Comments on: English only on this American playground please

By: May Relano

May Relano — Fri, 18 May 2012 10:03:34 +0000

This is a very interesting story about how the use of languages other than English in public distorts the linguistic tranquility of monolingual minds in the United States. I am wondering if this happened to you in California. It is very unfortunate to hear children saying this about other languages as the result of their language socialization to monolingual ideologies in the home environment. I have a collection of stories about language experiences in Southern California told by Mexican women, who struggle hard to instill pride and linguistic security in their children’s upbringing. Thank you for sharing this and having let that boy wondering about what it means to speak two languages in the U.S.

By: Christof Demont-Heinrich

Christof Demont-Heinrich — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:36:57 +0000

Thank you everyone for your comments and sharing your experiences. As those of us working to raise children as bilinguals know, it’s not always easy and there are a lot of social forces that often work against us. However, as Sabrina points out, in the end the extra effort, facing down social pressures, and working with children being raised as bilinguals to help them do the same and feel good about being bilingual is worth it.

By: Sabrina

Sabrina — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:15:53 +0000

Wonderful article! I admire that you really push through and speak German to your children all the time. You can also be thankful that you have an appropriate school like that in your area. I grew up in the US with a German parent and stopped speaking German at a young age because of… pressure from other children. I speak German now, but I’m not a native speaker as I could’ve been. My partner and I will be raising our children bilingually in Germany, and I’m sure that will be easier here then it would be in the US.

By: Alia Amir

Alia Amir — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:25:29 +0000

I live in Sweden and speak to my children in Urdu/English ( some medium shifting between a continuum of Urdu and English). Swedish has also come up in my children’s language repertoire and they do speak Swedish but our main language of communication is Urdu/ English. Although, I have never experienced a direct confrontation by anyone (between me and my children) where we have been told to switch to Swedish, when ever we switch to English or use a bilingual medium (Urdu + English), we have been asked (especially by native English speakers) but what is the language in your home country? Why do you speak English? In a way, I have experienced an anti-English tide, specially for those people who do not come from native English-speaking coutries.

By: Fiona MacLeod-Green

Fiona MacLeod-Green — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:26:39 +0000

Keep up the good work, Christof! Your children will thank you one day for your gift of language and identity. I sometimes get odd responses from other children at my daughter’s childcare for speaking Japanese to my child, but I remind the children that our family arrangements work for us, and that everyone’s families work differently. “Just because I can talk to you, doesn’t mean I have to talk like you all the time. And when I’m talking to you or about you, I promise you’ll know exactly what I’m saying.” Even a child can understand that logic. I’m prepared to be patient with children, but I will remind them that they need to watch their own conversations, not other people’s. Viel Glück!

By: Johana

Johana — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:52:48 +0000

Thanks for thiss post! Sadly this poor child is a reflexion of the xenophobic sentiment that is growing in the U.S. In which books and music is banned bc is in another language. We as concern part of society should speak about it and don’t let our future generations degenerate into think that learning many languages will take away from their identity.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:00:59 +0000

I live in Italy and speak to my children in English. I think a big reason why I am “spared” the negative comments is that a) English is a high status language – everyone wants their kids to learn English. In fact, they often ask my son to speak in English to them (which he refuses to do).

b) Everyone has studied at least some English here so what I am saying is not totally incomprehensible. People don’t like hearing others talking in languages they don’t understand at all (especially languages belonging to immigrants who are seen as a threat such as Romanian, Arabic…..)

It is also amazing that some people really believe that being bilingual is not possible without losing some linguistic competence. My son got top marks in his Italian language tests – something which is apparently seen as some sort of miracle considering he *only* gets talked to in Italian by his dad, all his friends, his teachers……

By: Arshad Baig (Karachi, Pakistan)

Arshad Baig (Karachi, Pakistan) — Sat, 05 May 2012 05:42:29 +0000

Thanks, Christof for interesting post!
I agree with your experiences and ideas. Children’s cultural identity is an important element in their self-esteem. The language they speak and that is spoken in the home is a vital part of the formation of an identity. Bilingual education programs by their very nature require segregation of students into homogeneous native-language groups. Furthermore, it offers great opportunities to both language-majority and language-minority populations.