Lately, I've been thinking a lot about walking the fine line of languages. More specifically, how to best support my boys' learning of both English and Czech. It seems like it's an endless pendulum swing. When I notice one language being dominant, I try to speak more of the other, and then find myself reversing the process. Lately, Jakub has been choosing to express himself more and more in English, so occasionally I will encourage him to translate things into Czech. For example, today were discussing the horse lubber grasshopper we caught yesterday. Jakub was very excited about it and was able to take it to school with him and share it with his class, and after school we released it back into the desert. Since the conversation was mainly in English I decided to encourage him to express himself in Czech.
Me: "Jakub, how do you say 'grasshopper' in Czech?"
Jakub: "I don't know."
[I know from personal experience that when you learn two languages seperately, sometimes it helps to think in the language first before you try to translate a word or phrase, so I asked the same question in Czech]
Me: "Jak se říká "grasshopper" česky?"
Matěj: "Kobika!"
Now, it just so happens that "grasshopper" in Czech is "kobilka," however, much of what Matěj says these days sounds alike, like "hasiči" (firefighters) and "čepici" (hat), and, a more recent and illuminating realization "hrát" (to play) and "had" (snake--I was wondering why he claimed he saw snakes everywhere). Most of the time, the only way I can figure out what he's saying is by the context, which leaves me wondering if, the the conversation above, he knew a) how to say grasshopper in Czech, and b) what I meant by asking how to say it in Czech. But for now, I am just going to pretend my child is a genius, until proven otherwise. ;)
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