Polyglotting

It's been a long time!

2012-09-25T14:00:00.001-06:00

I haven't been posting on this blog for about a year and a half, and a lot of changes happened since then. Sasha speaks both English and Russian more fluently now. And his current "deal" is a lot of pretend play. He is going to be 3 in something like 40 days, and at this point, his Russian sentences became more complex. He uses structures with words because, so that and which. Our efforts to keep TV time to a minimum continue. We allow occasional cartoons. 95% of cartoons he watches are in Russian, with just a couple of English language cartoons ("Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and "Sid the Science Kid").

Maintaining Russian play dates for him proved to be very difficult, in part because every family has a different approach to raising their child bilingual. Some families speak only one language with a child, and it is English. Some families utilize a lot of English media. Some families encounter some challenges (for example, speech delay or lack of second language services) and give up.

Truthfully, even with our achievements so far, it's not that easy to maintain both languages at the same level. One always falls behind. When we travel to Russia (which we did this summer and last summer), Sasha's Russian gets significantly better than his English. When we spend more time with Sasha's American grandparents or if we attend a lot of classes, then his English gets better.

I think the most important thing in raising a bilingual child is being consistent and providing quality time and quality media in both languages. Of course, that's not easy. Even if you are trying to raise a child with English-Spanish in America, there are significantly less Spanish language media at your local library than those in English. There are less opportunities to use the second language and to learn anything new in second language. There are less people in your community that speak the second language that you are trying to teach your child.

So, in the future posts, I will try to highlight some of the stuff that we did to encourage language development in our son and some of the questions that my acquaintances posed that have something to do with speech.

Language joggling

2011-08-17T13:12:00.000-06:00

Well, the summer is almost over, and we have been keeping busy for the last couple of months. There was a lot to do at Denver Public Libraries in June (clowns, balloon ladies, trained pigs - you name it), and in July we took Sasha on his first trip to Russia.

The timeliness of this trip was amazing. As described by multitudes of authors, 18-24 months are commonly characterized by a rapid growth in child's vocabulary. At this point, a child is using as many as 50 words in his speech, mostly nouns. This is also time to be vigilant about your child's language development. If he or she does not use any words, now is a perfect time to get a referral to a speech therapist. The earlier the better. I have seen on my friend's example that starting therapy in a timely manner gives great results. If your child drops most consonants, he might have a hearing problem. So, ears should be checked out again in such case.

In either situation, dropping the second language as a solution to speech delay might be a mistake. According to Barbara Zurer-Pearson, there is no study that either confirms or denies that switching from bilinguism to monolinguism is a likely solution to speech delay. In fact, speech therapy that gives results in one language can also imrove child's second language skills.

While in Russia, Sasha picked up a whole bunch of new words, and now he also uses three-syllable words, which he couldn't do before. He is eager to copy patterns of speech, although mostly he repeats last words in conversations he hears. Another thing Sasha started doing is singing. He can only sing one word from Russian songs that he learned (total of two), but it's a start.

We are back home, safe and sound. And yesterday, we noticed that Sasha chooses between his languages depending on whom he is talking to. Before (and during) our trip to Russia, he only had one word per concept in his vocabulary. Now, he actually switches languages when he talks. Yesterday's situation was in the kitchen, and he was demanding: "Food! Food!", because he got hungry. With me during the day, he uses the word: "Кушать!" (to eat). Or he might request a specific thing in Russian - банан, кашку, or яблоко (banana, porridge, or apple accordingly). But yesterday evening, Greg was home, and so Sasha chose English: "Food! Food! Grapes!"There are still plenty of words that he uses exclusively without switching languages: bus, ball, cheese,walk, ягода (berries), буква А (letter A), облака (clouds).

Interpreter at your disposal

2011-05-26T14:24:00.000-06:00

If I ever lose my ability to speak English, I know I am in good hands with Sasha, because he will just translate it for me.

For the past month - month and a half, Sasha has been extending his greetings not to just people who visit us, but to anyone within a couple of feet from him. People on the elevator, in the grocery store, on the bus, etc. If he is really in the mood for it, he will even waive and greet people across the street, as I am pushing him in the stroller. Now, he is also willing to greet others on my cue. If I ask him in Russian: "Скажи им привет-привет!" ("Say hi-hi to them!"), he smiles, waves and says: "Hi!" Please note that my request was in Russian and he translates it into English.

He does it with some other words, too. If he hears me using the word мультики (cartoons), he gets really excited and keeps repeating: "Cah-too! Cah-too!", full of anticipation.

I decided to use this new trait for some fun and taught him that his Hawaiian t-shirt with the silhouette of the islands, as well as the abbreviation used for 50th state, says привет! And he happily started repeating hi, which is exactly what it says on the shirt. So, now if I ask him: "Что у тебя на рубашке написано?" ("What does your shirt say?"), he responds: "Hi!" right away. In other words, he can read! Just kidding...

There is a bunch of kakas on our tree

2011-04-15T14:50:00.000-06:00

We have a tree just outside our windows, and it is a home to squirrels, sparrows, woodpeckers, and so on. Sasha enjoys keeping track of them. And every so often, he is sitting in his high chair and saying: "Kaka! Uh-oh!"

First, I thought that he pooped, because kaka is a Russian word for poop. But you will be surprised that this is Sasha's word for any kind of birds he sees.

