Bilingual kids in Polish schools

cmsThreads: 6 Posts: 201 Joined: Sep 4, 09 ♂	Feb 9, 10, 09:21 #1
Anyone else here got any experiences ? My 3 year old has just started pre-school and the bilingual thing (English/Polish is spoken at home, just Polish at school) seems to be causing some difficulty in mixing with the other kids. Reading up on possible causes and treatments but interested if anyone else going through similar issues.

♀

Feb 9, 10, 21:01 #2

My son was a late talker. He's now a little over 4 and attends an English speaking school and we speak English at home. However he knows so much Polish! His school is 25% international students and the rest are Polish so his friends all speak to him in Polish during play etc. The instruction is in English, but even during Christmas plays and so forth they do both English and Polish songs/skits. So while he is not bilingual, he's definitely capable of conversing and interacting with his friends. We've only been here a tad bit over three months and I am just amazed at how quickly he picked it up.

Personally, kids don't need to hold conversations to get their point across. Especially at your son's age. When we first arrived at Poland we would take him to the indoor play areas at some of the malls. He never had a problem playing.

I'd see if he's having more issues with being in school(preschool) and not at home than I would be about his language barriers right now. Maybe try some one on one play dates for him. My son is an only child and he benefits heavily from play dates. Especially before he started school.

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 9, 10, 21:22 #3
Chipmunk: he benefits heavily from play dates. "play dates" are the worst thing to come from America! Ugh, I wish we spoke a seperate language sometimes :(

♂ [Moderator]

Feb 9, 10, 21:30 #4

cms:

Reading up on possible causes and treatments but interested if anyone else going through similar issues.

I can only guess the problems.

Are the other kids making fun off your child when he/she speaks English at school ?

Does your child sometimes use English and the teacher doesn't understand ?

If you don't keep an eye on this it's possible that your child will refuse to learn English.

The statement that kids soak up other languages, you will find, is often rubbish. They won't learn anything when they are embarrassed by their peers for saying something different.

At such a young age, when living in Poland, make sure that Polish is the priority language. And remember that Polish learners of English don't learn the simple forms. So when you say this is a 'moo-cow' instead of 'cow' you are certain to land your kid in trouble.

But the real answer is to talk to the teacher/s

♂

Feb 9, 10, 22:08 #5

Generally, up to age four or five bilingual kids can have some delay and it can also take them time to figure out how to separate languages in different contexts, especially if both parents speak both languages. Conversely, his vocabulary might be patched together with holes here and there (things he can say in one language but not the other). These issues usually resolve themselves, but the effects can be long lasting. Some explicit tutoring by the parents to cover linguistic gaps might not be a bad idea. At this stage the priority should be Polish so the native Polish speaker should make sure to go through story books, picture books (with labels) and the like to make sure he knows what's what.

And ... are you sure it's the bilingual thing? Some kids just are less social and adept at mixing than others and it can take them longer to fit in with other kids. As a monolingual kid I was just kind of awkward and not very social and had some rough times in my early years of education. If I'd been bilingual I can imagine my problems being blamed on that.

Finally, as a general rule, make sure you keep any kids with home English out of English class at otherwise Polish schools. The teachers are liable to feel threatened by them. And, as Wroclaw mentioned, they mostly don't know about the kinds of things that English speaking parents say to their kids.

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 9, 10, 22:09 #6
mafketis: Finally, as a general rule, make sure you keep any kids with home English out of English class at otherwise Polish schools. The teachers are liable to feel threatened by them. The exception being high school, solely if the child wishes to torture the teacher ;)

mafketisThreads: 17 Posts: 1,880 Joined: Mar 31, 08 ♂	Feb 9, 10, 22:23 #7
delphiandomine: The exception being high school, solely if the child wishes to torture the teacher ;) And doesn't mind failing English in the process.

scottie1113Threads: 11 Posts: 873 Joined: Mar 13, 07 ♂	Feb 10, 10, 00:14 #8
delphiandomine: Ugh, I wish we spoke a seperate language sometimes :( We do.

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Feb 10, 10, 08:50 #9

delphiandomine:

I wish we spoke a seperate language sometimes :(

I haven't thought of British English (as spoken by everyday Brits) and American as the same spoken language for quite some time. I think of them more like Swedish and Norwegian - autonomous standards that are mostly mutually intelligible, especially in face to face situations. If I eavesdrop on spontaneous British conversation I understand 50-90 % (never 100 %). Face to face, things go easier, but I realize I'm missing some discourse cues.

What's needed is an American standard that's differs more markedly from the written British standard.

teddywilkin

Feb 10, 10, 11:08 #10

British English and American English are different languages now are they?

Apart from some spelling changes invented up by Webster, the only differences are accent and some regional phrases. Goodness, I can travel for an hour in my car in the UK and visit villages where I would understand only 50% of a conversation spoken between two locals. The same is true in the US, expecially if you are listening to a conversation between young people.

The idea that we speak different languages (such as Swedish and Norwegian, Italian spanish) is completely wrong, and to be frank you are barking mad if you think so.

We have bilingual kids and we were always advised that one parent should stick to a single language when speaking to the children - that helps them to separate the languages.

We often hear that bilingual children are often late speakers, but actually there is no evidence to support this claim - it is just something people say to each other.

The lanuage of the mother and that of the playground have the strongest foothold in the child's brain, so children that are taught at school in a language different to their mopther's have few problems. However those that have the mothers lanuage at school benefit from reinforcement of the other language with books and tv.

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Feb 10, 10, 11:31 #11

teddywilkin:

Apart from some spelling changes invented up by Webster, the only differences are accent and some regional phrases. Goodness, I can travel for an hour in my car in the UK and visit villages where I would understand only 50% of a conversation spoken between two locals. The same is true in the US, expecially if you are listening to a conversation between young people.

US usage is far more uniform than the UK, regional differences exist but not to the same extent. The big difference in the US is between SAE and AAVE.

British speakers are more likely to understand American better than the reverse. I've known university educated Americans who didn't understand at least a third of the dialogue in Mike Leigh movies (Life is Sweet comes to mind).

scottie1113Threads: 11 Posts: 873 Joined: Mar 13, 07 ♂	Feb 10, 10, 12:47 #12
mafketis: SAE and AAVE. What do these mean? Actually there are differences between lots of different kinds of English, whether it's British, American, Australian, Carribean, etc. And the most common English spoken in the world today is English spoken by non native speakers. No big deal.

♂

Feb 10, 10, 12:56 #13

scottie1113:

What do these mean?

SAE : Standard American English, sometimes called General American English a pretty uniform and largely class neutral spoken standard. For formal versions listen to NPR or national news broadcasts. For informal versions listen to the lead characters in most American tv shows or movies. Largely indistinguishable from standard Canadian usage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_American_English

AAVE : African American Vernacular English an ethnolect or sociolect mostly unique to the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAVE

scottie1113Threads: 11 Posts: 873 Joined: Mar 13, 07 ♂	Feb 10, 10, 20:34 #14
Thanks.

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