Language Preferences – Punk 2

Punk 2, who turned 4 just the other day and continues to hold out hope that at some point soon he’ll get to drive every piece of heavy equipment and try out every contact sport he comes across, has never known anything but OPOL (the one parent, one language approach to raising kids to be bilingual). Being somewhat more flexible in disposition than Punk 1, he has never had a problem with it, although he argued quite convincingly when he was about 2.5 that he couldn’t possibly speak German without mixing English into it. And so he mixed like crazy for the first three years of his life – until Oma came to visit last summer and he figured out how to keep his languages separate.

Since then, he has been speaking German with me and English with Papa, with a little bit of mixing going on both ways. Usually because he doesn’t have the vocabulary (this happens a little more in German than in English), but it also is evident in sentence structure (much more so in German than in English). He is very willing to speak German with Punk 1, but usually doesn’t as she generally answers him in English, leading him to use English as well. But this works the other way around to – if she is in the mood for German with him, he is never the first to switch back into English.

He speaks English with the world around him, but doesn’t hesitate to mix in some German to make up for missing vocabulary. I am not sure how aware he is of this, but he sure expects others to understand him. Maybe this is because when this happens at home, all of us, even The (mainly monolingual) Husband, generally understand him, or maybe this is a developmental thing that will go away with time. All I know is that I don’t remember Punk 1 ever doing this, but then again, she was a little older than he is now before she actually started to say things in German, and may have skipped this phase entirely. Of course, it might also be that this is just him in the process of figuring things out – they are both very different in their approaches to language and wouldn’t necessarily do things the same way anyway. Over the past year, however, he stopped insisting on using his favourite German words in English conversations. He now doesn’t do it much at all anymore or is able to correct himself when he does.

He has no problem speaking either English or German to both adults and kids, depending on what language people are speaking. However, since Punk 1 is often around during play dates with other German-speaking kids, he will follow her lead into English if that is what she does.

His literacy skills are developing and he knows the alphabet in both languages, can spell his name in both languages, and he can count in both languages. He has no problem when I translate English books into German when I read to him and in fact, sometimes tells me to do just that. Punk 1, when given the choice, will always pick English (and not because she is reading along with me) and will sometimes also ask that I don’t translate.

He doesn’t generally say things like not liking German or wishing he could speak English with me – the kind of thing Punk 1 sometimes says, and definitely did when she was his age. In fact, the other day I offered to read a book in English because I was tired and didn’t want to translate anything on the fly, and he asked me not to: “Aber ich mag Deutsch!!” [But I like German!!]

He has come a very long way and we’re amazed that things are going so well. I know to not take anything for granted as things often turn on a dime with his sister, after all. But for now, I’m excited to hear him speak German and be so enthusiastic about it.