The explanation for this is plain simple. Last fall, I used to take him to Cheeseman Park for a stroll and also for swinging. In Cheeseman Park, there are many crows, and so I taught Sasha that the crow (in Russian - ворона) says: "Karrr! Karrr!" ( I understand that it says: "Caw! Caw!" in English, but you will be surprised how different the sounds of animals are from one language to another). It took him 2-3 months to connect the dots, and it wasn't until January of this year when, upon arriving to Cheeseman Park, he started saying: "Ka! Ka!" as imitation of crow's cry. (Sasha cannot roll his Rs, yet. It takes Russian children years before they can.)

Now, since we moved to our new apartment with a tree outside our window, I realized that he quickly learned to generalize, and he is now using crow's cry to name any bird he sees.

This is typical for his age. According to Barbara Zurer-Pearson, as well as to Dr. Harvey Karp (check out his book "The happiest toddler on the block"), between one and two years of age, toddlers ascribe multiple meanings to the same form (form is sounded word or a sentence, or a sign). Sasha does the same with ASL sign "more". While most of the time he uses it to ask for more of whatever, now and then, he uses it to ask to read a book. This is how he originally learned the sign. He would cry because a book would be over, and Greg would teach him to use the sign to ask for more. There are occasions when he brings us a random book and signs: "More!", meaning: "Read this book!"

Either way, Sasha's use of the word kaka creates a lot of confusion for his parents, because he has been known to use it in context of going on the potty, and now there is "Kaka! Uh-oh!". My translation for that is: "Birds! Where are the birds? They are gone! Birds fell down!"

A possibility of Russian immersion in Denver

2011-04-14T14:20:00.001-06:00

I have recently contacted a charter school in SE Denver / Glendale area which offers a German immersion for elementary students. I posed a question: Why just German? And why not Russian? Their location is in the midst of a Russian-Jewish / Russian-Central Asian community with stores, cultural centers and restaurants directed at Russian speaking customers. Why not Russian immersion?

To my surprise, the director of the school (World Wide Academy, Laura Smallwood) responded with eager interest on the subject. She says it is a possibility, and the center she is working closely with would be interested in starting a Russian immersion as soon as next school year. What it comes down to is how many parents would be actually interested in something like that. So, at this point I am volunteering to promote the possibility of the program.

If you know a family that would be interested in placing their child into a Russian immersion program in Denver, please forward them this information:

Worldwide Academy

2829 N Fairfax Street

Denver, CO 80207

Ms. Laura Smallwood

303-564-5848

http://worldwideacademy.org/

They are welcome to write an email to Laura in order to express their interest: laura8sule@msn.com

Dear Laura:

I am a parent of a ... year old child, and I am interested in placing my child into a school that would offer a partial or a full immersion in Russian language. If World Wide Academy would start such a program, we intend to apply for admission starting with the school year ... . Please feel free to contact me at ... (phone number) or via email: ....

Sincerely,

.........

New happenings

2011-04-06T21:34:00.000-06:00

It's been over a month since my last post. There is a whole bunch of excuses for that: we moved, I got a small irregular job, we have been having visitors and small get-togethers at our new place, and most importantly - the weather is getting better.

In the meantime, Sasha is learning new words in both English and Russian. His favorite English words are Hi! and fish, and in Russian he says каша, нет and he has been caught saying купаться. Of course, most of his communication is still signs, grunts, points, cries etc. The most identifiable signs are "more" (the classic ASL sign) and "play some music" (by swinging with whole upper body from left to right with hands in the air). However, I have also noticed that he sometimes talks and talks in long sequences of syllables, but I just have no idea what he says. For example, a couple of days ago in the car, he was repeating the same long utterance over and over, and the intonation sounded like it was either a question or a request, but I don't know what he said. It's very amusing.

In the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to teach Sasha to draw shapes. He easily identifies shapes. We have a green 3D triangle, a blue rectangle, a red square (it's actually a cube, but for the purpose of learning I call it a square), and a yellow circle (a cylinder). So, when I draw a circle, I use yellow color, etc., and it makes it easier to compare the drawing to the object, because we can identify it by color and by shape. Sasha easily finds the right object when he sees me drawing it. And if I ask: "Where is the triangle?" - He picks out the right object. Except that sometimes he confuses the triangle with the rectangle, because they sound similar. Still, it's a start. At the end, I always offer Sasha a crayon, so that he can draw a shape. So far, he has been drawing things that cannot be identified as a particular geometrical shape, but the goal is that he draws something instead of just scribbling lines across the page.

I see this exercise helpful not just for drawing, but also for language skills. Ultimately, the interaction between us, as well as naming and finding the right object is a language exercise. Every time an adult names an object for a child, he separates that object from the surrounding world of chaos. So, naming and finding is a great skill.

Last weekend, we had visitors from Germany and one of them were drawing fish for Sasha. I also drew one or two and went to take a shower. When I came back, our German friend informed me that Sasha drew a fish. The was a giant shape on top of all other fish drawings that absolutely looks like fish (it does not have eyes or scales, or fins, but it's a giant fish). So, officially the first thing he has ever drawn is fish. Both of his grandpas will be proud.

I will try to pace myself through all the other stories, such as explaining why Sasha calls birds kaka. So, watch for new posts soon.

