Mixing Two Languages

[timandsveta]

I'm a native Russian speaker. My husband is a native US English speaker. We're teaching our twin girls both languages, and although my husband knows Russian from living in Moscow for 3 years, our primary language is English.

So, my girls say some words in English (most of them) and some in Russian. Lately, they've been mixing up Russian and English and saying something like "Two gyses" - "Two geese".  They know the numbers in English mostly, so this is why. I just repeat the correct sentence in each language afterwards.

Should I worry or should this issue will correct itself with time? Is there something I should be doing besides repeating the correct sentence after  each mix up?

Thanks!

[andreasro]

  No, don't worry. It's normal at first when a small child learn more than one language at a time. It happens to our son too.
It's a sign they absorb them.

It's good to repeat the correct sentence, either in a language or another.
It's also good just to let them hear conversations, stories, songs etc., to read them etc. in either language, or just to let them familiarize with the way a language is spoken, in any way you can, when occasion arises.

Be happy and encourage them to speak. If you want to correct, do it without explaining, just as you have done so far, just by saying how it's right.
In time, with what you do with them, by using the methods that you have, you'll be surprised that without using logic or reason, they have intuitively started to learn how to speak correctly, and grammatically, in every language you have been teaching them.

[timandsveta]

Thank you! I feel much better I've read somewhere that you're supposed to have one parent speak in only one language and the other parent to speak in the different language so that not to confuse the child, and I tried, but there is no way. For one, how my husband and I are supposed to communicate? So, we don't do it, and I speak either Russian or English to them. So, I was thinking that I messed them up by not speaking just one language to them

So nice to know that it's normal. Thanks!!!

[MummyRoo]

I have the same thing with my son! He has just turned two and is still figuring out the differences between Russian and English - he adds suffixes to English words (hat-e for hat and book-oo for book) and constantly mixes languages, since his Russian is less developed. He has favourite words that he uses almost all the time in Russian (for example: moloko, volosi, poopok, kaki (kasha) ) and other things that he refuses to say in Russian, though I know he knows them. He also adds in the occasional Chinese word

I am not worried at all, and he seems to understand to only speak Russian with me or his father (although my family is learning some words from him) which means he does understand that they are different languages. I think it is something that will come in time, and at the moment we should appreciate the funny comments they make.

My brother is 15 years younger than me, and when he was 4 he visited me while I was studying in Russia. We went to the zoo and he had great fun telling us all about the 'yad snakes'. He then went to school and told his teacher that 'juice is a sock in Russian' - so enjoy the funny things they say while they still say them! 

[timandsveta]

My husband does the same thing your brother does!!! So funny. He often says to the girls "Go brush your zybs!" and things like that. I've tried asking him not to confuse the girls while they are learning, but he's been saying things like that for years, so he can't help it. It comes out automatically. We sort of have a mixed up language of our own, but we try not to say things like that in front of the girls.

I think we made some progress on this front today. One of my girls said "Two kyklas", thought about it for a second and then added "Two dolls". I've tried to get her to say "dve kykli", but she wouldn't. But, it's 50% progress. I guess it means that she understands. Whew.

My girls also have a few favorite words that they say in Russian, such as "pupok", "kaka" (poop in our case), "kykla", "pit" (drink). I lot of them came from Doman's DVD! It doesn't matter that I try to speak Russian to them all day long, and I have to make an effort not to speak English. In any case, adding the DVDs seems to have been beneficial as they definitely picked up a few words from it. Not to mention that they like it. My only complaint with the DVD is that I wish they had included a vegetables section because my girls want all the food they show This is how I got them to eat carrots!

Anyway, thank you for sharing your insight.

[Emsmum]

My 2.4 year old mixes up languages as well. I've never been concerned that she might get confused since I grew up multilingual but those that tell me to stop teaching more than just her native tongue, she's confused, have usually been said by monolinguals.

I think I'm more confused than my daughter as it can be hard for me to figure out which language she is speaking in depending on what we/she is talking about. It's easier when it's being said in a sentence but as a single word, harder. There are a few words in French that are the same in Greek AND English but have completely different meanings. It will be easier once she learns how to read and write in these languages. I also think my daughter has a preference for certain words that seem easier to pronounce.

She also knows that mummy speaks English and Greek, so she always speaks English with me, occasionally (since pronunciation is harder) Greek with me and daddy speaks French, so speaks French with him and when we are both around, my daughter speaks Franglais. With my mother, she speaks to her in French, I really don't know why, never in English or Greek and my mum can't speak a word of French.

My mother never taught me Greek as a child, I started learning in my early teens and I know that I will never be as good in Greek as I am in my native language. I would strongly suggest any parent who's teaching a few languages at a time to their infant/s, don't stop and be persistent, especially if it's the language of a family member. I couldn't communicate with my grandparents as I didn't speak their language. I know many people who stopped when their child started talking and starting mixing up languages only later having had regretted it.

[timandsveta]

My sister-in-law actually stopped teaching her kids Spanish when someone told her that they will be delayed in English if she teaches them two languages. She was born in US, but her family spoke Spanish, so she was a native Spanish speaker. So, she stopped. Her kids speak great English, but they speak Spanish with accents like anyone learning it in school. She told me that not teaching them Spanish when they were small was one of her biggest regrets. When she tried later, it was too late.

Talking about delays in language. My twins are definitely behind in how many words they say in English, even if you add the words they say in Russian, they are still behind their peers. I'm not sure if this is a twin thing, or that the fact they were premature, or that they don't have older siblings, or that they are bilingual. In any case, we don't know, so we're not going to stop teaching them two languages. It seems that it depends on the source if there is a delay in language if you teach more than one or not. Some people say there is and some people say there isn't. Regardless, even if there is a delay in the short term, I think it's well worth it in the long term if the kids pick up another language.

