Raising bilingual Caramel

Watching a baby grow and develop in their physical, mental and emotional capabilities has to be one of the most exciting things about parenting (amongst many!). I can remember the fond feelings of delight, pride and joy when Olivia got her first tooth, sat up by herself, started crawling, standing, walking, etc.

Having heard and read that most bilingual babies start speaking at a later stage than monolingual babies, I expected that she would probably start speaking around two years old, but her speech has been developing so beautifully in the last few months. I think watching her learn to speak has been for me the most exciting milestone to witness. It is an absolute wonder how her little brain processes new words and then how they come out from her mouth. Absolutely fascinating!

When Olivia was born we didn't really put much thought into what "approach" we would take as far as language with her. Scott and I speak English to each other and initially when Olivia was a newborn I mostly spoke English to her and a bit of isiXhosa. Dear hubby suggested that maybe I should speak more isiXhosa to her so she would learn and appreciate both languages as part of who she is. I read more about raising a bilingual child and all the different approaches and decided that I would only speak isiXhosa to Olivia. We try to stick to the "one-parent-one-language" approach, but we are not too rigid about it. I'll speak English to Olivia when I want her Daddy to hear what I'm saying. For example I'll say, "Poo Lili, I think you have a stinky nappy!" or "I really wish you would give me a break Olivia." Hahaha, sneaky mommy. Scott will also use some isiXhosa words with her at times. For example it took a long time for her to catch the word, "come", so sometimes it was just easier, quicker and more convenient to say it in isiXhosa, "Iza".

The one-parent-one-language approach is one of the most widely used approaches in bilingual families who want to be deliberate about raising their children bilingual. In some cases it does not necessarily mean the child will end up speaking both languages, they might have a preference for one of the languages, but they will definitely grow up with the knowledge and awareness of the different languages in the family. With Olivia I've been noticing lately that she is starting to differentiate and understand (roughly) with whom to "speak" English and with whom to "speak" isiXhosa. I might be imagining it though! Blame it on the eager-mama syndrome!

Being deliberate about raising Olivia bilingual has made me have a new love and appreciation for my language. My isiXhosa used to be a bit "shaky", having never learnt it at school or read an isiXhosa book in my life. Honestly, it didn't really bother me that I wasn't great at speaking or reading my mother tongue as long as I could speak English (which was more "important"). I wasn't terrible in isiXhosa, I spoke good informal conversational isiXhosa, but I sure was missing out on the true beauty of the language. Reading isiXhosa books to Olivia has made me realise what I was missing out on. At first I was terrible at reading the books, I probably sounded hilarious, but after a year and half I can cruise through a story book and I think I sound pretty impressive if I can say so myself. On that note, children's books in isiXhosa are so hard to find! Even in the Eastern Cape where the majority of the population speaks the language.

Language is such a beautiful thing. More than just the words, phrases and sentences, it reflects the richness of cultural heritage. For example isiXhosa, my own native language, is very expressive, and I already see so much of this in Olivia. I cannot convey such expressiveness in words...rather you have to be around Xhosa people to begin to understand it. It's beautiful! I just teach her words, but somehow she observes, learns and mimics the expressions that come with them. What an indescribable gift it is to be born into a family that has the richness of not one but two cultures and thus two languages...not to mention our little Caramel creating her own unique third language! She often breaks out into what I like to call "Xhenglish".  At 18 months here are some of her commonly used words:

English
Dock for Dog (And any other four legged animal!)
Plane for Airplane
Taa for Take
Taku for Thank you
Man for Amen
Oopsie when she drops something
Uh-oh when she or someone else drops something or falls on her behind
Sho for Sure (This is more of an expression)
Show for Shower
Appoo for Apple
Eat (Of course she would know this one!)
Nom nom nom (When she's anticipating or enjoying her meal)
Gaga for Hug
Duddy for Dummy
Bye or Bye-bye
Baby
Poop
Daddy
Wow!

isiXhosa
Pheyi for Iphelile (It's finished) - whether a meal finished, a song ending, etc
Soka for Isonka (It means bread but she uses it for bread, muffins, cookies, cakes, etc)
Ncanca (Breasetfeed)
Iti (It means tea but she uses it for any drink in her bottle or sippy cup)
Ijesi (It means jersey but she uses it for any item of clothing)
Ihlangu for Izihlangu (Shoes)
Ncadi for Incwadi (Book)
Yaya for Lala (Sleep)
Nxunxa for Xukuxa (Brushing teeth)
Dladla for Izandla (Hands) She uses it for referring to hand lotion
Nqoku for Imoto which means car (A totally made up word!)
Baba (Baby)
Shushu (Hot)
Bibi (Bib)
Sisi
Mama
Tata

People's names
Hlale
Jane
Glay (Gray)
Yiyi (Lili)
Fuffy/Buffy/Bunny (My friend who looks after her is called Funny)

And this is only the beginning.  We can't wait to hear what new sounds and words continue to come out of her little mouth, the culmination of her mimics, observations, interpretations, associations, and whatever else goes on in that brilliant little brain of hers!