Dr. Seuss in Russian

2011-02-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

I have heard from a friend of mine today who lives in Kansas City, MO, and is raising two toddlers. She is trying to raise her kids with Russian and English, but finds it difficult to find Russian literature at reasonable prices. Her son and daughter love Dr. Seuss books (and so does Sasha), and she tries to read those to them in Russian. And, of course, when someone translates on a fly, it's difficult to convey the message while preserving the structure of a poem. Her new find is these Russian poetic translations of Dr. Seuss famous "Cat in the hat", "Horton hears a who", "Horton hatches an egg", and a couple more.

They are published on a Russian poetry page where anyone can publish their poetry. In fact, here is another collection which belongs to a close friend of mine from college: http://www.stihi.ru/avtor/radavilova . Although, all her poetry is in Russian.

Thank you, Olesya, for the link to Dr. Seuss poetry translations. I hope others will also find these helpful.

Fight Alzheimer's with bilingualism

2011-02-19T11:36:00.000-07:00

If you weren't yet convinced (still?!) that being bilingual has tons of benefits, consider this: A new research by Canadian neurologists indicates that speaking multiple languages throughout your life helps delay onset of symptoms of dementia.

According to this new study, bilingual individuals were diagnosed with Alzheimer's almost 5 years later than monolinguals. And this cannot be contributed to better education, because in many cases the bilinguals actually had lower level of education, as they immigrated to Canada from other countries.

The researchers explain this phenomenon through the idea that bilingualism requires rapid "code switching" (in other words, you have to quickly go back and forth between two languages in your daily life), which is just another form of multi-tasking. Multi-tasking, as many other brain activities, helps stimulate the brain, thus prolonging its active life.

And one more time, it turns out that our brain is not confused by it, but, on the contrary, gets its exercise from bilingualism.

Sasha signs

2011-02-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

So, I am wondering if we need to start a sign language vocabulary page for Sasha, as yesterday he has successfully used his first sign in a context. Greg was reading him books, one after another, and Sasha was signing "more" in between. There was no other interpretation for his sign, because he was actually complaining if you put him down and insisting on more by putting his fingertips together.

Truthfully, we did not teach Sasha sign language early on, when it would be helpful. Apparently, you can teach your baby to sign as early as at 3 months! The benefits are obvious - your child will communicate before he can speak. In our situation, we don't use sign language consistently, and the only signs Sasha uses so far is the pointing sign and "more".

For those who wonder whether communicating with signs diminishes child's ability to learn a spoken language, here is my linguistic opinion: No, it does not. A sign language (whether it is American Sign Language or British Sign Language or French Sign Language) is a language in it's own right. Different sign languages develop independently from each other and if you can sign in ASL, you cannot communicate with a Russian person who speaks Russian sign language. These languages have their own grammar, their own vocabulary and their own form. They also change with time.

So, if you are teaching your baby to sign, you are raising her in a bilingual environment. She might not be bilingual later on, but you are building the foundation to bilingualism with sign language.

Interestingly enough, ASL is widely used in speech therapy in America. I wonder if anybody has ever considered using a spoken language for speech therapy.

That's it!

2011-01-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

My son is reaching that stage of development that docs call "the terrible twos", a period of testing the boundaries and mama's patience, the period of defiance and opposites. How do I know?

Imagine Sasha standing by the bookshelf, removing the books, one by one, and throwing them on the floor into a porridge of toys, water bottles, hand towels, etc. I am standing in the kitchen and raising my voice: "Саша! Нельзя! Нельзя, я сказала!" (Sasha! You may not! You may not, I said!), to which he replies: "Зя!" (Yes, I may!). And so we continue yelling back and forth: "Нельзя!" - "Зя!" - "Нельзя!" - "Зя!"

For those readers who grew up in the same cultural realm as I did, the humor is obvious, but for those American readers of mine, here is the video from the '80s that sums it all up:

These wonderful actors were part of the comedy group Лицедеи (Lizedeyi). This skit is absolutely applicable to all parent-child situations where the child rebels. Exactly my conversation with Sasha this morning.

Needless to say, there is no word зя in Russian language. Нельзя is a remnant of the old system, probably Old-Slavonic. The opposite of нельзя is можно (may). It's impossible to say не можно. One may either say нельзя or можно. But Sasha does not know the word можно (because he never asks me if he may do something, he just does it, and then I say that he may not). Instead, he figured out that не stands for not, and he creatively subtracted it from нельзя, while adding a new unit to his vocabulary - зя.

The very puzzling caterpillar

2011-01-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

As I wrote before, I often read English books in Russian for Sasha. It is very interesting to see his reaction to certain books. There are sometimes pages that puzzle him, and he keeps returning to those again and again. For example in Tubby Time by Leslie Patricelli, Sasha always pauses on the page where the baby got soap in her eyes. He keeps pointing at it and asking something in his own language, and my only guess is that he thinks that the baby is crying and he wants to know why. And I cannot find the right way to explain to him that the baby got soap in her eyes.

And so is the case for The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Sasha keeps turning to the page where the caterpillar is extra fat, right before it turns into a cocoon.

I keep going through the book and explaining that the caterpillar ate through everything and turned into a cocoon to eventually become a butterfly, but Sasha seems confused... Until one day he just pats on the brown cocoon and says: "Kaka, kaka i pakaka", which sounds exactly like my expression: "Какал, какал и покакал!" (Pooped, pooped, and pooped it all out!).

