Hello everyone
My son is 2.5 years old and is being raised almost trilingual. I say almost, because well.. it's not going so smooth See, my husband is Greek, I'm Lithuanian, we live in the US and speak English to each other. My husband is born and raised here, so English comes more natural to him and that's the language he speaks to our son, while I speak exclusively Lithuanian when i am alone with him (or sometimes in front of others,too, if I am talking to him directly and others do not need to understand what i am saying). My husband's family lives here, too, and they speak a mix of Greek and English to our son (yiayia and pappous (grandma and grandpa) speak mostly Greek, but they have been here long time, and even though i keep asking them to not use any English with my son, they still do. I think it's confusing him and he will not fully learn Greek from this). Greek is used in family gatherings (that's when i feel like an alien lol), they have a lot of Greek relatives and friends here, they even have a church and a pretty strong community here. But my husband, his brother and sister speak mostly English between themselves and their families, even though they are fluent in Greek.
Sooo aaanyway.... My big problem is that even though Lithuanian is a very difficult language and is only spoken by ~4 million people, i feel very strongly about my son being a native speaker and embracing his Lithuanian side (i am very patriotic person). I have read a lot about raising children multilingual and i am trying to do my best but it's getting very very difficult... I am the only one here who speaks this language, there are no other Lithuanian people in our area at all. The only people he hears speak Lithuanian is my family via Skype. I also let him watch some cartoons in Lithuanian, which there aren't many good ones... Some old ones from the Soviet times, translated from Russian, and some modern American and British ones translated into Lithuanian as well. But we don't really have good media resources of our own. No cool websites (there are several, but they are pretty lame) . We have several baby toys that say Lithuanian phrases (Fisher price puppy and Fisher price phone), a ton of LT books and also we listen to some LT music.. But from having so much more resources and exposure to English, i even started struggling and sometimes catch myself speaking English to him.. because he understands it immediately, he understands it better... And i am simply getting used to English myself..He watches Nick jr. too.. and he learned a lot from the cartoons. He prefers cartoons in English.. his English is pretty good and he says a lot of words in Lithuanian, also knows some words in Greek. He knows all the letters in English and can count in all three languages. He is a smart kid and he understands when spoken to in all three languages more or less, but English is winning big time. I am just worried that i will give up eventually, because it is so hard with having no good help; and even if i won't give up, he will simply forget Lithuanian eventually because he really doesn't have a NEED to speak it.
So, i must invent that need.. :/ And i would love to hear from those who can relate or have some advice!
My son is 2.5 years old and is being raised almost trilingual. I say almost, because well.. it's not going so smooth See, my husband is Greek, I'm Lithuanian, we live in the US and speak English to each other. My husband is born and raised here, so English comes more natural to him and that's the language he speaks to our son, while I speak exclusively Lithuanian when i am alone with him (or sometimes in front of others,too, if I am talking to him directly and others do not need to understand what i am saying). My husband's family lives here, too, and they speak a mix of Greek and English to our son (yiayia and pappous (grandma and grandpa) speak mostly Greek, but they have been here long time, and even though i keep asking them to not use any English with my son, they still do. I think it's confusing him and he will not fully learn Greek from this). Greek is used in family gatherings (that's when i feel like an alien lol), they have a lot of Greek relatives and friends here, they even have a church and a pretty strong community here. But my husband, his brother and sister speak mostly English between themselves and their families, even though they are fluent in Greek.
Sooo aaanyway.... My big problem is that even though Lithuanian is a very difficult language and is only spoken by ~4 million people, i feel very strongly about my son being a native speaker and embracing his Lithuanian side (i am very patriotic person). I have read a lot about raising children multilingual and i am trying to do my best but it's getting very very difficult... I am the only one here who speaks this language, there are no other Lithuanian people in our area at all. The only people he hears speak Lithuanian is my family via Skype. I also let him watch some cartoons in Lithuanian, which there aren't many good ones... Some old ones from the Soviet times, translated from Russian, and some modern American and British ones translated into Lithuanian as well. But we don't really have good media resources of our own. No cool websites (there are several, but they are pretty lame) . We have several baby toys that say Lithuanian phrases (Fisher price puppy and Fisher price phone), a ton of LT books and also we listen to some LT music.. But from having so much more resources and exposure to English, i even started struggling and sometimes catch myself speaking English to him.. because he understands it immediately, he understands it better... And i am simply getting used to English myself..He watches Nick jr. too.. and he learned a lot from the cartoons. He prefers cartoons in English.. his English is pretty good and he says a lot of words in Lithuanian, also knows some words in Greek. He knows all the letters in English and can count in all three languages. He is a smart kid and he understands when spoken to in all three languages more or less, but English is winning big time. I am just worried that i will give up eventually, because it is so hard with having no good help; and even if i won't give up, he will simply forget Lithuanian eventually because he really doesn't have a NEED to speak it.
So, i must invent that need.. :/ And i would love to hear from those who can relate or have some advice!