One day - One language

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How to increase a minority language exposure It is inevitable that in any multi-lingual family setting one or more languages get more time and focus than the others. Naturally one of the parents or any other adult speaking minority language just gets to spend more time with the kids. Whether a stay at home parent, caregiver or maybe the one that spends a long morning commute with the child. Or there is more relatives around speaking the language. Or simply the adult responsible for passing on the minority language is just not as comfortable with it, gets limited time, cannot naturally hold conversation with a young child or simply gets frustrated to be in it alone.  As the time progresses and LingoPapa works hard away from home to support us, he gets limited time to speak and actively teach children Urdu. It a language that needs more attention in our household. Not only we get the least exposure to it but it also needs more attention due to its Persian script and ba...
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AMBUSH! A language acquisition anecdote

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All children do this! Multilingual or not. It keeps us entertained...and it also turns us into detectives. It can be a totally new level in a multilingual family...yes, I am talking about made up words or first words that sound very unique.

I would like to share our recent experience that really baffled us. MiniLingo is just 2 years old. He has vocab in 3 languages and forms a maximum 2 words "sentences. ( Post of speech delay in multilingual kids coming soon.)

We spend lots of time in the nature and MiniLingo is obsessed about animals. We love greenery even though we are currently an urban dwelling family. Recently on every occasion when we drove into countryside, our train carriage approached a forest or we came to a farm, MiniLingo got all prepared, stands straight and shouts: "Ambush, ambush!"


When he did it first time, LingoPapa was convinced that our second born must be carrying some kind of SSG gene and it automatically kicks in to warn us about possible danger. I was in doubt...but MiniLingo was doing it consistently and each time close to some greenery, trees, bushes...well he might be Mossad trained after all, I thought. So this toddler is a superhuman alerting us to impeding ambush! Move over SAS trained Bear Grylls :).

So back to the LingoLiving reality... It was difficult to decipher what MiniLingo actually meant by "ambush". His brother who is usually really good in interpreting baby talk thought it meant "a baby". Well, that would be a hell of an ambush, let me tell you!
MiniLingo's

So for about a week, we lived with the ambush alerts, trying to work out what it really means. We though:"Maybe it means 'an ambush' but where did he learn it?" So finally,during the Easter break we went to a city farm to a butter making workshop. And there all "the ambush" came out yet again..in full force. I was about to take cover and dismantle the pushchair and reassemble it into a weapon when I noticed MiniLingo climbs into the rabbit enclosure while screaming "ambush!".

Heureka!,I thought. I came to MiniLingo and asked him in minority language (Czech): " Did you mean the ANIMALS?" MiniLingo clapped his mini hands together and was delighted that I finally understood.

Now the work started to turn "ambush" into the two minority languages' vocabulary. The reaffirming method, yet again! 

Just a reminder:

 Multilingual upbringing is not a sprint, it is a marathon... it is about perseverance not the fast results!



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