It may be funny to you, but this is the most logical explanation to the child who is often constipated after his parents feed him all kinds of stuff. It definitely makes more sense than some cocoon. And hey, at least, Sasha does not think that the caterpillar is a "wasteful capitalist"!

Hi stands for Hawaii

2011-01-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

It was only expected that the trip to Grannie and Gramps would help Sasha acquire more English words. While still in the air, Sasha had already somehow picked up the word "Hi!", and he was using that consistently for 15 minutes on the lady in the seat behind us. Once we arrived to Hawaii, that Hi! grew stronger and stronger each day. Coming down the stairs for breakfast, he would start saying Hi! before we turn around the corner into the living room.

Among other things that Sasha has mastered in Hawaii (such as pulling himself up to standing in the crib or showing with his finger how the blades of a fan rotate) was also the ability to throw objects on the floor and say: "Uh-oh!", as well as communicating with fingers and expression "Gak!" to get whatever he desired at that very moment. He also was heard to say: "Ducks!", when the viewing of such was suggested.

Interestingly enough, his American Gramps is known to Sasha under Russian word дедушка (he doesn't say it, but he turns to Gramps when he hears it). Why - nobody knows. There were plenty of opportunities for Sasha to learn the English word, but it just didn't happen, so far.

Another oddity: Upon arrival back to Denver, Sasha doesn't say Hi! as enthusiastically and as often as he did in Hawaii, but he did start waiving Goodbye!, except that he squeezes his hand instead of waiving.

As I have previously read in "Raising a bilingual child" by Barbara Zurer-Pearson, the progress in one language can potentially drive the progress in the second language. And I think, it is really the case for Sasha: his comprehension of Russian has improved drastically since the trip to Hawaii. He understands more words and more sentence types. I can ask him a question, and he responds with yes or no. Here is a a couple of our typical conversations, as translated from Russian:

- Do you want more?
- No-no!
- Do you want water?
- No-no!
- Do you want to nurse?
- Yes-yes-yes!

- Do you want to go for a walk?
- No-no!
- Do you want to play with your trucks?
- No-no!
- Do you want to read some books?
- Yes-yes-yes!
(after reading books for 30 minutes and playing with trucks for 15 minutes)
- Do you want to go for a walk?
- Yes-yes-yes!

So, the next step would be to introduce him to questions that require the answer other than yes or no. Something like multiple choice questions. So far, I was unsuccessful communicating with him that way. I think he focuses more on the end of the sentence and says yes or no to whatever is the last choice. That's something to work on.

Compliments of the Season

2010-12-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow. I am not sure how many blogging opportunities I will get, but I just wanted to congratulate everyone on their holidays. Whether it's Christmas, or Hannukah, or Al Eidha, or Kwanza, or New Years, or Russian Christmas, or Russian Old New Years - I am celebrating with you! The great thing about winter is that everyone has something to celebrate.

To me, one thing that really sums up my holiday spirit is a tangerine: bright, sweet, with a tangy surprise that you need to unwrap. When I was growing up in Soviet Union, we didn't have that many fruits in winter, as there are available now. For New Year's - our only winter holiday - we used to get подарок (literally - a gift), a bag filled with goodies: 1 apple, 1 orange, 3-5 tangerines, suckers, Lemon Drops, fudge, some chocolates, and walnuts. This was a classic present that every Soviet child received throughout their kindergarten and grade school years. Of course, our parents bought us other gifts, but this was a highlight of celebration, because the entire class would chip in on those goodies, and parents would sort them in individual bags.

Every year, I would get a photograph of myself in a carnival costume holding my podarok, with tangerines in it. Knowing that this would be one of the few opportunities to eat them, I would prioritize all the stuff in my goodie bag to ensure the continuity of my tangerine indulgence. The last thing in the bag would be a tangerine.

Then, the year when my aunt left the Soviet Union, my parents traveled to Moscow and to Lithuania for her stuff and brought home ... a huge case of tangerines! Right in time for New Year's! They spread them on a blanket in the corner of our living room in order to prevent rotting, and for the first time we could eat all the tangerines we wanted. The continuity of indulgence was guaranteed by a pile remaining on the blanket. I was sick that winter and had to be quarantined (or maybe it was just an excuse for more tangerines?). I remember picking out just 3 to 5 tangerines at a time, placing them on a brass tray and eating them slowly, enjoying every segment. I don't think I ever got to the point where I couldn't eat them anymore. I just kept going back to the pile with my brass tray, until only bad ones were left...

A couple of years ago, here in Denver, I was walking home from work. It was just a couple of days before Christmas, lots of snow, and pretty chilly. On the 14th & Grant, a homeless man asked me if I had any change to spare. I didn't. "But", I said. "I have some tangerines. Would you like some?" He enthusiastically replied yes. I reached in my purse and pulled out 3 bright tangerines and placed them in his hands which he held like a bowl. "Thank you", he said, and from his voice I could really tell that he would enjoy them. I don't remember his face or what he was wearing. Just those tangerines in his bowl shaped hands. Bright orange surrounded by white, cold snow.

What strikes me is that we really enjoy things if we don't have that many of them. In other words, we cherish things when they aren't overly abundant. We remember those moments of abundance as happy moments, if the abundance is not all the time. I am not saying that we should all become homeless, but I probably wouldn't appreciate tangerines today as much as I do, if I had them year around growing up. Maybe the key to happiness is to find a tangerine moment in everything we do.

Happy Holidays!

