My son is a bicultural, trilingual four-year-old. But it wasn’t always like this. My wife is Japanese, so obviously he acquired her language as his native language, since she provided something I was unable to give at that point in time - fresh milk.
Anyway, because I wanted him to speak my mother tongue, I tried to speak Mandarin to him as much as I could. To the extent that even though I work professionally as an English teacher, I resolved not to use it with him. We live in a country where English is predominantly the language used in the majority of social settings. I reckon that he would pick it up readily at school. Which he did.
You can understand that due to “interference” from Japanese and English, he was unable to speak Mandarin for the longest time despite my best efforts. He clearly understood what I was telling him because he could execute tasks. But he was unable to reply back to me, except for bits and pieces of Chinese. But I persevered in my efforts because if I don’t use Mandarin with him, he would never find the incentive to learn it.
Then, one day, something must have clicked in his mind because he suddenly talked to me in Chinese. We could manage simple conversations, without him breaking a sweat. The piece de resistance culminated in him having a chat with my father. It warmed my heart to observe them communicating with each other.
That was a case of “gradually, then suddenly” for me. I am glad that I never wavered from my resolve to use Mandarin with him. How has the principle of “gradually, then suddenly” worked things out in your life?
Kids are like sponges, they absorb everything and you don't realize it until you squeeze it.
My cousin's daughter lives in a place where English is not used much, yet her mother who teaches it at a school used it with her everyday, and had a similar experience where she one day spoke fluently (for a kid) with no effort.
Maybe some kids just need to find the little "cognitive bridges" that make the language functional to them, then they can just use it, almost like they unlocked a whole dictionary in one hit.
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The part about squeezing sponges is a nice analogy. I will remember it!
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That's inspiring.
I share two of your and your son's languages. Interference seems to also be my hindering block to third language acquisition. Your own persistence, the diligence of your son, and the wisdom of Hemingway payed of for him.
For myself, I'd say sticking with learning Unix-based operating system.
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Do you still remember the Eureka! moment when everything just clicked for you in regard to Linux?
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30 sats \ 1 reply \ @xz 28 Nov 2023
Long story short. I think it was when this image was built in my mind. Someone who seemed very technically skilled said to me, you have to exercise that knowledge or those skills otherwise you forget stuff. So, I keep reading and using Linux over and over, it's not necessarily a Eureka moment for me.
Before that I had many occasions when I couldn't run simple commands. I had to read and re-read about git, terms like PATH and The POSIX standard, But then I found Bitcoin gave me a direction to learning Linux and when the penny dropped, it was an awareness to Linux, Bitcoin, and how all the packages and libraries in between them work together.
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I agree that finding your motivation is very important!
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My sister and her husband has a trilingual kid as well. Remember pushing her in her carriage one day otu walking, and she spoke german to me, which I don't know that well, then she looked back and probably remembered who she was talking to, then switched to my native tongue.
Nowadays when she's older it's even more seamless. Really cool.
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It must be amusing to witness her switch her mental gears to find the language that resonates with you
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For a four year old, picking up 3 languages already shows he has a high aptitude for languages
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This put a huge grin on my face. I hope he turns out this way haha
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Lovely to hear about this. What a treat for your father too.
Looking forward to hear the responses. I'm sure this'll be furtile ground for a story or two!
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I’m sure you have a parenting tale (and then some) to share with us too
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I'm sure I have a few. However my health is terrible at the present which means my memory isn't playing ball.
My health tale would count as a 'gradually then suddenly story. But let's keep it light.
If I did tell you'd all conclude just how tuned-in we need to be about our body and health - our health is super valuable.
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I get what you mean. I have recently started the habit of measuring my blood pressure every week. N am considering whether I should drink that can of beer tonight haha
Hope you recover soonest!
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children learn languages easily without any efforts. my children speak 5 languages fluently because we have lived in multiple countries , but not in china and not in japan . it is hard to keep up with them. once you spend time in one country and you speak only one language all the time, it takes you a while until you become fluent and eloquent in your other languages again.
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I’m so impressed! What are these five languages? I admire your kinda-nomadic lifestyle. I’m very much rooted to my home country ;(
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thank you ! only aleman, espanol, ingles, frances y italiano it helped to study 8 years of latin in school which is a dead language but very useful to understand power, philosophy and the world in general. furthermore i speak schwyzerduetsch. it is a recognized language which is not even understood by germans and it only exists spoken. german is used in writing.
travelling, living and working in different countries for a long time comes with different passports. it improves your life because you can choose to live freely almost anywhere you want. i believe that latin america is the beacon of freedom...
how many languages do you speak and how did you learn them ?
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Beautiful story, thank you for sharing.
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thank you and welcome
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Thanks for letting me know
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