| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Poll: Do you communicate with your family members in more than one language? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| Yes, Spanish and English | Oct 19, 2008 |
Spanish with my Argentinian family, and with my children. We live in Spain, so they hear my "Argie" Spanish and the local accent, and mix it beautifully... English with my Scottish husband and his family, who don't speak a word of Spanish (or anything else, for that matter). My husband does speak some Spanish, but he speaks only English to the children. He hates speaking Spanish. They are entirely bilingual, and at school they are spoken to in Catalan, so they'll be trilingual. To add to the mes... See more Spanish with my Argentinian family, and with my children. We live in Spain, so they hear my "Argie" Spanish and the local accent, and mix it beautifully... English with my Scottish husband and his family, who don't speak a word of Spanish (or anything else, for that matter). My husband does speak some Spanish, but he speaks only English to the children. He hates speaking Spanish. They are entirely bilingual, and at school they are spoken to in Catalan, so they'll be trilingual. To add to the mess, I usually download cartoons for them in English, Spanish, French and Italian. They don't seem to mind! I hope they'll learn those languages too...
And as someone else said before, I've been speaking to myself in English for ages! I even dream in English! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | English/Portuguese | Oct 19, 2008 |
Portuguese is the dominant language of the household. My other half actually speaks beautiful English but has never lived in the UK for any period of time and so doesn't feel comfortable with it in the same way as I do with Port. We also speak French or Italian if we don't want our daughter to understand us.
My daughter refused to speak English until she was 6. Now she goes to a bilingual school and her English is very good, but still not as good as her Portuguese.
What... See more Portuguese is the dominant language of the household. My other half actually speaks beautiful English but has never lived in the UK for any period of time and so doesn't feel comfortable with it in the same way as I do with Port. We also speak French or Italian if we don't want our daughter to understand us.
My daughter refused to speak English until she was 6. Now she goes to a bilingual school and her English is very good, but still not as good as her Portuguese.
What we found (to my chagrin) was that the natural process of mother speaks her language and father speaks his and the child speaks to the parent in their respective language didn't happen at all, probably because I'm the only English speaker in a household full of monolingual relatives, maids, etc.
The solution was a bilingual school. Now that my daughter has friends with whom she has to speak English and has to do her lessons in English, there's an outside incentive.
[Edited at 2008-10-19 11:00] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gita Madhu (X)
Local time: 04:03
French to English
| Bollywood Hindi | Oct 19, 2008 |
Lalit Sati wrote:
My native language is Hindi. We communicate in Hindi but with my ...
English is a "family" language for some in India and when you say some in India you end meaning a significant amount of the world's population.
Well meaning in their own way and for their times, my parents brought my sibling and I up in "English"- so we spoke English at home and it was not artificial since my folks didn't really speak each other's languages- Punjabi and Telugu.
Yet English is not our cultural language- when the tragedy continued in my family ( I too married -obviously- out of "my" "Native Language" pool) and we -my husband, son and I speak English to each other.
But it is interspersed with Bollywood Hindi.
The languages of India are very diverse -and if at all there is a bond it can be either Sanskrit but then you need at least half a brain to link the connections - or Bollywood which is better since it also bridges the essential Urdu component of the Indian linguistic being.
I'm half North Indian ( Which means more Hindi friendly), my son has grown up in and around Delhi which is again Hindi speaking belts of India and my husband who is from Kerala can easily follow Hindi as Malayalam has more closely preserved its kinship with Sanskrit.
For anybody here who would like to learn Hindi in a fun way, I recommend: www.cuttingchai.com
| | | | Elena Otero 
Spain
Local time: 22:03
English to Spanish
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| Spanish and Galician | Oct 19, 2008 |
Both Spanish and Galician with my parents and my brother.
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yanadeni (X)
Canada
Local time: 16:03
French to Russian
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| Russian, French, English | Oct 19, 2008 |
Mostly Russian with my lifepartner, but it happens that I forget Russian words or expressions and I remember them only in French or English, so I use them
He speaks to me Russian and Ukranian (this one just for fun, and still I understand it perfectly well, though I don't speak it), and has the same problem forgetting sometimes words in his two native languages, so he takes English or French analogs.
And ... See more Mostly Russian with my lifepartner, but it happens that I forget Russian words or expressions and I remember them only in French or English, so I use them
He speaks to me Russian and Ukranian (this one just for fun, and still I understand it perfectly well, though I don't speak it), and has the same problem forgetting sometimes words in his two native languages, so he takes English or French analogs.
And we both speak Russian to our cat, since he doesn't understand French, nor English (we checked it with our Canadian friends
[Edited at 2008-10-19 17:02] ▲ Collapse
| | | | James McVay
United States
Local time: 16:03
Russian to English
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| Not much any more | Oct 19, 2008 |
My family members were all born in the US and speak English as a native language, so there's not much incentive to speak anything but English. Still, my wife speaks German, one son speaks Russian, and three speak Spanish. I speak Russian and can sort of get by in German. When my kids were little, my wife and I would converse in German whenever we didn't want the kids to know what we were saying.
My Russian-speaking son and I occasionally speak Russian for the fun of it, but he'... See more My family members were all born in the US and speak English as a native language, so there's not much incentive to speak anything but English. Still, my wife speaks German, one son speaks Russian, and three speak Spanish. I speak Russian and can sort of get by in German. When my kids were little, my wife and I would converse in German whenever we didn't want the kids to know what we were saying.