Tune in

2010-12-14T10:08:00.001-07:00

So, here is a new idea for exposing your child to even more foreign language media - online radio stations for kids. It took me literally 5 seconds to find a Russian radio station, which streams directly from Moscow (there is a down part about this - the shows run on Moscow time, ceasing all children programming around 9 pm) and offers variety of shows for children and parents, including story times, music hour, educational shows and shows on parenting and pediatrics for parents - all in Russian! Obviously, Sasha is a little bit too young to follow what they say on the radio, but this will be a great tool to promote more Russian around the house.

Another great thing about those radio stations is that their websites usually have archives of previous shows, as well as games, resource links, and coloring pages. A couple of quick searches - and I found a some stations in other languages, too. Here are all my finds:

Russian - www.deti.fm

German - www.radioteddy.de

Italian - www.laradiolina.it

French - www.radiojunior.com

I couldn't find anything in Spanish, tough. Maybe Google translator messed up my translation of "online radio for children" into Spanish?

In my opinion, listening to online radio is better than listening to audio classes in the same language, because a bilingual kid does not need a language instruction, he just needs more exposure to various media and people who speak that language. Of course, it wouldn't be right to just stick your child in front of the computer (since this is internet radio) and walk away. Parents should be listening, too, and singing along, playing along, and following up after a story or a show to make sure that the child understood what was going on. It helps to read the programming schedule and show description in advance, so that you are prepared to guide your child through the new information he will be getting from the radio.

Funny words

2010-12-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Sasha finds шпатель (Russian for spatula) funny. I don't know why, but every time he pulls out the spatula out of his treasure basket and I name it, he giggles or at least smiles. He also tries to repeat the word. There must be something about how this word sounds that makes him giggle, I suppose.

He also really enjoys when I mimic cats, tigers, and lions. Cats purr and meow, and Sasha loves my meow sounds and tries to repeat. And tigers and lions roar, which in Russian is just a rolled R, and that makes Sasha very eager about rolling his Rs, although he has been unsuccessful in that, as of yet.

And, of course, Sasha himself says some stuff that make me giggle: bookabooka, takalaka, gheegaleega, and many more. I am pretty sure that bookabooka is just another way to say book, or it might be even a combination if English word and Russian grammar (Russian word for book - книга - ends with a which marks feminine gender of the word).

As for the other funny words, it's hard to say what he means. In one situation recently, he said a very long undecipherable sequence while looking at me, like he was trying to communicate something to me, and when I asked him: "What did you say?", he giggled and said yet another long sequence that did not sound anything like the first one. This might be just another form of mature babble, where he just uses a lot of syllables without naming a specific object. (Maybe he wanted me to play him cartoons on DVD. Who knows... Recently, he has been showing a lot of interest in that DVD player.)

But as we know, no verbal utterance is just utter. If a child communicates, he does it for reason.

A friend of mine shared with me recently that she knows a mother that does not really "trust" my friend's opinion on communicating with young children. Basically, my friend was asked what was the point of talking to a 10 month old, if they just babble senselessly. A recent study from Cornell University showed that the way mothers respond to babble utterances impacts how fast infants learn all sounds of their language. So, definitely, talking to a small child - even if you don't understand the word he says - makes a difference in their language acquisition. Of course, you cannot strike a conversation with your infant about the scandalous WikiLeaks publications or tell him a hilarious joke by Jon Stewart, but it makes all the difference if you just narrate their daily life and their moves through their environment, so that some day he can tell you about a bookabooka by Malcolm Gladwell that he recently read.

A new school with Russian immersion program

2010-12-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

As I was writing previously, Global Village Academy was applying for a new charter school north of Denver. The school would feature four dual language immersion programs, including Russian-English. So, the great news that I received a couple of days ago is that their application has been approved. Here is the full email from them:

Global Village Academy

Announcement

We are pleased to announce that the Adams 12 Five Star School Board unanimously approved the Global Village Academy charter! GVA will open for the 2011-2012 school year.

We are in final negotiations for a building in the Northglenn area and a final decision will be made by the end of January. We know that many of you are anxious to start with volunteer work and more information on that will be coming by the end of the week. Where you can help the most is with student recruitment. Tell all your friends and neighbors about GVA!

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support during this process. This could not have happened without you. We look forward to working with you in the coming months.

Sincerely -

Christina Burton

Executive Principal

John Kaufman

Vice Principal

Charmaine Nicolau

Communications Coordinator

This is especially thrilling because there is a total of 2 or 3 other Russian immersion programs in the US. So, our options for Sasha's dual immersion education were very limited, but now there is this new school in Denver Metro Area. Well, by 2015, we have to move to the suburbia in order for Sasha to attend that school. He is already on the waiting list with them for that year. I will let you know further details, as I get more messages from them.

Books, books, books...

2010-11-30T14:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't written anything in a while, and I would like to blame it on Thanksgiving weekend. As everybody else, we had four days filled with turkey feasts, visits with friends and car trips. Car trips is something that we don't do often, because we don't own a car. And I noticed that car trips resulted in not just less movement, but, with mommy and daddy sitting in the front, also in less direct communication with Sasha. It was mostly him listening to mommy and daddy speaking English. So, I guess, long weekends and vacations will always mean more English, and I would just have to make up for Russian afterwards.

