Bilingualism

E., No she wont lose her knowledge spend time after work or dinner and talk hungarian i am sure she will not forget tc

well as most children of the public school generation (I graduated in 02) I can speak english to possibly save my life (ok maybe a bit better but you get the point). In the school I graduated from they offered a ton of languages french spanish latin german portugase (1/3 of my school was from Brazil) and I think hungarian but i took 3 year of spanish and 1 of latin so I am not sure.

I say keep talking to her in your mothers native tounge. IT WILL HELP HER LATER ON!!!! children that speak multiple languages before starting school have little dificulty learning other new languages (a girl i knew in jr high spoke manderin english french and spanish (so yea over acheiver))

if no one around you speaks the language see about going to a nursing home and finding someone who does (I think they call it adopting a grandparent) then the 3 of you can speak it.

I hope this helped in some way,
K.

I graduated from a school in MA so I am not entirely sure about schools in this area but there are some out there.

My fiancé is hispanic, and although I also speak Spanish fluently (it's my college major) I speak to our 21-month old daughter in English out of habit. She only hears Spanish when her father is home from work, but she doesn't seem to be confused at all by my changing languages (I mainly speak Spanish around her father).

She is rapidly picking up words in both languages, even though she only hears Spanish a fraction of the time. If you consistently speak in Hungarian when you are with your daughter, I would think (based on my own experience) that she would continue to learn the language, even if English is heard primarily at school or day care.

E.:

My son is 6 months and I am struggling with the same bilingual situation at home. With the advantage that I speak spanish and I have a spanish nanny. However, I got a lot of books, music and dvds in my language. I think you should try that , look at your library too. There is a program that someone recommended called Muzzy. It is a language program that BBC puts out.
Good luck,

Barb

Do you speak English, to her, as well? That would explain why she mixes languages in the same sentence. The most successful method for children to grow up bilingual or multilingual is for each parent (or main care provider) to speak one language exclusively with the child. If you do that, you'll be able to keep her Hungarian fresh even though she only has you speaking that language to her, and I assume occasional visits from and to Hungary, as well? That would be very beneficial too.

I have a 7 year old - my husband is Swiss and I'm Italian. Sarah grew up in Switzerland. I always spoke Italian exclusively to her, and we go to Italy every year on vacation for 2 weeks. She speaks Italian, albeit with a few grammar errors at times, and that's despite growing up in Switzerland, going to a German-speaking school, and basically having only me to speak Italian to, excep for my relatives when we go visit.
Now that she has learnt to read and write and is more confident she is experimenting with reading and writing in Italian - which I haven't done with her until now because german has a VERY different grammar, different sounds etc, and I wanted her to learn to read German very well first (being her main language) so that she could still differentiate between the two in the way certain sounds are spelled etc.

It's a little challenging at times but very doable; the part that's the most difficult for most people is switching back and forth between languages, for instance speak Hungarian to your daughter and then English to your husband, and so on; but since you are a language teacher that should be fine for you. It's also agood habit to acquire for your daughter, and I'm sure she can learn both languages pretty well in the next few years - but speaking Hungarian exclusively to her is key. Once she is older and feels comfortable with both languages you may switch to English when you have company that speaks English exclusively, but until then... I'd say enjoy giving your child part of your heritage, your native language.

I think that if she learns it an early age and you speak it to her throughout her life she will be fine. why don't you google and see if there are any Hungarian groups in your area!

Good luck!

Jenn Smith
http://jennsmith.stayinhomeandlovinit.com

I wouldn't worry, I spoke only yugoslavian to my two older kids when they were little and know that I remarried and my husband know is American speaking only I don't get to speak yugoslavian that much because he feels like an outsider, but I still yell in yugo and go figure they still understand me and still answer back in yugo, and to think I stoped talking to them when they were about 9 & 8 years old they are know 13 & 14 years old so they would never forget.
My 2 1/2 year old understand every word I say but he refuses to speak it which it's fine with me as long he understands me.

Hi E.. We also bring up our children (3 and 1 yo) bilingually. My husband and I speak exclusively our own language (Indonesian and English) with our children. My 3 years old speaks very well the 2 languages and can switch between them naturally and easily. She speaks both english and Indonesian to her younger brother. Like you, we don't know other Indonesian around. So we use books in Indonesian language, music and DVDs to add more exposure to our children. I ask my family to send them to us and we buy alot whenever we go to Indonesia. Also when I ring my family, my daughter always speak to them in Indonesian.
I've read that there are several methods in bringing up your children bilingually, but one method might be helpful for one family, but not necessarily to the others. So just stick to the one you and your husband feel comfortable.

good luck.

E. -

WOW what a wonderful gift you are giving to your daughter! My friend from Colombia and is doing the same thing with Spanish with her two children! Hurray for you both!

While your daughter will certainly improve her English at school - I recommend that you continue to speak to her in Hungarian at home and request that she speak it back to you. That is a start for keeping it fresh for her.

Maybe do a search in your area for groups that meet (maybe older people) that try to keep Hungarian traditions going - you may find it would give you connections to other families that speak Hungarian (even if it is a kind old man at the nursing home).

Third - check online for reading material in Hungarian, so you can read to her in Hungarian, and someday get her reading it as well. (As an ESL teacher, you might have particularly good access to this sort of material) There are also videos and such available in nearly every language that are kid appropriate. Clearly Spanish and French etc are more common to find than Hungarian, but I am positive it is out there! OR have a relative in Hungary send some educational materials/videos/etc to you!

This hopefully help keep the Hungarian alive for her!
Best of luck to you!

-W.

I am in the same boat. I speak to my son in Hebrew & husband only speaks English. No one around me speaks Hebrew and my ds is about to start daycare this summer which will all be in English. I have bought him many many books & DVDs in Hebrew & I plan to make sure I read to him in hebrew everyday after daycare. I also ONLY speak to him in Hebrew - I never speak to him in English even in front of other people. He hears me speak English to everyone else of course but I hope this will be enough. He isn't really speaking yet - he is 16 months but when he does I plan on making sure he only speaks to me in hebrew. If he will say something in English I will ask him to repeat in Hebrew.

I know you said you don't have any relatives around you but do you have relatives/friends that you keep in touch with over the phone or computer? I have a webcam and so does my mom so I try to get them to "speak" to each other once a week over the webcam so that he also knows that other people do speak our language.

Don't give up! Its very important that you pass on your heritage & language. She may want to speak in English because it will be easier, but encourage her to speak Hungarian to you - she will be thankful when she's older!