Mommy diary

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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Mommy diary 3: I got me a bilingual baby, baby!/ Denik maminky v zahranici 3: mam bilingvniho prcka, damy a panove!

Hanicka 2yrs oldIt is the time again when I do the bi-annual update on my daughter’s bilingual skills. Hahna just recently turned 2 and she is so much fun (well, OK the potty training is not that much fun, I admit…)! If you recall I called the last post  “The bitter-sweet results so far” because at 18 months-of-age  she was speaking mostly English. I am ecstatic to say that has changed. She is totally bilingual now! It started at about 20 months-of-age when she began repeating almost everything I said, including tremendously loooong words like ‘vodopad‘ (waterfall), ‘skluzavka‘ (slide) or ‘ananas‘ (pineapple). She did the same thing in English with her English-speaking daddy and babi (grandma). She  now speaks to me solely in Czech and switches to English with no problem when when she talks to daddy. And when we are all together, she talks also mostly in English, with a few Czech words here and there.

Where it gets a bit tricky and (unfortunately) confusing for Hanicka is when we meet with my American girlfriends and their kids. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, Czech language, forum, Mommy diary

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It’s impossible to hide her czechness / Jeji “cechost” se neda zaprit

muddy child flickr imageAs many of you know my daughter has a Czech mom (that would be me) and an American dad. Although we live in the US, fully submerged into the American culture, her Czechness cannot be hidden for long and that is for various reasons:

1/ She does not have very many toys. I like to buy her the $1.00 toys at Target or I get her toys at a local second hand store. They are as good as new and cost half the price. I also let her play with trash – yes, trash! An empty water bottle or an empty cardboard box can get you long ways! The other day, I stocked up a bunch of empty plastic bottles into Hahna’s portable tub and 45 minutes later she was still happily jumping in and out of it, having a blast. Or try to recycle an empty  cardboard box the Czech way and make a little house out of it (see picture)…the possibilities are endless. For more tips on  trash toys read  the post about my grandma. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, humor, Mommy diary

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Mommy Diary 2: bitter-sweet results so far / Denik maminky v zahranici: zatim smisene vysledky

toddler flickr imageI thought I would give you an update on how is my bilingual experiment with my daughter going (for part I click here). Since it is an experiment with no way of knowing how is it going to end, I thought I would put it into a scientific format this time – to make it more interesting :o ) :

CZ: Tak jsem si rikala, ze je na case, abych vas aktualizovala na nynejsi maminkovskou situaci a to zejmena co se tyce uceni me dcerky cestiny (pro cast 1. kliknete zde). Jelikoz je to vsechno jeden velky experiment (tedy nemam vubec poneti, jak toto moje snazeni vubec zkonci), napsala jsem to tentokrat v podobe “opravdoveho”  vedeckeho dokumentu :0):


Introduction:
Hahna is 17-month old toddler and she stays home with her mommy (me). Once a week grandma comes over to play with her for couple of hours while mommy and daddy go get a big cup of Starbucks and stare into the white wall to decompress. Mommy talks to her in Czech pretty much all day until daddy comes home and then everyone talks English. Mommy also switches to English when her American friends are around. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, Czech language, forum, Mommy diary

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How to have a bilingual child / Jak vychovat dvojjazycne dite

czech flag yahoo imageAs I said before I am a Czech married to an American husband therefore our child is growing up in a bilingual home. So far these are my Top 10 recommendations that help me to keep talking in Czech with my 1-year old daughter:

  1. talk to him/her in Czech whenever you can; it sounds like a no-brainer but when you keep switching from English to Czech it is sometimes easier to stay in the English “groove”.
  2. When your spouse is around and you speak English so that he/she can understand what is going on, repeat some sentences in Czech to your child. I say “some” as I have tried to translate all of them at times and I felt like a parrot that had lost it.
  3. Listen to the Czech music and fairy tales on tape (or rather CDs….or IPod or what ever it is nowadays..)
  4. Keep the Czech riddles going! Some easy ones that I do over and over are: [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, Czech language, Mommy diary

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Czech Mommy diary: the beginnings / Denik ceske maminky zijici v zahranici – zacatky

HanickaI have a 10-month old baby. Her name is Hahna; that’s right – H-A-H-N-A – for people to pronounce it the European way (although many times she is still called Hannah). Picking a name that would work for both “worlds” was very important to me. I didn’t want to name her something very ethnic like “Drahomira” so that she wouldn’t be ridiculed at school and my husband could pronounce it. I also didn’t want to name her something like Cloe; although I like the sounding of that name, as far as Czech language is concerned, it is unfortunately completely useless and that’s because: [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, culture, Mommy diary

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