During the dinner at a friend's house, Greg was telling everybody how he reads "Great Day For Up!" by Dr. Seuss to Sasha every morning. As Greg was reciting two or three lines from the book, Sasha all of a sudden said very loud and clearly: "Up! Up!". I am not sure if he understands that he could use this word to tell us that he wants to be picked up, but he definitely remembers the book.

And as I previously wrote, he is becoming quite a book lover, spreading the night time books on our bed, when it's time for bed time stories.

His favorite Russian book is "Where did the sparrow eat his lunch?" by S.Marshak. It's about the sparrow eating lunch at the zoo with all these different animals. He ate carrots with the elephant, and grains with the rhino... And the crocodile almost ate him. Sasha really loves that book, anticipating every line. He also pulls it out from the shelve, when he is in that play area.

In the meantime, the holidays are rapidly approaching. So, I tried to find some nice winter time books at the library. Now, the problem will be that Sasha does not really want to read any new books. Instead, he prefers to read his favorite ones over and over again. So, I tried the counting book "One Snowy Day" with no success.

Any other suggestions for good winter time books?

Bilingual schools

2010-11-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

You might think that it is too early to be thinking about Sasha's education when he is just a year old. In case of our family, just choosing a good school is not enough. It is critical that the school that we choose does not discourage bilingualism.

Why would I say "discourage bilingualism"? Well, the widespread ELA programs (English Language Acquisition) discourage the use of any language other than English in a school setting. Kids who speak some other language more fluently than English are called English Language Learners and are told to take ELA classes, as well as some of them are paired up with English native speakers for improving their English communication skills. Apparently, legally, public schools are supposed to provide everyone with equal access to education, and that is why those ELA programs started appearing everywhere. It may be a great program for newcomers to America, but at the same time it sends a message that kids should deny their identity and that all other languages are not acceptable.

Fortunately, there is also a movement for dual language immersion education. Dual language immersion schooling starts out at Kindergarten or 1st grade level with kids spending 50% of every school day in a language other than English. That means that half of their classes (including math, history, etc) are taught in a language other than English. And in many cases you need to have special educational materials, because you cannot just use English language math books when you are using Spanish as a medium. These programs slowly introduce more and more English, and generally immersion programs end in the 8th grade. The logic behind K-8 immersion programs is that there is a critical period for language learning which closes at approximately 14 years of age. After that, it takes more effort to learn new languages. (Which is true, if you think about all those youngsters that take in languages like a sponge, while their parents struggle to learn a few hundred words for years).

While there are many immersion school, public, charter and private ones, around the US, it is actually very difficult to find a Russian immersion program. There is not enough community need and not enough general interest in Russian. The most wide spread immersion programs are the ones in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and French. There is also a new interest in Arabic. And there are some regional specifics, for example, Hawaii has several immersion programs for Hawaiian language.

In Denver, there is no Russian immersion program currently. However, Global Village Academy - a charter school in Aurora, CO - has applied for a new school in a suburb north of Denver. Their new school, if approved, will offer the Dual Russian-English Immersion program. We live quite far from that suburb, but we have already put Sasha on a waiting list with this new, not-yet-existent school. If it does not open, we will have no options for immersion education in Denver for him. So let's hope it will.

Language delay in bilinguals

2010-11-18T16:12:00.001-07:00

So far, I have met two children who are being raised with multiple languages and have been diagnosed with a slight language delay at 18 months.

In Denver, there is a special free service from Denver Options, where a development specialist can come to your home for free, observe the child and diagnose any delay in speech or motor skills.

In two cases that I have heard of, children were diagnosed with a speech delay, and now their parents are being discouraged from using other language with their child. By other language I mean other than English. So, now these parents are confused: "Did my bilingual efforts cause this delay?".

This has been blogged about, and talked about: "Well, don't you think that your child will be confused about what language he should speak? Well, aren't you concerned how he will do in school?"

In my opinion, this is just how people discomfort with foreign culture and language manifests itself. "I am confused about this bilingual code switch, and so this child should be, too". In the reality, there are many places around the world where people live in a multilingual society - Switzerland, Ethiopia, India, and many more. And nobody in those societies questions whether their child should speak more than one language. In those societies, this is the only way to success in school, social life and business.

Coming back to those kids that I know. One is 3 years old, and another one is 19 months. They do seem to be more quiet in comparison to other kids. The 3 year old uses only English. She has been in English speech therapy, and her mom felt that using English with her would help. By now, she can still address her in her native language (I am omitting the information about what languages are being used with those kids, because I do not want those families to be identified), but the child only responds in English.

The second child has been diagnosed with a slight speech delay just a month or so ago. Originally, the father raised the concern about the child not saying any words. Denver Options diagnosed the child and offered speech therapy. Now, therapist comes about once per week and plays different games with the girl, games that would encourage communication. The therapy is in English. Sign language is also being introduced. The mom tries to copy the speech therapy techniques, and also switches more and more to English.

I have just seen the second girl again today on the playground. And at some point during play, she raised her hands to the sky and said something. We didn't really understand what she said and what language was used, but she does say stuff. I wonder if the therapy is working or if there was no delay. According to this article on Mommy Maestra, which is written by linguists who are working on a study of language delays in bilinguals, testing a bilingual child in one language guarantees lower scores than testing a monolingual child of the same age group. But if you combine vocabulary from both languages, you may get even a higher score. So, the question is if those programs available in our communities can properly diagnose language problems in bilinguals.

