bilingual children

Mommy diary 6: ‘Mommy, why do we speak Czech?’ / Denik maminky v zahranici 6:’Maminko, proc mluvime cesky?’

When I was pregnant with Hahna that strange busy-bee nesting syndrome lead me to create this blog (much more productive and fun than  going through some cleaning frenzy :) .  It is hard to believe  that I have been writing posts (this will be mine 870th post) for over 4 years and that our Hanicka just recently blew out her 4 birthday candles as well.  This also means that I am due for my regular bilingual update.

Don’t worry, you can relax, I will ease your mind and tell you right off the bat that Hahna is doing great! And having an innate critical mind of a Czech you know I would not be saying it if it wasn’t the truth.

First of all, about 3 months ago she started asking me  why do we speak Czech. I admit, I was startled by her straight  question and did not know  how to answer  in 1 or 2 sentences, so that a 3-year-old brain could digest it. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: bilingual children, Czech-American marriage, Mommy diary

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New Czech school for children in the Southern California area/ Nova ceska skola pro deti v jizni Kalifornii

This is a VERY EXCITING news for all of the Czech moms living in the Southern California area. I happened to have a meeting with Michal Sedlacek who is the Consul General of the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles. Among other things we also talked about a possible new Czech school for Czech children which would be located probably in Los Angeles (possibly also San Diego, depending on how many people in what area are interested). The school would run under the “School without borders” program, which is funded by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It all sounds wonderful, but the most important thing right now is to get as many Czech moms on the list as possible, so we can make this happen. I already have about 15 contacts but we need more than that. So, please, if you live in Southern California and are interested, leave your name and location (LA or San Diego?) in the comment area. You don’t need to leave your email address since it is already a requirement for leaving a comment, so I will be able to see it (but no one else will).

Also, if you know of anyone else who may be interested in this, forward him this article. Thank you!

 

CZ: Mam pro vas opravdu VYBORNOU NOVINKU! Nedavno jsem se sesla s panem konzulem Sedlackem a mimo jinych veci jsme diskutovali take moznost vzniku nove ceske skoly v jizni Kalifornii. Patrila by pod program zvany “Skola bez hranic”, ktery je dotovany ministerstvem zahranici. Skola by byla situovana pravdepodobne v okoli Los Angeles (mozna i San Diega), ale vsechno zalezi na mnozstvi zajemcu a kde bydli.

Tudiz vas prosim, jestlize mate o neco takoveho zajem, zanechte v komentech sve jmeno a a kde bydlite (LA area nebo San Diego area?) Email tam nemusite psat, protoze uz vyplnujete emailovou kolonku jednou v dobe, kdy onen koment pisete).

Jestlize vite o nekom jinem, kdo by se chtel se svymi detmi neceho takoveho zucastnit, preposlete mu teno clanek. Dekuji!

 

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Tagged as: bilingual children, Czech school, Czechs in California, Skola bez hranic

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Mommy diary 5: Red, white and bilingual /Denik maminky v zahranici 5: cerveno bily bilingvist

My daughter Hahna is 3 years now and she is brilliantly bilingual! What is more, she likes to have an active listener next to her at all times, meaning that she kind of requires of you to echo whatever she says. If I don’t respond within 10 seconds then I am in trouble: “Mommy, are you not talking?” (Mami, ty nemluvis?). I just have to say that my throat hurts – the final excuse.
I am not sure if she is doing so well with both languages because she IS such a talker or if she just has the ear for languages but she is doing great! She is starting to get the past and future tenses, pronouns…
She now feels confident enough to teach dad (and grandma!) some Czech and it is truly a bonding experience for them. Hahna feels smart and dad learns more Czech. Sometimes when she is on the phone with me and we speak Czech she starts laughing, thinking that it’s really funny that she speaks this ‘secret’ tongue in front of her American company. She keeps saying to me on the phone: “Mommy is speaking Czech!” (Maminka mluvi cesky!). She loves to interact with her Czech grandma and granpa over Skype but it does get hard at times. First off, there is quite the delay in hearing what the other one says and second, her pronunciation is not yet perfectly clear so most of the time I am the middle man and have to translate things.
When Hahna talks to herself she is using English, which – as expected – is going to be the language she feels most comfortable with. I am totally fine with that, although it is interesting that she does that since most of the time she ends up speaking Czech with me.
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Tagged as: bilingual children, Czech Americans, Czech language

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Mommy diary 4: O.P.O.L. can kiss my shorts! / Denik maminky v zahranici 4: O.P.O.L. mi muze polibit frak!

img_2822 Every 6 months or so I write a small report on how is my daughter doing with her bilingual skills. She is two and half now which means it is time for me to tell you about her progress:

PS: For part 1 click here, part 2 click here and part 3 click here

I don’t know how else to start than by saying that it’s been going really great. Although I do not use the strange O.P.O.L. (One Parent One Language) method with her, my daughter has no problem understanding and also speaking Czech. She actually says whole sentences like a real human now! I will give you an example: we are in the grocery store and Hanicka points at some lady and says: “Pani ma velke brisko” (Lady has a big belly) or she points at some poor lady with graying hair and exclaims “To je babika!” (That’s grandma!). From practical reasons you can see that it is VERY advantageous she speaks Czech with me in public otherwise we would be in a big trouble. Instead, the big bellied lady and the other woman with graying hair are just pleasantly smiling at me, probably admiring how culturally diverse my family is.

When we are at a playground with other American kids she has no problem switching to English once she realizes that we are socializing with the English-speaking fellows. If I switch into English, she gets the hint really quickly and goes on speaking English as well. My husband marvels on how well she switches to English when he is around. Once in a while she starts talking to him in Czech but in a couple of seconds she switches back. Now, get this: when I tell Hahna in Czech “Jdi rict tatovi, ze je hotova vecere” (Go tell daddy that dinner is ready), she walks up to her dad and says “Daddy, dinner is ready”. She instantly translates it in her head without me telling her anything! I was pretty excited about that one. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: bilingual children, Czech language

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