V just gave me what I am sure is only the first of many language lessons. The thing is, she already pretty much speaks better Swedish and Finnish than me, and the chasm in our abilities will only continue to grow. I am sure my language skills in both of these languages will serve as a source of embarrassment for her in the future. That's the case with plenty of foreign moms I know here.
But here is what happened. I just handed her bear, and she said, "Thank you." Then she followed up with "Kiitos," then "Tack." OK, so here is a pretty clear demonstration that she knows very well that all three of these terms mean the same thing. So was she trying to help her poor, linguistically deprived mother? Like I said, this lesson is likely the first of many.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Now it's at three
Now at the age of 17 months, there is ample evidence that there are three codes in place, all in the same brain. There was one good example of two codes just this morning. The point of this blog is to write about language, not other developments, but let's just say that Vera had a big accomplishment for the first time this morning. When her dad woke up, I whispered to her, "Tell Pappa about your potty." Vera looked up at him, a look of pride on her face, and said, "Pottan!" I was surprised that she knew how to translate so easily, and so instantly.
Last weekend, V's Finnish grandmother was visiting. V's "mummu," as she calls her, has always been worried that V wouldn't be a proper little Finnish girl who speaks proper Finnish. Last week's visit, I would say, quelled at least some of her fears. V chattered nonstop to Mummu in Finnish, talking about everything from her leipä 'bread' to potta 'potty.'
One of V's favorite things to do right now is to hand things back and forth, so that you have to say "Thank you!" then give whatever it is back to her, so she can say "Thank you!" and so on. I watched as V did this in three languages one morning last weekend. First she was doing this with me as I fed her breakfast: "Thank you!" Then came her pappa, and she handed him something and encouraged him to say, "Tack tack!" Then came her mummu, and immediately she switched to "Mummu, kiitos!" It seems quite clear that she divides her languages according to the interlocutor. I'm not sure at this point that she has a default language. I am tempted to say it would be English, but I have no way of knowing, of course, how she communicates when she is around other people (I'd love to be a fly on the wall!)
A few days ago, I am pretty sure we had what counts as our first kind of recap conversation of our day. I was putting her to bed, and she showed me her night-night bear and said, "Bear, water, uh-oh. No no no." At first I thought she was asking for a drink of water, but she corrected me. "Bear, uh-oh." I soon realized that she was reminding me of something that happened on our way back home from her babysitter. We were walking through a big mud puddle, and V chose that exact moment to drop her bear down onto the ground. I made a big show of telling her, "No no! Now your bear is all dirty! Look at that, you got your bear all wet and dirty. Now we have to go home and wash it." Obviously, this all made some impression on her -- surprise, surprise. When V brought this up later, at her bedtime, I went along with her, saying, "Yes, you dropped your bear. It got all dirty in the water. We had to wash it." You should have seen the delight on her face when I understood and responded to what she was trying to communicate! She was so excited. I can understand the thrill she must feel as she recognizes that she is able to relate to others through language.
Last weekend, V's Finnish grandmother was visiting. V's "mummu," as she calls her, has always been worried that V wouldn't be a proper little Finnish girl who speaks proper Finnish. Last week's visit, I would say, quelled at least some of her fears. V chattered nonstop to Mummu in Finnish, talking about everything from her leipä 'bread' to potta 'potty.'
One of V's favorite things to do right now is to hand things back and forth, so that you have to say "Thank you!" then give whatever it is back to her, so she can say "Thank you!" and so on. I watched as V did this in three languages one morning last weekend. First she was doing this with me as I fed her breakfast: "Thank you!" Then came her pappa, and she handed him something and encouraged him to say, "Tack tack!" Then came her mummu, and immediately she switched to "Mummu, kiitos!" It seems quite clear that she divides her languages according to the interlocutor. I'm not sure at this point that she has a default language. I am tempted to say it would be English, but I have no way of knowing, of course, how she communicates when she is around other people (I'd love to be a fly on the wall!)
A few days ago, I am pretty sure we had what counts as our first kind of recap conversation of our day. I was putting her to bed, and she showed me her night-night bear and said, "Bear, water, uh-oh. No no no." At first I thought she was asking for a drink of water, but she corrected me. "Bear, uh-oh." I soon realized that she was reminding me of something that happened on our way back home from her babysitter. We were walking through a big mud puddle, and V chose that exact moment to drop her bear down onto the ground. I made a big show of telling her, "No no! Now your bear is all dirty! Look at that, you got your bear all wet and dirty. Now we have to go home and wash it." Obviously, this all made some impression on her -- surprise, surprise. When V brought this up later, at her bedtime, I went along with her, saying, "Yes, you dropped your bear. It got all dirty in the water. We had to wash it." You should have seen the delight on her face when I understood and responded to what she was trying to communicate! She was so excited. I can understand the thrill she must feel as she recognizes that she is able to relate to others through language.
Monday, March 8, 2010
"Shhhhhh!"
V has a constant monologue going on, and I am not sure if it is because she is playing with language, or if she is actually trying to interact. Probably the former. It's nonstop babble, with everything coming out of her mouth that seems to enter into her head. One surprising aspect of her babble is the number of names that come out. She still repeats--actually, very often--the name of her little friend, our upstairs neighbor, who moved away now close to three months ago. That represents something like twenty percent of V's short life, so I would have thought that she would have moved on to new concepts, but apparently the name and idea are seared into her consciousness.
