Kids Learning Language

Our kids were babies when they came to the islands, and the assumption was that they would just learn the local language from growing up here. The idea was that they wouldn’t even have to be formally taught, they would just absorb it. But after watching our family and other families on the islands, we realize that it doesn’t usually work like that.

As little ones, it’s true that our kids learned to respond to the basic commands and greetings that they were bombarded with by local adults. But then, like all island kids, they started local preschool at the age of 3, and at school it was French only, no local language. So throughout elementary school, while we may have wanted our kids’ local language to grow, it didn’t seem fair to push it when going to school in French was challenging and we were needing to help them understand French grammar and vocabulary for their school assignments.

Practicing local language while playing cards

We have good friends whose children are growing up learning 4 languages at once and it is wonderful to see them in action.  The parents seamlessly and almost unconsciously weave different languages into their conversations with their children.  They mix prayers and songs in different languages into their daily life.  The children do not resist this or point out to their parents that they are speaking a different language.  Their parents don’t scold when the children respond in a different language, but the ambiance of language learning seems to naturally permeate all their interactions.  It requires an intense intentionality that to be honest wasn’t even on our radar when our kids were little. We were even advised back in French language school to make sure to speak English at home with our kids, but now we question that advice and wonder if we could have created a more multilingual home and realize that we could have helped our kids more in those early years.

Not that our kids haven’t learned at all. By the time our oldest’s French was good, she wanted to know the local language more and understood a lot, though she usually had to respond in French (which with an educated islander will quickly just move the whole conversation into French).She joined our team day language times and put some of the grammar and vocabulary she needed to understand and speak more. Our older son followed a similar path of becoming interested in the local language once his French was solid.

Our youngest is a different person. He had hearing loss as a young child (which was corrected), so we think he got used to lots of incomprehensible sounds going on around him. So he was content to just let it go on around him without him understanding.  It meant French at school was harder and maybe gave him the idea that he isn’t good at language (a lie that often gets in the way of language learning). He has finished local elementary school now and only doing homeschool, so doesn’t have that stress of having to function in French everyday. So we have started doing local language as part of home school.

Waiting to take boat to small island

We pray that our kids would enjoy the local language, that a natural curiosity would grow and they’d want to know and understand. For our son, we are trying to nurture that curiosity. We focus on vocabulary that interests him (animals, sports, playing). We turn the lessons into games and role plays where he can repeat a few phrases and be silly or argumentative in the local language. We focus on the situations that he encounters a lot, and we do language study in small doses in hopes that his aversion to language learning and fatigue from learning French don’t erect walls that will make it harder the next time.

Language learning is often a slow and long journey, but as we shared in a blog a couple weeks ago, there is an island proverb “slowly, slowly isn’t a handicap.” For our family, language learning has been a long, slow journey, but we remind ourselves that going slowly doesn’t mean we aren’t getting anywhere.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
The women’s gathering went well, though we were missing a few people. We started a study of Ruth that was well received. We made it safely to the small island, after traveling by boat. There were several delays, but the ocean was calm, for which we are thankful. The new team has arrived safely with all their bags and are now on the small island and we have finished their first day of orientation! Our teammate’s first week working in the hospital went well.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for us as we lead this orientation for the rest of this week, as well as helping with childcare.  Pray for the stamina of the new workers as they adjust to the heat, new language and lots of meetings (with three of them just coming from 3 weeks of the larger organization’s orientation). May we have wisdom as to how to use the time well, when to speed up, when to slow down, and when to stop. Pray for the little kids on this new team as they grow up surrounded by several languages. Pray for our return travel back to Clove next weekend. Pray for our son to love the local language! Pray for Ma Imani who has had knee/leg problems for several months and is looking into traveling for medical treatment- pray for healing and that the logistics of being away from her kids and getting the care she needs would come together soon.