{"id":2184,"date":"2011-08-19T19:23:22","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T19:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/?p=2184"},"modified":"2011-08-20T15:06:10","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T15:06:10","slug":"raising-bilingual-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/polish\/raising-bilingual-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising bilingual child"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I wanted to share my experience about raising bilingual child and how important it is for mixed marriages, where spouses are from 2 different countries.<\/p>\n

When I was pregnant with my baby girl (hmmm…not a baby any more…she is 1.5 years old now) I started thinking a lot about teaching her Polish and how hard is going to be while living in US, in English environment.<\/p>\n

I started reading a lot of books and researching online. It is very important to me that my daughter knows my native language. My husband and I (and now Natalia) visit Poland every year. I want her to be able to talk to all my family.<\/p>\n

I started talking to her in Polish while she was still in my belly…reading books and listening to Polish lullabies. Once she was born I was talking to her pretty much only in Polish. My husband did not mind it at all. He was very happy that Natalia has such a great opportunity to be bilingual pretty much from the day she was born…
\nI still speak to her in Polish. Sometimes, if we are around my husband’s family, or anybody who does not know Polish, I would talk to my daughter in English. She is only 1.5 years old, but talks a lot already. We could have conversation together and she would respond to me in Polish, but respond to my husband in English. It is amazing how smart and intelligent kids are…First 2 years are actually the most important ones for the language development…So we should really start talking to our kids in our native language from the very beginning. My daughter has no problem with understanding either Polish or English. It is such a great gift and I also noticed that she is very brave and confident, which later I read that bilingual children pretty often are very confident later in life.<\/p>\n

Natalia talks to her grandparents in Poland all the time through Skype. They are so happy that she responds in Polish. Teaching your child a different language than the one she\/he hears around his hers\/his environment requires a lot of work and patience, but is well worth it.<\/p>\n

I think that maybe at one point my daughter will prefer one language over the other, but I decided that I will continue talk to her in Polish and I’m sure that one day she will be really grateful.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can recommend great book to all of you who have the same situation. It is in Polish unfortunately and I was not able to find copy of it translated into English. The title is\u00a0“Prze\u017cy\u0107 dwuj\u0119zyczno\u015b\u0107. Jak wychowa\u0107 dziecko dwuj\u0119zyczne<\/strong>“(“Surviving\u00a0bilingualism. How to raise bilingual child.”)\u00a0and it is written by\u00a0Bogumi\u0142a<\/strong> Baumgartner.<\/strong> She talks about different situations (places, parents, emigration, immigration…) and I have to say that this book really motivated me and helped me to stay focused in teaching my daughter Polish.<\/p>\n

If you know about an English book like that and you have read it, please let us all know.<\/p>\n

Do nast<\/strong>\u0119pnego razu… <\/strong>(Till next time…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I wanted to share my experience about raising bilingual child and how important it is for mixed marriages, where spouses are from 2 different countries. When I was pregnant with my baby girl (hmmm…not a baby any more…she is 1.5 years old now) I started thinking a lot about teaching her Polish and how…<\/p>\n

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