Multilingualism

It's no secret that kids are amazingly adept at picking up languages. In the spirit of that, we're trying to raise Todd with more than one language. So far, he's got 3 of them downpat-- English, Chinese and a Chinese dialect my grandmother speaks. We're attempting to throw German into the mix but everyone is so rusty at it, we keep forgetting and lapsing into our own native tongues. Anyway, Todd speaks solely English with Mommy and Daddy, solely Chinese with Opa, solely Chinese dialect with Ama-ama, and a mix of English and Chinese with Oma.

But it's not just different languages. My parents, having immigrated to the United States when they were in their late 30s, speak English with a noticeable accent. Daddy and I, however, do not. Todd has picked up on the subtle differences in our accents, and speaks in a slightly different accent to Oma than he does to me or Daddy. A good example is the middle "t" in words-- something Americans pronounce as a hard "d": turtle = tur-DLE; water = wa-DER, etc... but my folks pronounce as a soft "t", very much like the British pronunciation.

I can understand firsthand why its natural for him to do so-- I do the same. I use the same accent with my parents that they speak in, but adopt a 100% American accent when speaking to anyone else outside the family. It just seems so unnatural for me to speak with an American accent to my parents, and vice versa. I cannot bring myself to adopt one universal accent for use with everyone.

And now Todd has picked up this same habit. To my mom he'll clamor "I want wa-TER", but to me he'll ask for "wa-DER". It kind of reinforces the notion that my own dual-accent is not a conscious decision.

Fascinating what kids pick up, isn't it!