OK, I’m sorry, I know it has been over two weeks since my last post but we’ve been busy with the new baby! Did I tell you the story of how we almost didn’t make it to the hospital? I did? Well I’ll tell you again anyway…
So, we were originally booked into Podoli hospital in Prague but when we went for a check up at 11am the doctor didn’t think anything would happen soon and sent us home even though Radka was having contractions. We live forty kilometres from Prague so in an emergency we would go to Kladno as it’s closer. Later in the day her contractions had got stronger and more frequent and by 9.30pm they were unbearable. “Take… Me… To hospital… Now!”
We took Daisy (our first daughter) from her bed and put her into the car and then dropped her off at a friend’s house down the street. It took about 20 minutes to drive to the hospital with Radka’s waters breaking on the way. I parked right outside the reception and we went inside not knowing which way to turn to find the maternity ward.
The lady on reception did the bare minimum and without breaking a smile gave us directions that neither of us heard or understood, but we did hear the number of the ward and so followed a sign. At this point my wife’s contractions were so strong she was crawling on all fours along the corridor. As we could no longer see any signs telling us which way to go, we headed outside to see if we could get into the right building and found a map that was upside down and back to front (not helpful in a stressful situation).
We decided to go back into the building as it had started to rain and Radka was clearly very close to giving birth right there outside the deserted hospital. I wasn’t totally unprepared for that as I had delivered a lamb in springtime! However the door had locked behind us so we couldn’t get back in!
I spied another door and went to investigate; it was open and went into the right part of the hospital so I ran back to Radka’s aid. Slowly helping her along we made it into the lift and up to the maternity ward where two very kind and helpful nurses took us straight into the delivery room. Taking one look at my wife they decided she needed to get straight onto the bed and start pushing. She did and 10 minutes later Lucy was born. Ahhhhh. Here’s another picture for you.
So it has got me wondering how my new daughter’s English will compare to my first as Daisy was born in Cambridge and spent her first one and a half years living in the UK (plus the all important 9 months in the womb). She was surrounded by the English language from day one and her first words were indeed English. Lucy on the other hand was born here in the Czech Republic and won’t be exposed to the same amount of English as was Daisy so that means I need to do a bit more with her.
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So Daisy’s English is very good (she’s not yet 6 years old) but Czech is now her first language. She has been going to playschool in our village since before her third birthday and so hears and speaks Czech for most of the day. The only time she uses English is to communicate with me and sometimes her English grandparents via Skype, however we read books and watch TV and films in English as well as listen to a lot of English, American and of course Australian music (AC/DC anyone?).
She has said that she wants to teach her little sister English which I am very happy about as I love to see peer to peer learning taking place and the less adult interference the better. Children have much more ability to learn and teach themselves and each other than we adults give them credit for. If you don’t believe that, watch this video.
So what can you do to help your young children with their English if they don’t have a willing older sibling?
Start young and by that I mean before they are even born! It’s known that babies still inside their mothers can hear what’s happening in the outside world, starting around 16 weeks into the pregnancy detecting some sounds and by 24 weeks babies have been seen to move their heads in response to exterior sounds.
Whatever level of English you have it shouldn’t stop you from talking or singing to your child. Their brains need to make the neurological connections that will help them in the long-term to learn new languages.
If you feel you can’t do this you may have to ask yourself one or two difficult questions. Shyness often comes as a result of an authoritative style of parenting which while it may have got instant results has left you with a lack of self confidence in this area. Many people tell me that it must be wonderful to have a bilingual child but there’s nothing stopping them from raising their children bilingually, only your own fears holding you back from learning or expressing yourself. There is research to suggest that being bilingual helps children to focus on tasks better than their monolingual peers and may even delay the onset of age-related dementia.
Spend some time every day talking in English around or better still to your child. Little and often is the key here, better 5 minutes every day than 35 minutes once a week.
As they get a little older and start to speak themselves you can begin to play games with them in English. The key here is FUN! Learning should be fun, something we all do every day because… well… why not? It shouldn’t be a boring obligation to prepare you for some dream job in the distant future. Children have an innate will to learn that is too often stifled or even killed by traditional schooling and aggressive parenting. Let’s face it, as parents we worry what other people will think about us if our children don’t perform well at school, so we take it out on them. If maths and English are not their strong points but they’re great at art, music, drama or dance go with it, the world would be a very boring place without artists. Really we should be asking ourselves “is this right for my child at this stage of her development?” If the answer is no, accept it and move on.
When you’re having fun in English with your child, vary what you do by often changing activities. Don’t do anything for more than about five minutes unless they have a particularly long attention span. Simple games like Pexeso are brilliant for vocabulary, hide and seek can be used to count and learn simple phrases (Where are you?, here you are etc), sing and act out silly songs like ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ and find other English nursery rhymes to learn together (you have You Tube so there’s no excuse!). And don’t be shy of technology; your kids will love some of the online games I’ve found over the last few years. Have a look here.
So I’ll leave you with this…
If you feel silly then it’s probably funny and if it’s funny then it’s definitely fun and fun equals learning.
Do you have any ideas for other games and ways to play and help your youngsters learn? Leave your ideas in the comments below so we can share them with one another. Oh! and look out for the chance win a ticket to see the new Star Wars film, I’ll email details soon.
Bye for now, Richard.
Hi Richard!
I like your stories here, but this time I can’t agree with you about one thing: “Whatever level of English you have, it shouldn’t stop you from talking or singing to your child.”
You’ve probably haven’t met many children (and adults) speaking terribly spoiled English (Czenglish) caused by their parents/teachers. I mean, in particular, the pronunciation – learnt wrong in the (early) childhood, it’s mostly impossible to be re-learnt later. The Czech parents are then proud of their children’s ability to speak a useless “language” completety incomprehensible to anybody but the Czechs.
Hi Krysarr, thanks for your comments. I’m sure you speak from first hand experience with which I can’t disagree, however I have worked and continue to do so with many children and adults whose pronunciation has improved. Some would say my native Yorkshire pronunciation should be improved too! For me the issue is motivation, if you want to change your pronunciation or accent you can do at any point in your life if you work at it. A case in point is one 10 year old girl whom I help. She has changed the way she pronounces ‘th’ from a typical ‘f’ sound just by practicing the correct mouth shape. See my recent post on how to pronounce ‘th’ here.
I understand your point, but I meet mostly adults whose pronunciation is strongly fixed for no one has ever tried to correct them (before me). 🙂
As far as the children are concerned, I know some parents teaching their children how to say “dock”, “ket” and “pick” (the animals!), or my friend told me about a family at the playground trying to “be bilingual”, where a father said “Gif me d bagr.” That, in my opinion, is worse than nothing, in a way. 🙁
I’ve been teaching adults for over 10 years and pronunciation is usually the weakest point.
You say it’s possible to correct it with children – I agree. But not all of them are lucky to meet a good teacher like you before it¨s too late.
I can only share an experience from my childhood. I built an aversion to English when I was at primary school. Lessons were taught by teachers (women mainly) without detached view. I felt ashamed when I was verbally tested from vocabulary. Thanks to this period of darkness I hate any Project, Headway books, especially an embarrassing “real life stories” which we read just for marking purposes. But I am grateful that I also had some classes with a native speaker from New Zealand. Richard has been enthusing me to English (finally)! 🙂 So I strongly recommend to have an interview with yours child English teacher to find out if he or she meets your ideas about teaching English.