What do you speak at home?

[doctoranda]

We speak English all the time even though DH is pretty fluent in Dutch. But when we met he didn't speak a word of Dutch. We have grown accustomed to speaking English now. Moreover, conversation still flows better when we speak English. When we're in the U.S. with my MIL we sometimes use Dutch as our secret language;)

[anna7602]

I only speak to DD in Spanish. I used to speak mostly in English with DH, but once DD's English really took off and seemed to be getting stronger than her Spanish, we started making more of an effort to speak to each other in Spanish around her. Now in France, it really just depends. Living in three languages, things kind of pop out of my mouth in whatever language they occur to me in.

[oneslybookworm]

English, 100%. That might change if we love somewhere other than the NL and actually learn the language.

[bail229]

We only speak English.

[clickerish]

May 28, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5 clogged said:

ZOMGWTF!?!?!?

HOW CAN YOU NOT FIND HACKING UP HAIRBALLS EVERY OTHER SYLLABLE NOT PRETTY!?!?

;D

Yeah, see, that is also my problem. Yes, I speak Dutch (although not so often these days), but I know that crunch time with a child, it will get tossed out the window. Because raising a completely bilingual child is not easy---and tri when one of the parents doesn't speak it, I think will be impossible. And I feel more pressure for my child to learn something like Mandarin Chinese than to speak Dutch, which makes me a lousy Dutch person, I think.

[bugabean]

Ermmm… why's that? Both parents don't have to speak all of the languages to raise a multilingual child. Heck, neither parent has to speak more than one language. Lots of kids get a second, third (or fourth…) language from a nanny or from preschool and not from the parents at all.

[mouseinlux]

May 28, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5 clogged said:

May 28, 2012 14:46:10 GMT -5 Shreddingbetty said:

And I must admit I don't find it a pretty language (sorry fellow Dutchies).

ZOMGWTF!?!?!?

HOW CAN YOU NOT FIND HACKING UP HAIRBALLS EVERY OTHER SYLLABLE NOT PRETTY!?!?

;D

The Burgers call Dutch and Flemish disease not a language

As for my answer we speak English at home, DH speaks Lux to DD. I don't like speaking Lux at home because I find it hard to get my point across and I'm painfully aware that I'm perpetually messing objects sexes up. I mean why should one thing me male, one thing female and one other neuter I mean why and who gets to decide what a new thing is, like the iPhone?!?

[clogged]

May 29, 2012 9:29:26 GMT -5 mouseinlux said:

May 28, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5 clogged said:

ZOMGWTF!?!?!?

HOW CAN YOU NOT FIND HACKING UP HAIRBALLS EVERY OTHER SYLLABLE NOT PRETTY!?!?

;D

The Burgers call Dutch and Flemish disease not a language

I can see why.

[GilliC]

May 29, 2012 9:29:26 GMT -5 mouseinlux said:

I mean why should one thing me male, one thing female and one other neuter I mean why and who gets to decide what a new thing is, like the iPhone?!?

OMG! Last night I learned that in Portuguese, "breasts" is masculine. I mean, seriously, WTF?!

[gibbylod]

May 29, 2012 9:57:18 GMT -5 GilliC said:

May 29, 2012 9:29:26 GMT -5 mouseinlux said:

I mean why should one thing me male, one thing female and one other neuter I mean why and who gets to decide what a new thing is, like the iPhone?!?

OMG! Last night I learned that in Portuguese, "breasts" is masculine. I mean, seriously, WTF?!

Hahaha, it's masculine in French and Spanish as well.

In our home we speak 99% in Spanish, the other 1% is me speaking French to my dog and DH repeating "Ca suffit!" I'd like DH to learn French but he just doesn't have the patience...

[loveday]

May 28, 2012 13:35:06 GMT -5 frlcb said:

According to my dh I speak American and he speaks English

LOL it's the same with us. If he says something that I have no clue about what he just said, I'll say "I'm so sorry, but I don't speak American"

[Cheesecake]

I remember a very posh British guy visiting my mom's office in the US (I was there). All the American girls were telling him "Oh wow, I love your accent".
After the third girl complimented him on his accent he got fed up and stated "As a matter of fact, I do not have an accent. Your accent, on the other hand, is absolutely horrible and you should do something about that!"
The look on the girls' faces was absolutely priceless.

The absolute best part was when one particularly stupid intern continued as she didn't get the joke/insult. She was all "huh, what do you mean. You DO have an accent, I don't. My English is perfect!".
Dude then started explaining the history of the US from his perspective - "You probably don't know this, but this country used to belong to my country. yadayadayada... If instead of helping you the French would've just taken over here, you probably would speak a bastardized version of French instead of insisting that what you speak is English."

[ktkl09]

May 29, 2012 9:29:26 GMT -5 mouseinlux said:

May 28, 2012 15:54:34 GMT -5 clogged said:

ZOMGWTF!?!?!?

HOW CAN YOU NOT FIND HACKING UP HAIRBALLS EVERY OTHER SYLLABLE NOT PRETTY!?!?

;D

The Burgers call Dutch and Flemish disease not a language

As for my answer we speak English at home, DH speaks Lux to DD. I don't like speaking Lux at home because I find it hard to get my point across and I'm painfully aware that I'm perpetually messing objects sexes up. I mean why should one thing me male, one thing female and one other neuter I mean why and who gets to decide what a new thing is, like the iPhone?!?

The Swiss Romande think that Swiss German is a throat disease also. It sounds like one.

[ktkl09]

May 29, 2012 9:57:18 GMT -5 GilliC said:

May 29, 2012 9:29:26 GMT -5 mouseinlux said:

I mean why should one thing me male, one thing female and one other neuter I mean why and who gets to decide what a new thing is, like the iPhone?!?

OMG! Last night I learned that in Portuguese, "breasts" is masculine. I mean, seriously, WTF?!

In French, the word for penis (not penis but a slang word a little more vulgar...I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about) is feminine. ;D

[anna7602]

May 29, 2012 11:35:35 GMT -5 @ktkl09 said:

May 29, 2012 9:57:18 GMT -5 GilliC said:

OMG! Last night I learned that in Portuguese, "breasts" is masculine. I mean, seriously, WTF?!

In French, the word for penis (not penis but a slang word a little more vulgar...I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about) is feminine. ;D

Oh, in Spanish, too. In fact, both slang words I just thought of that are the equivalent of the English "cock" (can I say that here???) are feminine.

To pp on the who-cares-if-the-parents-speak-the-language front (sorry, I should have quoted), it is a ridiculous and intense amount of work to get your child to keep up a language that isn't spoken at all in school or in your immediate environment even when one parent is a native speaker. I can't imagine how much harder it is/would be if the other parent wasn't at least familiar with the basics of the language or if neither parent spoke the language at all and the child was just learning it from a nanny or a class.

[Wanderista]

English, I am learning some basic Croatian though! I took a course in DC last fall for Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian (long story, they are the same basic language but it's the Balkans so they aren't, there are lots of regional variances even within countries). I was in a class with a bunch of other Americans who are involved with people from that region. It was interesting to say the least.

[Deleted]

We speak 75% French and 25% English.

[tktravels]

We mostly speak English, although our language use has been strongly influenced by our environment and the company we keep. Certain favored words in Arabic & Polish often find their way in, and same goes for Spanish & Bangla (although a little less frequently).

That and we say "meow" to our cats a lot.

When our child is hatched, I'd love for H to only speak Bangla with him/her, and I'll bring the English. And I'd love for the child to have a lot of Spanish exposure as well. Or really just foreign languages in general.

I'm a horrible language student, but I find languages (and everything that comes with 'em) to be absolutely fascinating.