Cynthia Simmonds (October 23, 2011)

I’ve been planning the content of this blog for awhile—mulling it over in my head trying to find the perfect words, great stories, awesome research, and a bit of humor. However, the following conversation ruined my pedagogical intentions.

Language Stars has an October promotion where enrolled children can take two extra classes (any day, any language) for free, if space is available. Since I firmly believe that “Input Effects Output,” I figured this would be a great opportunity to provide some extra exposure to Spanish. I signed them up for an extra class with Fatima, one of the Spanish teachers. Class was great! They had a wonderful time and did well with a new teacher. However, it was during this class that my daughter, as unpredictable as ever, once again became the exception that proves the rule.

Fatima: (talking to me after class and giggling to herself) Poor Katie, I couldn’t understand her in class. She was asking for “níngméng fěn.” I told her, ‘I can’t understand you honey. My English is not that good.’”

Nick pipes up: “Yeah, mom. Katie was asking for ‘níngméng fěn.’ I told Fatima that she was speaking in Chinese!”

We all had a good laugh from that one. Unfortunately, this example contradicts what I wanted to talk about this week. In general, when kids learn more than one language, they do not mix them up. At least not any more than a typical bilingual adult would. Moreover, they quickly learn with whom to speak which language. If grandma speaks only Mandarin, usually the child will speak Mandarin with grandma, not English or Spanish. Kids are smart! Even if they make a few errors, they quickly correct themselves.

For the most part this has been my experience—with the above exception. Even when I speak to my kids in Mandarin or Spanish, they tend to answer me in English. Mom speaks English, we speak English to her—even if she uses a different language when speaking to us. They also like to correct my pronunciation, but that is a different story all together.

This story has become a classic in our household, particularly as retold by three-year old Katie. She now treats us to her recitation of this several times a week:

Katie: “Mom, I did the silliest thing in Spanish class with Fatima.”

Mom: “What did you do, honey, that was so silly?”

Katie: “I asked for ‘níngméng fěn.’ I was talking in Chinese in Spanish class. Fatima doesn’t know Chinese.”

Mom: “What language does she speak?”

Katie: “She speaks in Spanish, and sometimes in English.”

Katie: “It was very silly that I asked for ‘níngméng fěn.’”

Nick pipes up (again): “She should have asked for ‘limonada.’”

Katie: “I should have asked for ‘limonada.’”

Believe me , she has never made that error again. She loves telling the story, especially because we laugh about how silly it was to use Mandarin in Spanish class. This retelling demonstrates that she has developed the ability to think about language and how one uses it, at age three!! (Very cool for her language-loving mom.)

In my next blog, I’ll talk about some of the scientific research regarding children learning multiple languages. For example, do children typically confuse multiple languages? Is their language development delayed in one or both languages? Will my unpredictable children thwart my plans once again?

We’ll find out next time. Same bat time, same bat channel. (Batman reference, courtesy of Nick).

--Cindi