Another Bilingual Milestone?

When Punk 1 speaks English she never code-switches or -mixes, as a rule. The only exceptions I have noticed occur on the rare occasions she doesn’t know a word in English, it doesn’t exist, or it’s the name of something. Like this weekend, when we made every German kids’ fave dessert though it never really was mine – Amerikaner - and she offered one up to Papa by saying “Papa, you should try one of those Amerikaner! They are great!!!!!” Although even then, she is more likely to talk around it than to actually use a German word.

She has no rule against code-switching and -mixing when she speaks German, however, and does it when she thinks of English words faster or finds it easier to express herself. If I am not on the ball with this and stop asking her to say things in "Deutsch bitte!!", she very quickly moves into all English. It’s gotten to be a bit of a game for us so that occasionally she does it on purpose and waits for me to catch her do it and make a joke about it, tickle her or do something amusing to get her to stop.

I have often wondered why it’s seemingly so easy for her to keep German out of her English, when she doesn’t really care about mixing or switching when she speaks German. I think it’s because she knows that all German-speakers we know around here also speak English and that she will be understood either way, and maybe also because she doesn’t want to speak German (or so she says, I am not entirely sure this is actually true).

I have also often wished that she’d be able and/or willing to code-switch and –mix both ways, the way all other bilinguals I know do.

But things might be changing with Punk 1 as over the last week she had not one but two instances of struggling to find an English word! In both instances these were everyday words she most definitely knew, yet they both came out in German before she could stop herself. And it took her a few seconds to find the English word she needed. Judging by the look on her face, it just happened and wasn’t entirely welcome by her, making her frown and look quite perturbed by it all.

I know this may not seem like much, but to me it really stands out as this has never happened to her before (or else I wasn't around). And she noticed and knew that this was not what she normally does or what normally happens when she is having a conversation in English.

I was surprised by it as well, but think it might be a good sign. Maybe she is just a little more relaxed about speaking German so she doesn’t control it quite so tightly anymore? Maybe it’s a step forward since code-switching and –mixing or not being able to think of a word in the right language is normal behavior for bilinguals?

She later also made a comment about Punk 2 mixing much more than she does (true), something I took as an opportunity to talk about code-switching and –mixing with her. She knew that doing it makes things easier at times and had noticed that I try to stop her (and Punk 2) from doing it. I also explained to her that I try not to do it around them until they are a little more solid in both their languages, although I find it much easier, too, and do it myself with my bilingual friends.

She seemed to be okay with that explanation and has not brought it up since. But me, I can’t help but hope for more instances of her German getting into her English. Not because I’m mean and am looking for her to have a hard time keeping her languages apart, but because I have always found it a little odd that she’d allow English into her German conversations, but not vice versa. It’s normal bilingual behavior, and I want her to take advantage of it.