Comments for My partner is a foreigner

Comment on Christina (Canada) and Mr M. (Germany) by liz

liz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:08:52 +0000

That’s funny! It never occurred to me that mayonnaise can be kept out of the fridge. I remember seeing a similar debate about soy sauce though. I always kept soy sauce in the cupboard, but when I checked the label it said it should be kept in the fridge.

Comment on Christina (Canada) and Mr M. (Germany) by Marie

Marie — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 01:35:46 +0000

I love these sorts of differences. Another one that I’ve noticed is that in some countries people will keep mayonaise in the fridge, “because it’s got eggs in it so it will go off”, and others in other countries will keep it out of the fridge, “because it’s got vinegar in it so it will be preserved”. Who is to say who is correct if nobody has ever gotten sick from it?

Comment on 5 tips for raising a bilingual child by Christina

Christina — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:44:33 +0000

What a wonderful post. Thank you for sharing this.

Tip #5 hit a soft spot for me: I am the child of Italians (my mother was born in Italy, and my father was born in Montreal, though both sets of grandparents speak Italian exclusively). I was never taught Italian, so, in essence, I never knew my grandparents since we could not hold a conversation.

I started studying Italian seven years ago and I now know my grandparents. It’s a wonderful thing, and I don’t want my future children to lose their roots via loss of language, so I plan on speaking to them exclusively in Italian.

All that said, I appreciate this post Thanks for sharing these tips. I’m only 23, but I do plan on putting these to use in the future.

All the best,

Christina

Comment on 5 tips for raising a bilingual child by Eve Bodeux

Eve Bodeux — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:59:55 +0000

@ Gina - my kids both spoke later too. The science says that bilingualism does not lead to delays, but it sure seems like a lot of people observe this, so I’d agree with you. The children do have two setts of vocabularies to sort out, after all - double what a monolingual kid learns! But, in the end, it all works out and it is so great to have both languages!

Comment on 5 tips for raising a bilingual child by Eve Bodeux

Eve Bodeux — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:58:29 +0000

Thanks for the feedback! Andy, I do not necessarily agree. Consistency is good, but in our own family, we have been successful at having me speak French and English to our boys. (My husband is native French and only speaks French to them.) We felt that they needed more French input for them due to our dominate US-English environment that was squeezing out the French. I still speak English too at times, since it is my native (and most comfortable language). Our two boys are pretty balanced bilinguals for living in the US and also read (and write some) in French. I think that each family has to carefully assess their own needs rather than following someone else’s prescription regarding who speaks what and when. Thanks again for the comments!

Comment on 5 tips for raising a bilingual child by Gina

Gina — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:17:45 +0000

My 17 month old hear Spanish at home and English in daycare. It is taking longer for him to start to speak, but I am 100% convinced the wait will pay off when he is able to cmmunicate in both languages!

Great post, Eve!!!

Comment on 5 tips for raising a bilingual child by Andy

Andy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:48:04 +0000

Especially for a small child (see the “start early”) it is important to have a clear relationship language-person. Each partner should only use his mother tongue to talk with the child, so the child has it easier to talk in the right language. Our child is now nearly 5 and she can do well in both language, though now German dominates a lot due to kindergarten.

Comment on 5 tips for raising a bilingual child by liz

liz — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:38:56 +0000

Thanks again for this post Eve. Knowing more than one language is such an asset and these seem like very practical and achievable tips to help children get there. I’ll be passing it on! Wish you all the best with your own bilingual family.

Comment on Cross-cultural marriage in the UK and beyond by senem

senem — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:10:32 +0000

Hello;
i am from Turkey and in my country the cross-cultural marriage is not common like in England…
lastly it is increasing due to the foreign investments that brings lots of foreigners to work in Turkey and then of course LOVE grows..:)
that’s how i met my italian husband..:)
in my town in bursa i know a lot cross-cultural marriages with italians spanish english etc…
in the northern parts of Turkey also cross-cultural marriage is seen with russians especially..
You can see here there are more turkish men who are married with foreign womens than turkish women who are married to foreigners because of the religion issues i guess..
personally; in my relationship with my italian husband i did not experience difficulties like Anoushl from india..he is from south of Italy and like turkish families he has a huge family with lots of cousins:)
so i got used to it easily..
My husband he had at the beginning some problems of course with the huge curiosity of my people..asking loads of questions and wanting to know what you are doing in every moment…
but he got used to it with time …he tried to understand how they see life etc..
day by day i am hearing cross-cultural relationships more
lastly; one of my turkish girlfriend is having a relationship with a greek boy..both of them are afraid to tell their parents ..both are 30 years old…guess why??
best regards
senem

Comment on Meet Liz and Uwe by liz

liz — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:25:25 +0000

Thanks for sharing your experiences Liz! I speak Italian with my in-laws so I have the same worry about slipping up. I find this is one thing which is hard to get used to having grown up speaking a language with only one ‘you’ in it.