The first language in Singapore is English. It's the medium of instruction in schools and even though we can sound funny with our Singlish (Singapore-English) accents, we speak English well enough as the next Brit or American. (You cannot believe the number of times I've rolled my eyes at someone who commented, "Oh you're from Singapore? But your English is sooo good!") *rolls eyes. again*
I basically grew up bilingual, speaking English & my mother tongue Malay. It wasn't a 50-50 thing, it was more like 90-10. My Malay was (is??) terrible. I just spoke it at home with my mom and grandma and that was it. Anyone who knows me can vouch as to how bad my Malay was, i was barely passing my Malay language classes and i was just uninterested in it. Since moving to Holland in 2008 i picked up Dutch (pretty quickly too i think), and now speak it relatively fluently.
My husband on the other hand is effectively bilingual, speaking Dutch and English (almost perfectly) and also some Surinamese (Sranan tongo). He was never taught Surinamese in school so it was just what he heard and picked up from family members.
Between Jürgen & I, we speak a mix of English & Dutch to each other.
Anyway, fast forward to 2015 and my son is born. We were definitely going to speak Dutch to him since we were in the Netherlands, we thought. And then also English, obviously, since we both speak it.... right? But what about Malay? There was no one around us in Holland to speak Malay to him (unlike in Singapore with my mom and other family members). And he would definitely not be learning it here in school either, so does it mean Malay would just not exist in his life? So he's going to be THAT half asian kid who doesn't know how to speak his mother tongue??
Panicking that my son would grow up to be a dutch brat that doesn't speak his mother's mother tongue, I bravely made the decision that I would be his source of Malay in this ang moh land. Me. Yup me. I gave a terrible TV interview once in Singapore speaking in Malay and I was the laughing stock of my family for a whole month. Actually, it's been over 10 years and they're still teasing me about it haha (yes, looking at you Mimi and brothers :P).
And oh man it was tough. My Malay was super rusty! I was listening online to RIA and 94.2FM (malay radio stations in Singapore) and trying to read Berita Harian online (the malay newspaper) just to get some Malay around me. The first few weeks after Nox was born i had to scold myself for speaking English to him, "DO BETTER SITI!!! BE A BETTER MALAY MOM!!".
What really helped was when my mom flew to Holland (by herself! for the first time!) and stayed for a month from when Lennox was 5 weeks old till about 9 weeks. That period really ingrained the Malay-ness in me and after that, it magically became automatic. Now I speak to him and to all babies in Malay! Haha it's really funny how it works doesn't it?
Advantages of kids being bilingual? How do we as parents implement it?
Previous thinking was that if you introduce more than one language to a baby, it would lead to a delay in language development. This is a myth! Recent research has shown that the opposite is true and I've read so many advantages of bringing up a bilingual/multilingual child. Isn't it amazing that even an 7 month old can tell different languages apart and that babies can sort out language?There's a plethora of research to show that multiple languages for children is basically a good thing... So... if you're feeling guilty for not passing down your mother tongue to your kid, DO IT, now! Children pick up things so fast so all is not lost.
There are many ways to introduce a second language to a baby, it really depends on your family situation. There's the minority language at home method, but that doesn't really work for us since Jürgen doesn't speak Malay (At all. And I speak good Dutch, ugh so unfair. But that's another topic for another day...). So we've basically stuck to the One Person, One Language method with Lennox. And i think it works so far!
We figured that since we already speak English to each other as parents, and that Lennox will also be exposed to English in schools here, English will take on a back seat for now. As for Surinamese, some family members already speak it to him so i'm sure he (and me too hopefully) will pick bits and pieces up along the way.
On top of this we are also doing baby sign language with Nox, since he was about 8 months. I'll be writing more about this in a future post
But I guess the proudest thing for me about being able to speak Malay to Lennox is so that he doesn't lose touch of his Singapore roots. So what if we eat more potatoes than rice, or more cheese than sambal. This kid is going to know where he came from and be the best Dutch/Malay speaker in this house!
SO i deserve a pat on my back! Good going mommy.
(Google Translate is still my best friend though :P)
I basically grew up bilingual, speaking English & my mother tongue Malay. It wasn't a 50-50 thing, it was more like 90-10. My Malay was (is??) terrible. I just spoke it at home with my mom and grandma and that was it. Anyone who knows me can vouch as to how bad my Malay was, i was barely passing my Malay language classes and i was just uninterested in it. Since moving to Holland in 2008 i picked up Dutch (pretty quickly too i think), and now speak it relatively fluently.
My husband on the other hand is effectively bilingual, speaking Dutch and English (almost perfectly) and also some Surinamese (Sranan tongo). He was never taught Surinamese in school so it was just what he heard and picked up from family members.
Between Jürgen & I, we speak a mix of English & Dutch to each other.
Anyway, fast forward to 2015 and my son is born. We were definitely going to speak Dutch to him since we were in the Netherlands, we thought. And then also English, obviously, since we both speak it.... right? But what about Malay? There was no one around us in Holland to speak Malay to him (unlike in Singapore with my mom and other family members). And he would definitely not be learning it here in school either, so does it mean Malay would just not exist in his life? So he's going to be THAT half asian kid who doesn't know how to speak his mother tongue??
 |
| Which one shall I choose... hmmmm |
Panicking that my son would grow up to be a dutch brat that doesn't speak his mother's mother tongue, I bravely made the decision that I would be his source of Malay in this ang moh land. Me. Yup me. I gave a terrible TV interview once in Singapore speaking in Malay and I was the laughing stock of my family for a whole month. Actually, it's been over 10 years and they're still teasing me about it haha (yes, looking at you Mimi and brothers :P).
And oh man it was tough. My Malay was super rusty! I was listening online to RIA and 94.2FM (malay radio stations in Singapore) and trying to read Berita Harian online (the malay newspaper) just to get some Malay around me. The first few weeks after Nox was born i had to scold myself for speaking English to him, "DO BETTER SITI!!! BE A BETTER MALAY MOM!!".
What really helped was when my mom flew to Holland (by herself! for the first time!) and stayed for a month from when Lennox was 5 weeks old till about 9 weeks. That period really ingrained the Malay-ness in me and after that, it magically became automatic. Now I speak to him and to all babies in Malay! Haha it's really funny how it works doesn't it?
Advantages of kids being bilingual? How do we as parents implement it?
Previous thinking was that if you introduce more than one language to a baby, it would lead to a delay in language development. This is a myth! Recent research has shown that the opposite is true and I've read so many advantages of bringing up a bilingual/multilingual child. Isn't it amazing that even an 7 month old can tell different languages apart and that babies can sort out language?There's a plethora of research to show that multiple languages for children is basically a good thing... So... if you're feeling guilty for not passing down your mother tongue to your kid, DO IT, now! Children pick up things so fast so all is not lost.
We figured that since we already speak English to each other as parents, and that Lennox will also be exposed to English in schools here, English will take on a back seat for now. As for Surinamese, some family members already speak it to him so i'm sure he (and me too hopefully) will pick bits and pieces up along the way.
On top of this we are also doing baby sign language with Nox, since he was about 8 months. I'll be writing more about this in a future post
But I guess the proudest thing for me about being able to speak Malay to Lennox is so that he doesn't lose touch of his Singapore roots. So what if we eat more potatoes than rice, or more cheese than sambal. This kid is going to know where he came from and be the best Dutch/Malay speaker in this house!
SO i deserve a pat on my back! Good going mommy.
(Google Translate is still my best friend though :P)
Comments
Post a Comment