At the same time, I would like to say that Denver Options is probably a great service, because it is free, and they come to your house. I am just seeing two families that are convinced that their bilingualism caused speech delay in their child.

Sasha, Books & Kiki

2010-11-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

I am a strong believer that you cannot just drill a vocabulary into a small child and expect him to know and use those words. Our environment sets up the stage for learning, and the first words that a child learns reflect his day-to-day living, his routines, his likes & dislikes.

And so, it is easily explainable why the new addition in Sasha's vocabulary is книжки / books. And I have to say that I have heard him saying book in English, and also trying to pronounce книжки in Russian. The Russian word for books is very difficult to pronounce, because it has the sound zh (there is no way to really spell it in English), but he just says kiki instead of knizhki.

Sasha is being read to by Greg in English every morning and every night. The repertoire includes Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton, as well as others. I read to Sasha in Russian, but I do it during the day when the mood strikes, and there is no routine around it. We keep cardboard books on the lowest shelve in the living room, and Sasha can pull them out if he wants to. That's usually when I read to him. I just read the books that he pulls from the shelve, and with advice from a friend, I am just translating the English ones as I go.

So, lately, when Sasha sees books and wants us to read to him, he says kiki a lot. Also, there were nursing sessions, from which Sasha just crawled away towards kiki. The episode when Sasha used the English word was also a nursing routine right before bed. Usually, I nurse him, and then Greg comes in and reads him some bedtime stories. So, on that particular occasion, Sasha was overly excited and did not nurse too well. He kept stopping looking at me and saying stuff that I don't understand yet. So, he looked up and said: "Papa?" And I responded in Russian: "Yes, Daddy is coming soon, let's eat some more". So, he nursed another second or two, looked up and said: "Book?" So, obviously, the English word is strongly associated with Dad, who reads to him in English.

Language & TV

2010-11-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

I think we all are aware of the "evil" side of television entertainment. American studies linking childhood obesity to TV date back to the early 80s. And before that, in the 1970s, psychologists used to show kids violent movies to see how they react, and the results were astonishing: kids with less TV per day were more sensitive to violence with their pulse fluctuating more than those kids who watched a lot of TV on a regular basis. (A side thought: Isn't it kind of wrong to place a child in front of a violent movie just to see how he reacts?)

Nowadays, there is plenty of research on language development and screen media (the term screen media encompasses television, recorded video, computer games and entertainment), and the results are not in favor of the latter: When young children watch TV, they tend to babble less, they tend to have less interactions with adults, and, as a result, they tend to acquire vocabulary slower than those kids with little or no TV exposure.

Truthfully, I have a TV on in the background, as I am typing this, but Sasha is asleep at this point. When he was a newborn, we used to watch TV a lot, having it on most of the day. That practice had changed with different family members who were helping us to babysit when Sasha was 3 - 7 months old. Nowadays, TV is on only when he is asleep, and some days we don't turn it on, at all. It's probably healthier for us, too. At the same time, we don't want to miss our favorite sitcoms that are on on Mondays. So, on Mondays we turn the TV on for an hour or so, and one of us occupies Sasha, while the other watches TV.

I wholeheartedly agree that television presents a distraction for a young child, not a learning tool. Of course, Sasha is distracted by TV when it is on, but 1 hour per week accounts to only 1 percent of his awake time, and 99% of his awake time he has opportunities for both independent play and adult-child interaction.

I think no TV rule, which many households adopt when their children are young, is a good one. But this can be modified for other families: no TV when your child is awake, and when he is asleep, the sound should be kept to the minimum. A tiny TV indulgence for parents is not a big deal, as long as the rest of the time parents are not just physically present, but are also available for two-way interaction with their child. Let's face it: your TV might be off, but you may be texting, talking on the phone or reading the newspaper for hours, which means no interaction opportunity for your child.

Blogging about blogging

2010-11-03T21:37:00.000-06:00

I have been recently thinking about how many parents out there are blogging about raising their children being able to speak English and Russian languages. And it turns out there are not that many of us. So, I decided to share with you what I have found out.

The author of Learning with Mouse is a Russian speaking mom of a girl who is growing up in a trilingual environment - with dominant English and a pinch of German and Russian. It sounds like their multilingual story is not very successful, as the mom has been in the United States for a while now and says that raising her daughter in English feels more natural. English is also the medium for the media - books, movies, etc. If a book is in Russian, the child wants it to be read and translated. Both parents still try to expose the child to Russian and German, but with monolingual English preschool it appears to be difficult.

On Bilingual Monkey, a Russian native mom encounters new sides of her own culture and laughs with her husband as they see their son trying to juggle Russian and English. It's too bad that she stopped contributing to it.

A 6 year old on http://spasfam.blogspot.com/ has recently decided that he loves Russia and all things Russian. The family has no native Russian speakers, but is willing to support their son's interest. So far, it seems like his motivation might be able to get him at least some knowledge of culture and basic words.

Irina McGuire seems to use the same method like myself - One Parent One Language. At this point, her son is about two years old and can differentiate between Russian and English, name parts of the face in both languages, and even mixes both languages together when building sentences (which is not a bad thing; the child is just experimenting to see what is proper in which interaction). That gives me hope that some day Sasha will reach this level, as well.

***

There is an update on Sasha's vocabulary. I have also added the English vocabulary page that proudly contains one word.

