diamond: [munchkins] Re: my blog about speaking to my daughter in spanish

>
> Hello! I just recently found this group and read the notes in your
> blog today. Wow! This is so amazing and so encouraging to me! My
> husband and I live in Germany, we are both native Russian speakers and
> both fluent in English and German. Our first baby is due in 10 weeks
> and we have been pondering over different ways to raise her
> bi-(tri)lingual. One of our ideas that seems most appealing to us is
> if he speaks Russian and I speak English to the baby. Like you wrote
> in the first entries on your blog, I've been having questions and doubts.
> I am also a student in Linguistics and have to write my Master
> research work, so I decided to explore this question from the
> scientific prospective as well. There are different theories and
> opinions, but I still want to defend the point of view that this kind
> of bilingualism is possible. Thank you again for your encouraging
> example and I wish you more patience and perseverance as you continue
> talking Spanish to your daughter!
> Would you mind answering a few of my questions?
> - What helped you to really make up your mind and start speaking
> Spanish to your daughter?
> - What did you do when you couldn't remember the right word when you
> needed it?
> - Do you know any other parents who had similar experiences?
>
> I will be happy to read new stories on your blog!
>

HOORAY! I am thrilled that there is a master's student studying this subject!! I am an ESL
teacher in the States (portland, oregon) and I was considering also pursing the topic. I am
a native English speaker who also speaks German, and am planning to speak to our child
(my husband and I have yet to conceive, but SOON!) in German only, and he will speak
English only. Since he is from Northern Ireland, we're curious to see if the child will speak
with an Irish accent or with the local, American accent. Let me know if that topic fits into
your studies.....I will start my teaching master's this summer and would LOVE to hear all
about your experiences in Germany, raising the child with Russian/English. We have a
large Russian/Ukranian/various slavic nations population here in Portland.

Please keep me (and all of us) posted!

Cheers :)
Laura Wilson
ELD teacher
Sitton School
Portland Public Schools