What to Do When Your Multilingual Child Goes to A School in The Majority Language?
In the Netherlands, kids start school when they turn four (yes, kids start school at any time of the year). As my daughter is turning 4 this month, we are getting ready for this exciting, new milestone. While it's exciting to shop for her new lunch box and all, I was secretly panicking. Will she refuse to speak any Cantonese (or English) so she can fit in with her new friends at school? How will I find time to work on her Cantonese language while juggling my work and her school?
*Deep breath*
Now that I'm done being in distress, I would like to share with you a few things I have done in case you are going through the same.
1. Strengthen your child's exposure to the minority language as best as you can. Your child will be at school most days - so yes, it will be more challenging to meet the 30% exposure rule. Instead of stressing about it, why not just do the best that you can and continue to enjoy the bilingual/multilingual journey with your little one? As my daughter was not a huge fan of the previous Stationery poster, I have made another one here to give the "stationery" theme another go. My daughter is more interested in this poster for some reasons. I got all the materials at home so I brought them out to show her. She loves using the stapler and drawing on a blackboard. Next up on our to-do list - make a paperclip necklace!
2. Talk to the teachers. Though many people in the Netherlands are bilingual, our multilingual setting is still quite unusual here. Sometimes people make (friendly) jokes when they hear my daughter mixes in some Cantonese in her sentences. My daughter doesn't seem that bothered by those jokes and comments now but I don't want to take any chance. So we made an appointment with the school teacher to inform her of our multilingual setting and address my concerns (i.e. their experience in working with multilingual children, how they deal with language mixing, etc.). I just wanted to make sure that the teachers are aware of and respect our decision to raise our daughter multilingually. The conversation was helpful and has eased my mind.
3. Further enrich your home with the minority language(s). As my daughter will be sufficiently exposed to the majority language at school (and everywhere outside of home really), I have decided to hide most of the Dutch books and games. When my daughter reads or plays at home, she will be exposed to the minority languages only. Same goes to music and TV time. I'm now working hard to collect more Cantonese cartoons and songs that my daughter likes.
4. Make plans as a family. Though I am more relaxed about the 30% exposure rule, I still want to maximize the Cantonese exposure time as best as I can and continue the six tiny habits I mentioned in the last post. My husband and I love to plan in a hope to stay on top of things. We have been using Trello to organize our family schedules and chores. So we sat down to slot in those family play times and Cantonese play dates too. We obviously need to be flexible as kids love to throw us a curveball or two from time to time. But having plans in place helps to reinforce our commitments to our multilingual journey.
Do you have any more tips to share? And I'd love to hear from you if you have any good suggestions or sources for Cantonese cartoons or songs. Schedule
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