hi,

my daughter is 3 y.o turning 4 in September. French is her first language, but she understands english very well. So now that the introduction has been done, here's my worry:
the part of Swiss that we are migrating to is german-speaking. How will she fare in a german environment (school esp.)? How can i go about introducing her to german?
Anyone can guide or advise me on how to integrate her to this new surrounding? Is there books or games or activities in german that i can expose her to?

Please help. Thank You.

Hi,

I can totally understand your problem. When we moved here last year my daughter could understand English but German was totally a new language.

Now it depends where are you moving? If you are moving to Zurich you can find a lot of bi-lingual schools (like English and German), or even play groups, event groups for kids in which english speaking kids can be in in bilingual env. and can start interacting with other kids with german. In most of the billingual schools here they have two teachers and one teaches English and the other one teachs German. So it takes a bit of time but the kids start adjusting.

So where ever you are going in german part, you will have to look for resources.

Hope it helps.

I assume her 'mother tongue' is French. ie. that is what you as her mother speak to her. She will always speak this as long as you speak it to her, otherwise she would quite soon totally forget it out of a French-speaking environment.

However, she might well only speak French with you when she realises that all for friends speak Swiss-German. You may even find she asks you not to speak French in front of them. This is not because it's French, but because it is different to pear group and applies to any language including English.

If your daughter has Swiss-German friends to play with she will speak dialect within weeks and like all other children in this part learn High German at school. I think a bi-lingual school is a waste of money as your daughter is young enough to easily adapt.

The country is Switzerland in English by the way, not 'Swiss'.

raistlin i wouldn't worry too much about the language situation, your daughter is at an excellent age for a third language. The most important thing is to get her as much exposure to the language as possible.
You don't say how long your planning to stay. If it's for the long term and your not planning to send your daughter to a private French or English speaking school then a local play group would be a good start. These are run by a trained leader. The emphasis is on social integration but whoever is taking her can stay for as long as it needs for the child to become secure in her environment. It's also a good way for whichever parent is around to connect with locals. A lot of people do speak French in the German speaking part of Switzerland.

An important factor is that each parents sticks to their own language at home. EG. you in English, your partner in French ( just a presumption) this keeps the emotional connection of the individual languages separate and benefits the child more than chopping and changing between the two.

I would advise you not to try to teach her German at home as it's important for the inner- language mechanism to hear the new language in the right cadence. However most villages or towns have a library that rent out CD's and DVD's as a source of hearing the language at home.

I know it's hard to resist but try not to over expose her at home with German, the occasional film that she already knows in her own language could help, (watch it with her) as soon as she loses interest turn it off.

As soon as you know exactly were you'll be living the combined knowledge here at EF will probably be able to offer more specific assistance with your inquiry.

Good luck with your move.

Hi!

My wife is Swiss from Bern and I'm native english speaker. I only spoke enlgish with the kids and she only Bärn-Düütsch. the kids assimilated into the local dialect very quickly - to the point they refused to speak English. this was disturbing at the time, but now that they are grown, they both speak beautiful English. They switch between Bärn-Düütsch (Bern dialect) with mom and Basel-Düütsch (basel dialect) with their buddies. The assimilation occured naturally with the neighbor kids. We have little ones now amongst the neighbors. Some english speaking, other native Swissies. They go on awhile in Swiss German or English, whatever fits the situation. they are between about 5 and 9 or so.

My son is studying at the Uni Lausanne in French and my daughter spent 6 months in New Zealand and still speaks wonderful english. Both speak some italian and my son also speaks some Farsi and Tamil. Kids seem to be able to sort this out if more or less to sort it out on their own.

HI,

I was confident the kids would assimilate well as they are of the right age. My wife is the one worrying and she wanted to pose her concerns. She is effectively billingual in French-english. I am actually more worried for us adults........ We will be moving to Freienbach. Or at laeast within a 5km radius of the place. (intend to cycle to work)

And secondly, the issue of learning mandarin........ Any asian, chinese persons around, please pm me. thanks

don't worry, your daughter isn't even three years old! She won't be going to Kindergarten for another 2 years. And even if she doesn't speak German by then, she'll learn in no time. And she won't be the only child in her Kindergarten class that doesn't speak German, I can promise you that.
As I said before in other threads - if you'll be staying in Switzerland for the long haul, send your daughter to a public school - the public school system here is excellent. If you'll be leaving again in the foreseeable future, send her to an international school - but don't expect her to integrate well if you choose the latter.

As your daughter speaks French, she'll have an advantage over the other kids in Primary School which she can use to make up for her deficiencies in German (if she still has any by then, which I don't think is likely).

dawiz

If she is living in the german part of switzerland, I am sure she will pick up german/ swiss-german without any problems in no time. My sister was introduced english at this age and she will tell you english is her mother-tongue now, even though she actually spoke swiss first.

I would be more concerned about continuing with the english and french that she doesn't lose them.