Strategies or tips needed

[wrrydmom]

Hi! We have a one year old baby and we’ve been following OPOL since he was in my womb. I speak Spanish to him 95% of the time and my husband speaks Slovak absolutely all the time to him. We both speak English to each other and we live in an English speaking country. I feel that OPOL works fine, but sometimes if we’re with someone who doesn’t speak Spanish, I speak to him in English a bit. He goes to childcare and they speak English to him all morning. I’m really happy that he’s growing with a lot of exposure to the three languages and that he will learn all of them, but I have some doubts I need help with:

1- if in the future he speaks to me and says a Slovak word, do I correct him? Or is he gonna think he said a wrong word?

2- he started saying the word “this” every time he points at something, should I recast and say: “eso” in Spanish?

My doubt is that if I correct him, he’s going to think he’s saying something wrong, when in fact it’s just a different language.

Sorry if it all sounds stupid…

Also, all the books I find are about benefits of raising bilingual children, I know the benefits, I would like some book suggestions that actually help with these kind of stuff.

Thanks!

 

[jordanjds]

@wrrydmom My kids are eight and six, and have OPOL Danish (dad) and English (me). We live in Denmark. Now that they are well-established in both languages we have started correcting bits of their code switching. Of note, both of them had the habit of using the Danish ‘man’ as third-person-plural (‘you’) regardless of the rest of the sentence. Such as, ‘when man goes to the beach, man can bring goggles with’; replacing ‘you’ with ‘man’.

Personally I figure with time they will iron out the minor vocabulary and mechanics quirks, so we aren’t being too picky about how precise their language is in any form. They obviously understand both languages fully, and if anything are using both to expand their comprehensibility.

 

[nedu]

@wrrydmom If he says “this” then I would just reply in Spanish. (“Ahh, this? This is an apple!” Etc.) So you’re not necessarily correcting him, but you still communicate how to say “this” in Spanish.

 

[wrrydmom]

@nedu That’s what I’m doing, I answer by saying: ( this? Esto es una manzana) but I was wondering if it was wrong to do that

 

[aldredian]

@wrrydmom

1. "That's right! It's ball!" But in Spanish. It's acknowledging he's saying the right word but you're repeating it in the targeted language so he can hear it in Spanish too and know that you say it a different way.
2. Yes. Basically, whatever language he says stuff to you, just continue using Spanish. But you can always acknowledge what he said - but in Spanish.

 

[wrrydmom]

@aldredian Thanks so much! That’s what I had in mine but needed reassurance

 

[barsomo]

@wrrydmom Hi! We are also both doing OPOL with my husband and we have two community languages on top of that so our girls speak 4 languages, or rather my 5-year-old does and my 1,5yo says words in all the languages.

What we did and found useful was to not correct per se, but to repeat the word that they said in the other language and say the same in our language, or alternatively the whole sentence. So essentially we are always agreeing to what they are saying, “this, eso” or “sí, eso es un perro”. Kids are incredibly smart and they make connections between things so fast and sometimes it’s not even necessarily to build that bridge with the two languages. My 1,5yo knows both the Finnish and Portuguese (mine and my husbands languages) words for so many things and is not phased by the fact that everything can have so many different names yet mean the same thing

As long as you don’t negate what they said but always agree and offer other ways of saying it you should be good Best of luck!

 

[kimosabe2019]

@wrrydmom laleo.billingual.therapy on Instagram has some good tips and strategies. Also, she reframes the conversation in a way that is more accessible long term.

I can't really comment on your specific situation since we're just hoping for comprehension. So we're okay with our son speaking back to us English.

 

[wrrydmom]

@kimosabe2019 Thanks! I won’t mind if he ends up talking English to us as well, as he can hear us all the time, but I’m just concerned he will think that “this” is wrong, when it’s not thanks for the link!

 

[wantingtoknow]

@wrrydmom I agree with you, correcting isn’t the best way… I try to find soon after a situation where I’ll get to use the correct term and that’s usually enough. But seriously, at 1 I was just happy when she would use any understandable word!

For materials, I can’t recommend highly enough the guide for parents at https://bilingualfamily.eu/resources-for-parents/ and all their videos on YouTube.

 

[wrrydmom]

@wantingtoknow Thanks! Good idea, for other words I will do that. For “this” I have no idea he can say “mama” when I’m not there, “papa” , “this” and then with a very strong Spanish “ñ” sound that makes mama very proud he says “ñam” when he wants to eat. He’s gonna be one next week, I couldn’t be happier!