My Russian-speaking son and I occasionally speak Russian for the fun of it, but he's better at carrying on a conversation than I am. (I'm the better translator, though.) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mami Yamaguchi
Japan
Local time: 05:03
Member (2008)
English to Japanese
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| English Japanese | Oct 19, 2008 |
We usually speak in my mother tongue. When our English-speaking friends come to my house, we switch to communicating with English. For some of my family, it is not communicating but like a training.
[2008-10-19 21:54に編集されました]
[2008-10-19 23:54に編集されました]
| | | | Catherine Reay
Spain
Local time: 22:03
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
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| Trilingual mix | Oct 20, 2008 |
In our family I normally speak English to our children (5 yr old girl and 18 mth old boy), but if I tell them off it is often emphasised with "hombre" at the end, which my in-laws find very strange!
My husband mixes a bit of everything (Spanish, Catalan and English) although I've noticed recently he is using more English as this is the children's weakest language (they only have me for input on a daily basis - so not much variety there!)
Between us we speak Spanish. Our... See more In our family I normally speak English to our children (5 yr old girl and 18 mth old boy), but if I tell them off it is often emphasised with "hombre" at the end, which my in-laws find very strange!
My husband mixes a bit of everything (Spanish, Catalan and English) although I've noticed recently he is using more English as this is the children's weakest language (they only have me for input on a daily basis - so not much variety there!)
Between us we speak Spanish. Our little boy has yet to talk in sentences but he uses words from all three languages quite readily. I though it was lovely when he was a baby that my daughter spoke to him in Catalan and when he didn't reply she switched to English, just in case he didn't understand her!! How cute (and thoughtful)!
Regards to all,
Katy ▲ Collapse
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DianeGM
Local time: 23:03
Member (2006)
Dutch to English
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Mostly my husband and I speak Dutch to each other when we are alone, otherwise we speak English or Greek when our children are there or we have company. Sometimes we also talk in Greek or English depending on the topic. Though we usually argue in Greek (?).
I speak English to our children in English. My husband speaks Greek to them. I feel a bit guilty we don't speak to them in or teach them Dutch, but they seem to be picking it up anyway, as if they hear Dutch sometimes, they spe... See more Mostly my husband and I speak Dutch to each other when we are alone, otherwise we speak English or Greek when our children are there or we have company. Sometimes we also talk in Greek or English depending on the topic. Though we usually argue in Greek (?).
I speak English to our children in English. My husband speaks Greek to them. I feel a bit guilty we don't speak to them in or teach them Dutch, but they seem to be picking it up anyway, as if they hear Dutch sometimes, they speak Dutch immediately afterwards. They speak both Greek and English to each other and everyone else and I've noticed they also always argue with each other in Greek.
We speak Greek to my husband's parents and his brother's family. We always speak English to my parents (although they speak Greek too). I also speak English to my sister when we are alone or even if her husband is there too.
If her husband's family are there we speak Spanish. My sister and her husband speak Spanish or Catalan to each other when they are alone and with their children my sister speaks English and her husband speaks Spanish and Catalan. They re not teaching them German either, but they seem to be picking it up too.
It's when we have largely family gatherings, like Christmas or something, that things get complicated ....
My husband's parents and my sister's husband's parents speak German to each other.
My parent's don't speak either German or Spanish - so they tend to speak English to everyone.
In my sister's husband's family they speak Catalan, Spanish and German. But one of my sister's brothers-in-law only speaks German.
Nowadays when we are all together generally we speak a mix of everything - English/Spanish/German/Greek when everyone speaks his/her own language and when we get stuck the children interpret for us.
When they play together the children (the grandchildren) from different families (even two boys from one house where they speak only German/ Spanish/Catalan) all tend to speak to each other in English ... but I have heard some interesting fights in a Dutch/German mix .... ▲ Collapse
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At home I speak German with my father, French with my mother and Portuguese with my grandmother. It has been always like this so I could improve all the languages. I also speak English with my friends maintaining a certain level of communication and to improve our skills.
It is kind of funny, but otherwise it would be strange, since it ha always been like that.
| | | | | Italian/French/English | Oct 20, 2008 |
I have quite an international family, my parents being one mauritian and one italian so that I practice the three languages at home and with the rest of my family which is spread all over the world.
| | | | Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 22:03
English to French
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| Certainly not... | Oct 20, 2008 |
aceavila - Noni wrote:
I'm relieved to hear that I'm not the only one not providing my kids with huge input of my own language.
(...)
And please don't bombard me with comments about how I am depriving my children linguistically. I know. But I am so often so very tired...
I was raised in 2 languages. I realised quite late that my "mother tongue", not my "home language", not even the language of my parents, was badly influenced by the other languages I spoke.
My son was raised in French only but was very soon aware of his own interest: my husband and I used to speak English "when the boy must not understand" but the boy very quickly understood enough! I continued to speak Dutch with my parents and English with the expat uncles and aunts, in front of my son; the family where he stayed while I was at work often spoke Italian in front of him, but he was never addressed directly in foreign languages. At the age of 10, he managed quite well in Italian (that's what holidays and making friends are for and it was an incentive for me to take an intensive course in Italian); at 12, he was fluent in English (holidays and contacts, once again). He learned Dutch at school and was fluent enough to work in a Dutch speaking environment for 18 months.
I never considered my son was "linguistically deprived", even though I spoke only one language to him. As most children, he was exposed to other languages and cultures, on TV for instance, or with friends, etc.
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In Spanish with my parents, brothers and some other relatives; in Japanese with my brother's wives, some nephews and nieces, and in English with my girlfriend and her family.
| | | | | No, only English | Oct 20, 2008 |
No, I only speak English to my husband and my son. I never speak to them in my native language German.
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... if you count Bavarian
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