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same_skyE is playing computer games in Swedish. I am sort of doubting that listening to words that she doesn't understand is helping her language at all. I suspect it's helping ME, to hear it in the background, but I know more words than she does. I mean, it's not hurting her, I don't think. I just wish that she was getting more practice out of it since I went to the trouble of finding them for her and getting her interested. She's pretty good with games, and figures out the point of them pretty quickly, so I guess she's having fun and I heard this rumor that some parents can let their chidlren play games EVEN IF they aren't educational. Hmm.... nah, surely not. ;)
Maybe I should be playing them instead of her.
Evie's lack of Swedish really stresses me out but I am just so not sure what to do about it. It's not like I can teach her much myself because my Swedish sucks. I have forgotten a lot of what I did know. M is perfectly okay with me not really knowing Swedish. He sort of thinks that putting effort into it for me is kind of silly... which, I think he's happy that I care, but if it were him, he would not dream of learning a language useful with nine million people in a country far removed from the one we're living in. As it is, though, I spend more time working on her Swedish than he does. M has a bit of a talent for languages, but he isn't good at switching them--speaking to Evie in Swedish and then me in English, and of course since he didn't keep that up to begin with, it's sorta hard to start now if he expects her to understand him at all. So... we failed, starting off, so how are we supposed to fix what we did now?
Seriously, that's not a rhetorical question. How do you force a language on a four-year-old? She's not *completely* without words that she knows, but for most practical purposes, she doesn't understand anything. Oh, but she did ultimately find a part of the game that was actually educational for her as far as learning words goes, and it happened to be the one that she liked the best.
We have a free three-day weekend and we have absolutely no plans. I don't understand how this happened. I'm thrilled! But confused. We could go to the zoo! Or hang around at home! Or go shopping! Or go on vacation! Or find a house project to work on! Or! Who knows. The beauty of having nothing going on. I suspect we will do a little of all of them. Except probably that vacation thing. I'm not really seeing that one happening, alas.
Maybe I should be playing them instead of her.
Evie's lack of Swedish really stresses me out but I am just so not sure what to do about it. It's not like I can teach her much myself because my Swedish sucks. I have forgotten a lot of what I did know. M is perfectly okay with me not really knowing Swedish. He sort of thinks that putting effort into it for me is kind of silly... which, I think he's happy that I care, but if it were him, he would not dream of learning a language useful with nine million people in a country far removed from the one we're living in. As it is, though, I spend more time working on her Swedish than he does. M has a bit of a talent for languages, but he isn't good at switching them--speaking to Evie in Swedish and then me in English, and of course since he didn't keep that up to begin with, it's sorta hard to start now if he expects her to understand him at all. So... we failed, starting off, so how are we supposed to fix what we did now?
Seriously, that's not a rhetorical question. How do you force a language on a four-year-old? She's not *completely* without words that she knows, but for most practical purposes, she doesn't understand anything. Oh, but she did ultimately find a part of the game that was actually educational for her as far as learning words goes, and it happened to be the one that she liked the best.
We have a free three-day weekend and we have absolutely no plans. I don't understand how this happened. I'm thrilled! But confused. We could go to the zoo! Or hang around at home! Or go shopping! Or go on vacation! Or find a house project to work on! Or! Who knows. The beauty of having nothing going on. I suspect we will do a little of all of them. Except probably that vacation thing. I'm not really seeing that one happening, alas.
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Date: 2011-05-28 11:16 am (UTC)Olof is sort of this same way. We don't have the exact issue you have, but I have tried to encourage him to speak Swedish to me to help me improve, but he just can't do it. Even when we're in Swedish-speaking company, he speak to me in English (which drives me up a wall, actually, because my Swedish is just fine), but there's something in his wiring that won't let him speak anything other than English with me. He's the same with the kids, which has actually been to our advantage, but yeah.
So, even though it's not remotely helpful, I just wanted to say that I understand and sympathize. It must be nearly impossible to be only one fluent person trying to teach a kid an entirely different language, particularly a language that you just don't ever encounter in day-to-day life. I have the same trouble in trying to give my kids a sense of American-ness ... it's just not going to happen with me being the only American passing this stuff on to them.