November of James 2 1/2- 3 Years, Sydney 4 1/2- 5 Years, Mariana 17 Years, Montegnard Family of 8
From BilingualWiki
Contents |
November 7, 1006
My husband and I just got back from a 4 day trip to New York city. Just before we left, James had been so fragile in his Portuguese. A few words here and there, more with encouragement. I was afraid he'd go backwards staying in the house with my in-laws who only speak English. I asked Mariana to try to speak to him in Portuguese as much as possible. The children had a wonderful time and James was still speaking Portuguese when I came back. Oh ye of little faith.
I've been worried about Mariana. She received a really low grade in biology. I asked that she tell her father, have him call me by Wednesday, and get a tutor this week. She seemed really down about it. To continue in her program, she must maintain C averages in each class. She said perhaps she could change schools, but I think that's a really bad idea and the coordinator didn't think it would be possible or helpful. I don't want to punish her. I'm used to just sending the kids to time-out if the do something wrong, but this is quite different. My parents, however, would have killed me in this case, regardless of the country I was studying in. I know the language barrier is really tough. She told the coordinator that it's hard b/c here at the house we speak Portuguese. I explained that that was our deal from the beginning and that there are times such as mealtime where Stephen is present and we speak English. It's tough. I like her so much and want her to be happy.
November 13, 2006
Got a call about the Montegnard family today. I wasn't really sure what the woman (one of the people on the team to help) wanted. She seemed to be asking for children's activities. I said to google, "preschool games." I should probably spend some time there with the family- she said their English is improving.
November 15, 2006
There are some words James just refuses to say in Portuguese. He won't say "muchila" (bookbag). He has a little bookbag and when I say, "Peque muchila" (Get your bookbag). He'll say "My backpack!" I'll say in Portuguese, "That's how daddy says it but mamae says "muchila". He seems to prefer Daddy's way. He's a real Daddy's boy. If we're all at home and he falls, he'll run right past me to Stephen. So perhaps he just perfers to talk like Stephen, who knows.
November 21
We spent the weekend at my parents' house. Mom would try to speak Portuguese to Sydney with "O que que foi?" (What happened?) Sydney looked at her like she was nuts.
I went to the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages this weekend to give a paper on how parents raising their children to speak their second language have some ideas that have implications for teachers teaching their second language. I told the audience (of about 50) to feel free to jump in during the talk. Never got to finish the talk. They had so many questions, so many experiences to share, so muct doubt, so much conviction.
One woman was a grandmother whose grown children did not teach them the second language she's taught them. Therefore the grandmother was taking on the teaching of the second language and was visibly angry with her children for not teaching the language as she had done for them. She said they were lazy and adamently encouraged parents in the group "not to be lazy!"
Another asked a question that really stumped me. She is African American and raising her son to speak Spanish, a language she learned and now teaches in school. She said sometimes though, she just wants to "be black" and say it say what she wants to say with the intonation of a black person. What a conundrom. I'm really not sure how to advise her.
November 26, 2006
It's interesting to again see how Sydney's English grammar is affected by Portuguese. In Portuguese the word for "why" is "por que" and the word for "because" is "porque" so when you're speaking, they sound just the same. Today she was telling Stephen that not even James knew why he was covered in sand:
"He doesn't even know because his face is dirty. So I don't know either!"
