[Lydia]

Hi All,

I am a relatively new mom living in Switzerland (French part). My little boy is just over a year old and I am speaking to him in Afrikaans.

Is anyone else trying to teach their children Afrikaans on their own? Any tips are welcome.

Thanks,
Lydia

[Dedré]

Lydia,

Listening to Afrikaans at his age (parents talking, and songs on CD), is the best you can do right now. You will find that he picks it up easily. By 5 he will be fluent in both languages. You just have to encourage him to speak to you and repeat words.

I was a Nanny in Geneva for 8 months. The two children I looked after could speak French, Italian, English and a little German. They were only 6 and 8 years old. (Their French, Italian and English was fluent!) You just have to make sure you persevere in talking to him. They did not listen to even 1 CD or TV program that was in English. Only learnt it from their Nannies.

What nationality is your husband? Does he also speak Afrikaans?

[John]

My wife and I speak mainly Afrikaans to each other, but unfortunately we're in the habit of speaking English to the kids, which is hard to change now. The result of this is that our kids can understand a fair amount of Afrikaans, but don't speak it.

Just hearing it regularly will certainly help them to understand some of it, but I think you have to speak it directly to them if you want them to learn it. If you do that, young kids pick up languages very easily.

[Paisley]

Lydia, on Mar 5 2008, 09:08 PM, said:

Hi All,

I am a relatively new mom living in Switzerland (French part). My little boy is just over a year old and I am speaking to him in Afrikaans.

Is anyone else trying to teach their children Afrikaans on their own? Any tips are welcome.

Thanks,
Lydia

Lydia I do not how long you are living in Switzerland? I read a few books written by Swiss about the "Schweizer Deutch" and the Swiss in general. Is a bit of a tongue in the cheek, but really worth it.
Here is the link to the books.

Bergli Books

The Swiss can be bit set in their ways.

[Lydia]

Thanks Rustig,

I'll go and have a look at the site. Been here for 7 years now... time flies.

Cheers

[Monique]

Being persistant with it is the only way.

I wasn't persistant with the first born, so he doesn't speak fluent Afrikaans. He actually mixes his languages now Spanish, English & Afrikaans so it's been quit interesting. With our 2nd one, I've been more persistant on only Afrikaans and I'm just holding thumbs that he'll be fluent.

[Lydia]

Hi Monique,

How old are you children? Who is speaking what to the children? My approach at the moment is, I speak Afrikaans, my husband (and everyone else) speaks French and the day mother speaks English to him. My husband is learning Afrikaans at the same time :-) We'll see what happens once my kid starts to speak. Holding thumbs too.

[Dedré]

A good thing for you to try is choose a language that EVERYONE HAS to speak at the dinner table. Make it a rule. It is normally a time when everyone MUST behave anyway. That is apart from the other stuff you are already doing. But since hubby is trying his best at this new language as well, the children can correct him when he makes mistakes and they can grow in confidence. Works like a charm. They learn to communicate and adapt and ask questions. Don't worry too much on correcting them. If they say something wrong, just repeat what they should have said as if you are interested.

Example:
Child: "Mommy, the dog are eats my homework!"

Mother: "Hmmm, that is interesting, is the dog eating your homework?"

They pick up quickly. The golden rule is that they have to feel confident, free and encouraged to speak this new language. If they forget to speak as per the rule at dinner table, one can always think of a funny thing they should do after dinner, e.g. walk and snort like a pig/dog/cat once around the dinner table. Join in and it can become lots of fun.

[Monique]

Daniel will be 4y on Thursday, Zander is still all about the baby chatter but I speak Afrikaans to the kids during the day, when DH gets home we're in English mode for a few hours and then everyone on my husbands' side of the family speaks Spanish to the children and next fall he'll be attending kindergarden at a English/Spanish Immersion School.

[Jen]

I am english speaking and the language we speak at home is english. My husband's family situation is quite strange as his parents are afrikaans, he and his brother speak english, and are married to english speakers, his yougest brother and sister speak afrikaans and are married to afrikaners. I think this came about as the two oldest kids went to english schools and the two youngest to afrikaans schools. In a family get together I could understand most of the conversation until people got carried away and spoke too fast!
My nine year old daughter whi is now learning Irish at school (and picking it up well!) wants me to teach her afrikaans. She is very determined to be a South African!
I dont know where to start with teaching her, if anyone can recommend a good book, similar to what they would use in school in SA maybe?
My husband and I only talk in afrikaans when we dont want her to know what we are saying , which might have something to do with her wanting to learn!!

[Lydia]

Hi Jen,

You will probably find some suitable books on Amazon. I had a look a while ago and it seems that they do have a small collection of Afrikaans. Otherwise www.kalahari.net is very good for all your Afrikaans goodies. You could even get some Afrikaans films for your daughter or children's series like Heidi.

If you and your husband could speak to her in Afrikaans it would probably help her more. You could even try to find South Africans close to where you live - if they have kids of a similar age who speak Afrikaans, that might help.

Best of luck,
Lydia

[Monique]

Seeing she's a bit older, this could help her to start from level 1 so to speak.

Using a regular toddler picture book with the alphabets and writing down the Afrikaans names for every letter/picture and sticking it ontop of the english lettering, the same with number books.

As well as sticky notes, placing a few sticky notes on items around the house with the Afrikaans word for the item written on it.

[Jen]

Hi Lydia, unfortunately their are no afrikaans speakings kids around here, or if there are I have not met them yet! Will have a look at Kalahari.

Monique, the sticky post-its are a good idea!
I suppose I have to motivate myself to be enthusiastic as in my heart I feel it is pointless as we have no intention of moving back and she is not going to have much opportunity to use it!

[Lydia]

Hi Jen,

We don't plan on going back to SA either but I am teaching my son Afrikaans to allow him to communicate with the family when we go for holidays back home and also to give him an advantage for learning German and Dutch if he chooses to do so later. I know that most of the family do speak English but when my husband is there (he does not speak Afrikaans) he struggles to follow the conversations because they forget and switch back to Afrikaans.

Don't give up before you begin...

Lydia

[Janneman]

We left SA when our boys were four months away from turning eleven years old. They attended a dual-medium school in SA, but were predominantly educated in Afrikaans. Their English was reasonable, albeit far from perfect.

And then we enrolled them into the American school system. Nothing wrong with the system, but they speak a different version of English over here.

Well, not entirely different, but just different enough to confuse the heck out of someone who has grown up using the Queen's English, and when that person's native tongue is neither version of the said vernacular, but Afrikaans! (Click here for an American guide to speaking British) My boys struggled a little bit in the beginning - not a lot though - and now, three and a half years later, they sound more and more like Americans.

We only speak Afrikaans at home. Yes, there is the occasional sentence or so in English, but Afrikaans is the main language. Why? Because it's amazing how quickly the kids "lose" their own language! Our boys are often struggling to express themselves in Afrikaans, but there is a legitimate reason for this. All day long they hear and speak English at school and among their friends, so it's understandable if they tend to lose their own language, particularly as they grow up and their knowledge base expands.

That's why we speak Afrikaans at home and I make a point of correcting them when they make a mistake. And they are proud of the fact that they can speak a second language.