We are raising E to be multilingual. Not really so much as a choice but mainly because that’s how it is, we all speak different languages. I’ve chosen to speak to E mainly in English, even though it’s not my mother language, it’s Bahasa Melayu. But I am definitely way more comfortable with speaking and thinking in English at this point because I’ve spent a lot of years speaking English to O. So I speak English, O speaks Hebrew and my mom speaks Bahasa Melayu to E. O has been speaking solely Hebrew to E since he was born. O is a native Hebrew speaker so he is very fluent still even though he has been living in Singapore for six years now.
And at 21 months, it has been amazing how he understands us both so easily, even when we are both together with him and speaking, and we switch languages and we make sure to stick to our languages when we speak to him and he understands us so well.
He is, I guess considered a late speaker because at this point he is only starting to say words but not the full words. The language of the words really depend on him, sometimes he will say car in English instead of in Hebrew when he is speaking to O. But he definitely can say mama, aba and nenek. We are reading to him every day, speaking to him, explaining things as we do and I hope that it will all kind of click for him one day. In the meantime, he is also getting better at using sign language when he needs us to understand him better. He will sign and also say the words.
anyway, all this is to show this book that E has been into for as long as I can remember. And it’s probably the most looked at or read at this point. You can see how used the book is, we had to repair the book a lot 😅 but definitely recommended! They have it in other languages as well and I like the illustrations. There’s so many ways to speak to E about all the little things that the book have. So many chances to add vocabulary! And also one of those books to look at when E is not interested in stories or read to. He loves to look and point at the illustrations and we will tell him what it is, sometimes he will also repeat after us. So yes, a nice book to look at together!
The book is in Hebrew as we wanted a book for O to have when he is introducing vocabulary to E, not that he needs it but it’s nice to have something look at together. And for me, I’ll look at it with him and we will talk about things in English.
Lately we’ve been introducing E to the Hebrew alphabets too. Not to get started on reading or anything like that but just to have some recognition if he is interested in it and so far, it has been a positive experience. He will bring the alphabets to us and points out the one he is familiar with. At this point it’s more of a shape recognition I think, even for the English alphabets but it is still a good sign I guess.
Another good that came out of this is also that hearing so much of Hebrew when O is speaking to E, I am also picking up some of the words, even the alphabets too. So basically I am learning together with E :) I am also recognising the letters more and more since I have to help E with the alphabets during the week when O is working. So many languages going around these days :) Well I hope we are not confusing E in anyway. We’ve been trying to be as consistent as possible with the languages we speak around him so we hope it will all work out in the end :)
till next time- M
Usborne First Thousand Words in Hebrew / illustrated by Stephen Cartwright
