in english-only for 3 weeks really snapped her out of it. Going there I was really scared that she wouldn't communicate with anyone, but after 1-2 weeks, she was always responding in english, and came home to CH still speaking it. I would suggest immersing your children in English for a short period, even without your presence if necessary, ie. trip to english-speaking country, enroll in english play group, summer camp, social events (scouting, football, etc.). Once they gain confidence and are forced to use it, it will be there, I am quite sure.
Hi,
I've observed this frustration that can build with parents wanting to raise their child bilingual when I was an au-pair. I was once confronted with the problem of choosing a language being the caretaker of a little 2 to 3 year old boy. He was more comfortable with french, the language he talked mostly in with his french mother and the kids in his neighbourhood, being raised in canton of Neuchatel. Nevertheless, he was understanding German dialect quite well, being exposed to it on short holidays with his Oma and Opa - Germans - who lived nearby in Baselland. He could easily switch the language. So, even though the boys parents would have appreciated it me speaking SG to him, we agreed on me talking in french with him. His father then had to take care of the exclusive moments he and his son would actually speak SG in Baslerdütsch. But with the predilection of french in the very environment he struggled just as you, to receive replies in dialect as was intended. I think you are realistic letting them have their say in what language they prefer to reply. It would be a wonderful thing if their grand parents could be involved a bit more and have their grandchildren stay with them on a trip to Canada.
You can send them to a Chinese school, their enviroment still will be HERE .
I remember a woman we knew who had fled from Stettin to West Germany and landed up in Krefeld north of Düsseldorf, and was most embarassed that her two sons spoke Platt.
I remember a visit to Diana T. whom was the girl of neighbours when we both were 5 to 7 years old, but who had moved to Beaconsfield at age 24. We chatted about old times and happily mixed two languages into one. Her 10 years old son at one time remarked "Mum, do you realize that you two speak the strangest of Pidgin language possible ? "
The father of a colleague of Italian origin moved his whole family to Lugano when his son got out of school so that the son attended commercial school in Lugano and so learnt some "real" Italian, but the "daily language" and language of thinking of Aurelio remained German, and so, he returned soon after the Luganese "Leerabschlussprüfung" back to the Zürich area
An aunt of me, the stepsister of my grandmother, in 1905 moved over to Texas. She learnt English by comparing the Zwingli-Bible with the Shakespeare-Bible, but with he two grandson strictly spoke Swiss-German while they replied in Texan-English. She in 1955 gave an extensive visit back to Switzerland, and then after having shown the attitude of "Mission Accomplished" died away a year later. Her son (the grandsons mentioned were the sons of her daughter), born 1902, emigrated 1905, then gave a visit to CH in July 1958. He then still spoke Swiss German and a "get/got" dominated TX English, but lost his Swiss German due to a stroke in the late 60ies. He however suddenly out of nothing reconquered his command of Swiss German on the day when my parents and me gave our farewell in 1988.
An uncle of me who I met in 1988 when he just was 98 years old in his young days had spoken both French and Swiss German but had almost forgotten his Swiss German, still spoke remarkably well Arabic and English.
Back to the start. What you experience is what countless immigrants experience. I see Tamil women saying something to their offspring in Tamil and get the reply in immaculate Züritüütsch.
So that this is normal. And no reason to panic
Well, English in Switzerland (German+Italian speaking CH I mean) is a "language of prestige", and so, when your children realized this, the result was clear ! In German speaking CH, languages of the Med are of "inferior prestige", which is a different thing
Compliments to your nephews
I always loved it in the USA when I was asked what state I was coming from