Searching for foreign language books

2010-11-01T10:22:00.000-06:00

This proves to be quite a task, as there are many websites that cater to bilingual education by offering bilingual books. Personally, I think that purchasing bilingual books is not necessary. There is more sense in finding books in one language, in other words, purchasing monolingual books in two different languages. First, if the book can be read in two languages, which language will be preferred by a child? If a child is very interested in characters, but cannot pick in what language this book will be read to him, the monolingual book benefits to acquiring more vocabulary.

Second, I feel that offering bilingual books means raising your child on generic culture: no culturally authentic characters, no authentic interactions, etc.

Worldlanguage.com, as well as Amazon offer foreign language editions (I searched Russian edition) for books that were originally published in English. They are beautifully made, but I see the same problem arising - generic characters and utterances. If you are looking for foreign language books for your child, here are the methods I suggest:

Stop by a branch of your public library that is located in a neighborhood with high percentage of people who speak the language you are trying to teach your child. Most likely, there will be books donated by someone in the community and, even if you decide not to check them out, you can at least get a list of children authors.
Search authors.
Search "Russian children books" (or whatever language you need) instead of "bilingual children books".
Team up with other parents to start book exchange to keep your selection fresh.

More language on a walk

2010-10-27T14:44:00.000-06:00

Times when Sasha would nap on our walks have passed. Nowadays, it's all about looking around, exploring, meeting people and animals... While walks have always been part of our daily routine, now they have become part of his awake time.

For me this means, every walk (which may last an hour to three hours) can be an opportunity to teach him more Russian. As I push the stroller towards Cheeseman park, I point out squirrels, dogs, cars, people, bicycles... At this point, he can already recognize what I mean when I point out a dog. So, just saying (in Russian): "Look! It's a dog!" is not enough. I narrate with details: "Do you see two dogs over there - a black one and a white one?", "Look at that big, shabby dog across the street!", "Do you see a dog coming towards us?", "What does that dog say? Woof! Woof!". The same applies to squirrels, which fascinate Sasha beyond description. And so, I go into details about each squirrel in the park, its ears, nose, fuzzy tail and what it is munching on.

The way I see it, the more narration, the more contexts I provide Sasha with. His brain can then decipher my speech and identify the words that he has heard before in similar contexts. Animals excite all children at his age, and that excitement means high level of interest which translates into high motivation to learn.

Of course, each walk can also be a missed opportunity. We walk the same streets every day. And depending on the hour, we might not meet any dogs on the way to the park. But I don't want to be silent as we walk, I want to pack him with more phonetics and grammar. And so, I sing on the way to the park. (I wonder if the locals think of me as "that crazy singing lady with the stroller".) My repertoire includes mostly songs about walking, travel, and wander. I know that, at this age, Sasha cannot really understand each word I am singing, but it gives him more exposure to Russian phonetics (the sounds of the language).

At the park, we are surrounded by English, obviously. And even though I converse with other parents and children in English, I still address Sasha in Russian only (One Parent One Language method), including description of what's going on around us: "Oh, that girl is just having so much fun on the swing!", "See how those children are going down the slide?", etc. This creates some confusion, mostly between me and toddlers. A four year old claimed that I said: "Snickerdoodle". I tried to explain to him that I was speaking Russian, which is a different language. He did not understand that. His parents commented that he has not been exposed to any language other than English, so he would not know what is a language.

I am sure that Sasha will know that concept, because he has exposure to more than one language.

Thoughts - Half of world languages might disappear by 2100

2010-10-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

In a Wall Street Journal article about a new language recently discovered in Himalayas, the author gives a sad statistic: every two weeks, the last fluent speaker of a language dies. What this means for all of us is that we might lose as many as half of the world languages by the end of this century! Isn't that terrifying and sad?!

In the view of multilingualism, what does it really mean to speak multiple languages? Do we want our children to acquire one of major languages that is spoken by millions around the world anyway? Or do we want our child to carry on the legacy of our heritage? Every family is different. There are parents who see the monolingual culture around them and want their child to break the mold. At the same time, there are parents who just want their first generation immigrant offsprings to be able to communicate with their relatives from overseas.

In both cases, parents see the danger of a majority language to take over. But if we look at the history, we can name many languages of the past that dominated civilizations. Latin is one example. The language was widely spoken by the Romans and many tribes conquered by them. It existed around the beginning of the Common Era, and 18 centuries ago you had to speak Latin if you wanted to get around and get anything done. And although there are no native speakers of this language, lawyers, doctors, and clergy around the world continue to learn it in universities and seminaries even now, in the 21st century. That is how strong is the dominance of Latin.

Looking forward, we don't know what contemporary language will assume the destiny of Latin. Any language is a system, but it has a human factor: if we don't use a language, it ceases to exist. If we continue passing on the legacy, it continues to live. If you imagine yourself as the last native speaker of your tongue, I bet you would do your best to teach at least the basics to at least one person.

Greg and I were reminiscing about the good old times when we spoke German at home all the time. This conversation prompted him to pick up Herman Hesse after a couple of years of no German practice and start learning new words again. So, hopefully, with his efforts and with help of 80 million other non-native speakers of German, as well as 100 million native speakers around the world, German will persevere.

At the end, every language is a projection of our reality. I hope that other polyglots out there will consider passing on their foreign language knowledge to others, so that by the year 2100 we don't end up losing a couple of thousands of unique views on our world.