Is OPOL the best method, or just the only one possible most of the time?

[raggedyman]

@jonyjam_123 It does sound like we're in a similar position indeed, thank you for your input

I like your idea of 2P2L, this is exactly what I wa talking about!

As for your last paragraph, this is actually one of the things that makes it difficult for me to pick a "method": we don't know where we'll be living in the long run, so there isn't a clear minority vs dominant language yet... so I can't commit to speak only the minority language at home for example, because I don't know which one it is.

 

[chauncywilltheologian]

@raggedyman No, OPOL is not "the only [method] possible most of the time." I'm a single mom so obviously OPOL would be a mathematical impossibility for me, but am raising a bilingual child just fine. I don't think you meant to exclude people like me but just wanted to point out the full extent of the community here and the importance of being inclusive to everybody. I also have another good friend who is a single mom successfully raising bilingual twins.

As you intuited, the crucial thing is that the child gets plenty of input in both languages AND occasionally is in contexts that separate the language out so that eventually they figure out they are two different languages, not an undifferentiated conglomerate.

I usually speak different languages at different times of the day. I'm more likely to speak one at home, and one outside the home (which is another intuitive division that lots of other people use). We also do most fun stuff in the minority language: about 50% of tv and 100% of apps. We have some acquaintances who speak only one language with him, and others who only speak the other one. I do mix languages sometimes, but do my best not to mix within a single sentence.

Our community language is pretty dominant now, so I can't wait until COVID calms down and we can travel to countries speaking our minority language soon. That's another huge important way to keep a child using both languages - and make sure they have intrinsic motivation to speak both. In other words you can use space (inside vs outside of the home) to cue when you use a particular language, or time, if you prefer that to OPOL.

 

[raggedyman]

@chauncywilltheologian Good point about OPOL sometimes just not being possible. Sorry for not being more inclusive. I guess I was egotistically talking about my own situation only.

As you stated as well, Covid makes things a bit more difficult these days with the inside/outside distinction, and even with some tools that we used to have and that we don't anymore for example my wife used to meet other Japanese mothers & "half" children once a week before the pandemics, but now it's on hold, so we have to be more creative u_u...

Thank you for your comment

 

[celestialpearl]

@raggedyman Anecdotal at best, but I was in your child's shoes (father is French, mother is Japanese) and while OPOL may not be the only method, I would advise against using a language you are not perfectly fluent in with your child. So if both of you were perfectly bilingual, no problem, I'd say make sure to make full sentences (and not mix mid-sentence because it will decrease exposure for language A to what you might find "easier" to say in language B) and you can each use two languages; but if that's not the case, your child will learn your mistakes. And it will take that much longer to correct them.

I learned so many of my mother's French mispronunciations and grammatical quirks just by listening to her talk to other people, not even me (my parents did OPOL). And it took me a looooong time to rectify them all.

 

[raggedyman]

@celestialpearl Thank you for your comment and advice

It is true that my son seems to make the same mistake in French that my wife does. So far my take has been that native kids do some mistakes as well (different ones) and will learn the 'proper' grammar in school. But thank you for the experience, I try to correct him as much as I can without interrupting the "fun" of learning and the flow of the conversation. Maybe I should ask my wife to correct us a little bit more on our Japanese.

 

[kajiki]

@raggedyman We do (basically) English at home/as a family group but outside the house it’s all Japanese(live in Japan). Plus if I’m not around (the native English speaker) older child automatically switches to Japanese with dad; toddler uses a mix of both. I haven’t studied OPOL or other approaches extensively but for young kids I think exposure really counts.... however for older kids you’ll need them to reproduce proper grammar structure otherwise they won’t be able to communicate outside the family. So that’s my concern if you’re constantly switching back and forth. Also it gets harder to keep up the minority language as they get older, in my experience.

 

[raggedyman]

@kajiki Thank you for the comment. I think we do insist a bit on the minority language so far. But yes, I've mostly been focusing on "fun" exposure for both languages (books, games, movies, etc.).