Let's Hear It For Biculturalism

There comes a time in every budding bilingual child's life when she wonders why. Why do I bother with this other language that is sooooo much harder than that language that everyone around me speaks? Why is Mama making me speak this other language anyway? What does it do for me - last time I went to the playground, everyone spoke English, so what's the big deal? Or maybe she doesn't wonder, but just gives up. Or resents it. Or does something else that amounts to the same frustration with and lack of interest in that darn minority language.

It sure happens at my house, especially so with Punk 1, the more stubborn of the two. In fact, for years she wouldn't even speak the minority language, even though she understood it well enough. And even though we've turned a corner, sort of, she has her moments. Punk 2 is a bit more relaxed about this and everything else, so he's happy to go with the flow. If that means speaking German or rather mixing languages wildly, so be it - and I'm hoping he will continue like that, in spite of his big sister's efforts at training him in her ways.

But anyway.

For us, introducing traditions, foods, festivities, etc. connected to the minority language really help to keep the kids going with speaking German. The Husband and I have always done Nikolaus, for example, had our big Christmas thing on Christmas Eve on occasion, and taken in whatever other (good) German thing we came across or I wanted to do. But although these kinds of things have always been a natural part of our lives, they took on much more importance once the kids came along.

O might be a bit too young to really understand that these bicultural activities are not exactly part and parcel of all his little daycare buddies' lives, but he just enjoys them. S, on the other hand, already understands that if she weren't also a German kid, there wouldn't be Nikolaus, or a Zuckertuete on her first day of school. She also understands that the Easter Bunny wouldn't have made a special trip last year just for all the little German-speakers in town who met around Easter for a playdate, and we wouldn't have been to the Laternenumzug [lantern parade]. Along with her little brother, she has fun when we do those things, and I guess in some ways they also make her feel special. She's got something on her little friends and cousins, something nice and fun, something that they can't have.

What she doesn't know, of course, is that because she enjoys her bicultural life as much as she does, it motivates her to keep chugging along with her German. Works like a charm for us, every single time.

So S, recently in a bit of a slump with her German, just participated in her first Laternenumzug, and absolutely loved it. As I knew she would. And who wouldn't really? Tons of people showed up, including a couple of her little German friends. The weather was gorgeous and unseasonably warm. Her lantern was beautiful - thank you Internet, for saving me once more and making sure my kid could keep up :) A couple of kids brought their instruments and actually played a couple of the songs I'd taught her. She got to stay up late and be out in the dark and proudly carry her lantern parading around a local park and got to spend some time just with me, ie, without her little brother requiring constant attention to make sure he doesn't run away or fall off of something or get into some other kind of trouble. She had a good time.

Even now, more than a week later, she still talks about it, and still sings the two songs I had taught her. O is all into it, too, and the poor boy didn't even get to go. And it's not only that she enjoyed herself, she's also begun to speak a bit more German again. She's not entirely back to her old self, not yet anyway. But really, the Laternenumzug definitely lifted her spirits and, if only a little, got her budding bilingual brain going again.

And best of all, when I asked her at the end of the weekend what her favourite part was, she didn't hesitate a second and beamed, "Laternenumzug mit Dich!!!" [Lantern parade with you!!! (albeit with a bit of a grammatical problem in it, one that we've been working on and that doesn't always happen anymore)] at me. Even though it had faced some pretty stiff competion from a bike trip to the favourite playground earlier in the day.

For us, bicultural activities such as the Laternenumzug are a way of bringing German and Germany to life for the kids, which, in turn, really helps motivate them to use this other language. It gives them something to hold on to, it seems, something that makes speaking another language more real and more useful.

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This post is part of the "Raising Bilingual Children Blogging Carnival", this time hosted by BabelKid - Raising a Multilingual Child.