Kletsheads [English edition]

All about bilingual children

Author: Sharon Unsworth

The podcast about bilingual children
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Language: en-gb

Genres: Kids & Family, Parenting, Science

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The last Kletsheads [Season 3, Episode 8]
Tuesday, 14 November, 2023

Transcript In this final – and therefore extra-long – episode, three parents who have previously been guests on the podcast talk about how their family’s bilingual journey has progressed since then. I look back over the past four years, reflect on the future and, to conclude, we hear a poem written about and dedicated to bilingual children, and inspired by the podcast. Our first guest is Liz. I first spoke to her in the first season of Kletsheads (in episode 4, about language mixing). Liz is originally from Limburg in the Netherlands but has lived in Canada for 10 years. Together with her Egyptian husband, she has a 4-year-old son, Otis. Next, we hear from Marjolein. Marjolein grew up monolingually in the Netherlands, studied English and then became an English teacher. When she became a mother in 2018, she decided to also speak English to her infant son Owen. She now has a second son, James. Marjolein was first featured in this episode 2 of the first season on how much input does a child need to hear to become bilingual. Finally, I speak to Christi. Christi was first on the podcast back in 2020 (in the same episode as Liz) as our Kletshead of the week. She spoke about her own upbringing as a trilingual child in Vienna, and about the choices she faced now that she had become her mother herself. In this episode she tells us how speaking German can sometimes be a challenge (especially when ‘life’ gets in the way) and how her eldest daughter has picked up Spanish from her mum. If you want to know how these three parents and their bilingual families are doing now, listen to the podcast! To conclude this episode and thus the entire podcast series, we hear a poem, Three words for squirrel. This poem was written and is performed by spoken word poet, Wieke Vink. You might recognise Wieke from the first episode of this final season, when she interviewed our Kletshead of the week. If you listen carefully to the poem, you will hear many references to conversations, topics and words that have passed by in the past four in the podcast. Three words for squirrel This poem is for the little onesWhose mother tongueIs more than one With words in different flavoursOn the tip of your tongueOr flowing out of your fingertips This is for the childrenFor whom the crossroads of thoughts in your headCould be spread outInto at least two different languages With womb-held babiesBathing in soundFollowing the rhythmic patternsThat are with them – all around EmergingOut into the worldA holder of knowledge Growing up You already knowHow to be gentle with yourself and with othersHow to wobble on the table of conventions How to take it slowWhen a word doesn’t immediately come to mind When in search for the right ‘mmm’The nuance that you might knowFrom the flow of past conversations Not yet fully interpretatedBut held onto brightlyIn the library of your mind Your shelves full of boxesWith vocab and grammarTu sais que somewhereBetween the Malayalam, French and Finnishthere will be a great find This is for youAs you’ve feltHow language is part of connectionFor all our neurodiverse minds Language as a connectorFor all things funny and wise, silly and kind Dear multilingual child You might not be able to speak it allYou might not be able to read it allYet you are able to hold it all In a map of the worldThat’s unique to youAnd the communities that you belong to Your cultures sometimes resonatingIn the tones of your skinThe rhythms of your sentencesThe sounds of your name You know, language is part of identityYet our schools may beSo monolingual or full of variety With the need for heritage language educationAnd intercultural communicationWithin and across our different nations With all these languages holding the world in their embraceAnd a dialect in every corner And when seasons seem out of orderYou are asked to braze both our physical and our cultural landscapes As three seasons of a podcast droppedFrom the northern hemisphereCovering all things bilingual – its difficulties, its grace and its flairListened to long after the last episode went on air With stories from children and researchersParents, educators and practitionersSo much to share For as all small and adult translators knowSwitching between contextsIs more than just finding the right words to connect It’s being receptive to the realms of resonanceAs the edges of each soundscapeWarrant different worlds of understanding For we summon worlds with our wordsWords for the moments that make life worth sharingWords to express our concerns and our caring And sometimes, when words are not what’s neededThere is gestures and the willingness to sit togetherAnd listen to the whispers of the evening sun With multilingualism looking different for everyone Some being asked to sit downAnd study some grammar Others being showered with word cloudsIn a more day-to-day manner And seeking it outIn comics and fairy-tales and everyday sounds With all of usWhen we are youngHolding an innate understanding of universality And you were born open to the ideathat one thing has multiple meanings As you know there are at least three words for squirrel Perspective-taking a skillTangled up in your linguistical landscapes In the sounds of your childhoodThe letters of your alphabetsIn what is shared when you are happy or sad And language control?Let’s rock and rollIn Twi, Arabic and Español For it’s hard work, being bilingualWith word recognition, false friends and learning to readBrains building lyrical nodes with lightning speed As heritage languages need attention and inputAnd words with less clues might leave us clue-lessYet diversity of resources is positively correlated to language richness Plucking the fruits of hard labourSome of the peachesThat taste so sweet To be able to communicate with grandparents and peersAnd the fun of having a secret language to speak For you know there is magic in wordsBeyond the words on the pageWhen the name of your languageIs itself a palindrome Bringing up worlds of jokes with friends and parental aspirationsAnd if poetry is about making connectionsThen multilingualism is creating the sparkThat brings new things together Creativity being part and parcel of the bilingual mindThe paint brush that creates beautyIn multiple styles and a triangulation of techniques When words stick together in new compositionsWhen Elsa from Frozen gets crowned in ItalianAnd joy might be written differentlyIn different scripts But it’s unstoppableWhen it bubbles upHigh towards our cheeksBubbling out, so to speakIn that deep physicality of belly laughterSo dear multilingual children, hold onto the songs of your linguistical mosaic Each piece fitting togetherAs you are navigating its currents and graduations No thing ever as one-dimensional as its written representationNever as plain on the page as it might seem For you, dear childHave multiple languages in which to dream