She also repeats the names of people she has only met once or twice, and, again, quite some time ago. For example, Tessa was the name of a little girl that V played with for one day only, and that was about two months ago. Today when V was falling asleep, she was saying, "Tessa, Tessa, Tessa." Does she just happen to fall upon the sound sequence and remember the name, or does something, in fact, prompt the memory of Tessa? I guess there is no way of knowing.
V seems to enjoy putting things into categories. I have noted previously in this blog, for example, that she likes to point out shapes. "Star. Ball. Heart. Moon." Lately, she also enjoys noticing body, face parts, and clothing on other people, toys, and from all sorts of pictures: "Fingers. Toes. Mouth. Eyes. Hat. Boots. Foot." Fingers are especially exciting. She often looks at her own, and then, as if ecstatic to discover that they are still there, she exclaims, "Fingers!"
Her predilection for categorizing things according to shape and appearance has led to conundrum when it comes to numbers. She has a book she really likes called, "Let's Count Baby." The premise of the book is probably easy enough to catch from the title. For the past couple of days, she has been interested in the actual numbers that are printed on the pages. She will point to the figure "8" and say "eight." Then she'll point to the figure "7" and say "eight." So then I correct her, saying, "No, that's a seven." So she'll say, "Seven," and then point back at the "8" and say "seven." And so on. I suppose this is the first time she has encountered a break from the usual pattern: even though these things (the numbers) all look more or less the same, they actually all have different names. And this seems to be confusing her! I am not sure how to deal with this, because I don't want her to think that a "7" is called "eight," and so on. But I guess I should just calm down. After all, she is only sixteen months old, and I am sure she has plenty of time to learn what the numbers are called.
In other news, she has a few new adjectives and adjective phrases: clean, nice, all gone. She also says "Nam!" if she really likes some food she is eating, so I guess that counts.
One of her favorite routines is to go through what all of the animals say. Quite typical, of course. What cracks me up about her, though, is when we start asking what certain people say. It doesn't matter who it is -- Mamma, Daddy, her sister, grandma, babysitter, even our dog, Cava -- the answer is always the same: "Shhhhh!" You would think we spend most of our time telling her to be quiet, which is most certainly not the case!
I am not sure what else to note about her languages other than English. Only to say that they are developing, but at a less noticeable pace than her English. Of course my reports are biased, as well, because she speaks English with me. However, I do hear her speaking enough Swedish to her dad and sister and enough Finnish when we are out in the city to know that these other languages do exist for her. Yesterday, for example, when we were in town, she was saying over and over to people in shops and so on, "Kiitos!" which means 'thank you.'
She also repeats the names of people she has only met once or twice, and, again, quite some time ago. For example, Tessa was the name of a little girl that V played with for one day only, and that was about two months ago. Today when V was falling asleep, she was saying, "Tessa, Tessa, Tessa." Does she just happen to fall upon the sound sequence and remember the name, or does something, in fact, prompt the memory of Tessa? I guess there is no way of knowing.
V seems to enjoy putting things into categories. I have noted previously in this blog, for example, that she likes to point out shapes. "Star. Ball. Heart. Moon." Lately, she also enjoys noticing body, face parts, and clothing on other people, toys, and from all sorts of pictures: "Fingers. Toes. Mouth. Eyes. Hat. Boots. Foot." Fingers are especially exciting. She often looks at her own, and then, as if ecstatic to discover that they are still there, she exclaims, "Fingers!"
Her predilection for categorizing things according to shape and appearance has led to conundrum when it comes to numbers. She has a book she really likes called, "Let's Count Baby." The premise of the book is probably easy enough to catch from the title. For the past couple of days, she has been interested in the actual numbers that are printed on the pages. She will point to the figure "8" and say "eight." Then she'll point to the figure "7" and say "eight." So then I correct her, saying, "No, that's a seven." So she'll say, "Seven," and then point back at the "8" and say "seven." And so on. I suppose this is the first time she has encountered a break from the usual pattern: even though these things (the numbers) all look more or less the same, they actually all have different names. And this seems to be confusing her! I am not sure how to deal with this, because I don't want her to think that a "7" is called "eight," and so on. But I guess I should just calm down. After all, she is only sixteen months old, and I am sure she has plenty of time to learn what the numbers are called.
In other news, she has a few new adjectives and adjective phrases: clean, nice, all gone. She also says "Nam!" if she really likes some food she is eating, so I guess that counts.
One of her favorite routines is to go through what all of the animals say. Quite typical, of course. What cracks me up about her, though, is when we start asking what certain people say. It doesn't matter who it is -- Mamma, Daddy, her sister, grandma, babysitter, even our dog, Cava -- the answer is always the same: "Shhhhh!" You would think we spend most of our time telling her to be quiet, which is most certainly not the case!
I am not sure what else to note about her languages other than English. Only to say that they are developing, but at a less noticeable pace than her English. Of course my reports are biased, as well, because she speaks English with me. However, I do hear her speaking enough Swedish to her dad and sister and enough Finnish when we are out in the city to know that these other languages do exist for her. Yesterday, for example, when we were in town, she was saying over and over to people in shops and so on, "Kiitos!" which means 'thank you.'
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