When I was about to give birth to my daughter, almost fourteen years ago, I told my mother that I didn't think I dared keep Swedish as our main language. I was living hundreds of miles from my parents and siblings and my husband didn't speak Swedish. How could I raise a little Swedish speaker by myself?
My mother said it would be easy. She didn't even let me think twice about my doubts. And she was right. All the lullabyes I'd heard as a child were in Swedish. It felt so natural to speak to her and sing to her and raise her with that language. Her cousins and many of her aunts, uncles, and grandparents spoke Swedish to her, even if it was only over the phone or during holiday visits. I read stories to her --Mumintroll stories, Astrid Lindgren stories. I had Swedish music CDs especially made for kids. It was never difficult.
When her baby brother came along, six years later, it was even easier, because now there was conversation going on in the home, in Swedish, for him to listen to. And now that he's eight, and a new baby is here, there's even more Swedish to go around.
Granted, I do have to enforce it. The flood of English at school, church, and from media makes the easier path the English path. But whenever we are alone, and there are no non-Swedish speakers in the room, I strictly enforce the no-English rule. If the kids don't seem to hear me remind them to speak Swedish, I say, "If I hear English, you have to do the dishes." Or: "If I hear English, you have to run up and down the stairs three times." They switch back to Swedish.
Sometimes, in the car especially, I play vocabulary games. I say a word in English ("Mountains") and they have to say it in Swedish ("Berg") to see who can name that word fast. I have also made a memory game, which we used for family home evening. I just folded a piece of paper into about 32 pieces, cut them, and wrote English words on half of the little papers, and the same words in Swedish, on the other half of the papers. (For example, "Julskinka" & "Christmas ham," "tro" & "faith," and "diskmedel" & "dishsoap".) I threw in a few easies and a few hards. Then we flip them upside down and play "memory" to match the pieces and see who gets the most pairs. It was fun.
My mother said it would be easy. She didn't even let me think twice about my doubts. And she was right. All the lullabyes I'd heard as a child were in Swedish. It felt so natural to speak to her and sing to her and raise her with that language. Her cousins and many of her aunts, uncles, and grandparents spoke Swedish to her, even if it was only over the phone or during holiday visits. I read stories to her --Mumintroll stories, Astrid Lindgren stories. I had Swedish music CDs especially made for kids. It was never difficult.
When her baby brother came along, six years later, it was even easier, because now there was conversation going on in the home, in Swedish, for him to listen to. And now that he's eight, and a new baby is here, there's even more Swedish to go around.
Granted, I do have to enforce it. The flood of English at school, church, and from media makes the easier path the English path. But whenever we are alone, and there are no non-Swedish speakers in the room, I strictly enforce the no-English rule. If the kids don't seem to hear me remind them to speak Swedish, I say, "If I hear English, you have to do the dishes." Or: "If I hear English, you have to run up and down the stairs three times." They switch back to Swedish.
Sometimes, in the car especially, I play vocabulary games. I say a word in English ("Mountains") and they have to say it in Swedish ("Berg") to see who can name that word fast. I have also made a memory game, which we used for family home evening. I just folded a piece of paper into about 32 pieces, cut them, and wrote English words on half of the little papers, and the same words in Swedish, on the other half of the papers. (For example, "Julskinka" & "Christmas ham," "tro" & "faith," and "diskmedel" & "dishsoap".) I threw in a few easies and a few hards. Then we flip them upside down and play "memory" to match the pieces and see who gets the most pairs. It was fun.
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