[andreasro]

About delayed speech: a little boy, friend of our son, is younger and talkative comparing to him, and also knows more words and has started to speak better weeks before our son. So, comparing to that little boy and others, it may be said that our son is speech delayed.
But keeping in mind the fact that he learns and speaks 2-3 languages at a time , knowing the differences and meanings in more and more words in each language - a thing that few Romanian children have at the same age or under 6 years old - is an advance.

One more thing: Our son has been showing that his brain processes faster than he can speak and remembers things rapidly and with ease. What I mean is, that just by watching or hearing with interest a lesson (LR, YBCR etc.) just once or a few times (even days apart) he remembers and will show us that he recalls things in that lesson after a while (days or more, period in which he didn't watch that lesson again). I don't test him, just let him say when and whatever he wants.

And I am the only person speaking in 3 languages - Romanian (native), English and Spanish - whenever possible, even one after another. It's not at all confusing. On the contrary. I do believe that it helps his brain make more and fast neural connections and helps his thinking. He can and wants even to repeat the same word or phrase in one language then in another - maybe to show me what he knows or just to show it to himself, I don't know but I praise him and I'm glad.

[MummyRoo]

I wouldn't worry so much about the speech. My son was premature, and his English speech is good if not great for his age, but he only started walking two weeks before he turned two. My nephew (due same day as son but also premature) walked last Christmas and is physically doing very well, but his speech is much less developed despite only having exposure to 1 language. All kids have their milestones to excel at and others which come less easily, it might be that your twins are simply less quick to vocalise and prefer to absorb the languages by listening. Keep an eye on the base line of speech development for their age and as long as they are around about there, there shouldn't be a problem. Remember that just because they are learning more than one language, the base line is the same as monolingual kids. There is a guideline chart here: http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/language_development.shtml

I also use the Kartochki Domana (or Chitalka/Kaki in our house) and apart from the fact that my son LOVES it, he is definitely learning - yesterday we went out after it rained and he said 'luzha', pointing at a puddle. It is a word that I haven't taught him - I hadn't even taught him in English! We are now watching stories from the knizhki malishki series, which he also loves. I like having some resources that are completely Russian, but it is also good to do the same thing in two languages. I have used LR in Russian (a lot of files can be downloaded in the library) and English and tried to format the Russian similarly to the English and Chinese lessons. This way, we see exactly the same pictures in each language, which helps tremendously in comprehension and translating between languages, but the individual sessions are still immersion in each language.

I agree that finding which language a new word is being said can be tricky. It took me a week to realise that when my son pointed to his tummy/nappy and said 'poo' that he wasn't asking for a change, but pointing to his bellybutton (poopok). A lot of his new Russian words are hard to figure out the first few times I hear them, and I can only guess how many Chinese words he says, since I only recognise a handfull but almost certainly ignore others for 'babble'.

[andreasro]

I agree that finding which language a new word is being said can be tricky. It took me a week to realise that when my son pointed to his tummy/nappy and said 'poo' that he wasn't asking for a change, but pointing to his bellybutton (poopok). A lot of his new Russian words are hard to figure out the first few times I hear them, and I can only guess how many Chinese words he says, since I only recognise a handfull but almost certainly ignore others for 'babble'.

  That's the funniest thing when kids are learning more languages at this age. You need time to figure out what are they saying! And you may not even understand them, though they are speaking correctly!

It's happening to us too. Each time he speaks a word I can't understand right away I try to find what language is that from. And the kid knows better than me sometimes! 

[timandsveta]

Same thing here - I have to guess sometimes what language and word this is coming from. Not to mention that a lot of times, it their own language. One of the girls now says "ma" when she wants a blanket. May be she means it as "my" or "mine", but it took me a while to figure out that it was her blanket that she wanted. "Poo" and "pupok" is a good example too!

It's interesting that according to that chart of language development (the link is above, thanks MummyRoo) my girls don't do things they should be doing and doing things they shouldn't be doing yet, like plural and singular. But, they don't use prepositions such as "in" or "on" or any for that matter. Just shows you that no child is developing exactly the same way.

On our two-year checkup, our pediatrician told me that if they will have not started talking in 2-word sentences by mid-September to have them evaluated. But, luckily, they started doing it in mid-July. But, they are a bit behind because they were supposed to have been combining the words together before their 2nd birthday, and they weren't. But, I have a friend with twin boys who were born on the same day as my twin girls (we met in the hospital during bedrest), and she's also teaching them Russian, and the boys are about at the same level as my girls. So, I am grateful that in addition to my monolingual friends with toddlers, I have a bilingual friend with twin toddlers whose kids develop closely to mine, despite going to a very fancy (and very expensive) preschool 5 days a week.

I just read in "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards" that studies indicate that using two languages separately produces better results, like if each parent used only one language. But, they didn't explain how much better results, and honestly, I don't see how it's possible unless parents don't talk to each other in kids presence! Kids will figure it out, well, I hope

[Boca Beth]

This topic comes up a lot, and I really enjoyed reading The Bilingual Edge by two Doctors who are also moms raising their own children to be bilingual and trilingual (Dr. Kendall King and Dr. Alison Mackey).  If you have a chance I suggest you read it or skim over the areas that pertain to this topic of mixing languages. 

Very common!  The child's brain will sort it all out!  Be proud of the gift of multiple languages that you are giving your children!  All of you!

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