How to make your kids keep up to speak hometown language & eat hometown food?
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Anonymous
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My 3 year old nephew almost forgets how to speak hometown language (he still understands) & he does not like to eat hometown food anymore after a year spending at a English speaking daycare which provides breakfast & lunch. My sister is frustrated at the time/effort she & grandparents had made for his first 2 years, i.e. limited English & no American food introduction. Now, he talks/responds mainly in English, and he finds hometown food yucky.
How & what do you do to that work to keep up the effort of exposing your kids to speak hometown language, expose to culture & also hometown food? For different phrases like young kids, tween, teenagers & adult children? |
Anonymous
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What is your "hometown" (or it sounds like, home country)?
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Anonymous
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Only allow response in home country's language. Keep offering the food.
As for exposure to the culture, if you name the country, and your nephew is in the area, I'm sure people will have suggestions. |
Anonymous
This is OP, my bad, and yes, I meant home country language & home country food. |
Anonymous
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You do t get anything to drink unless you pronounce it “wooder” and we have cheesesteaks once a week.
— Philadelphian |
Anonymous
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Do not respond unless they speak to you in home language. It will be hard at first, but keep at it. The longer they go without speaking it, the harder it will be to get back to speaking.
I always responded in English and my parents let me and now I can no longer speak their language, only hear and understand. |
Anonymous
| Continued exposure, don't make it into a fight, introduce cartoons in that language, try to find kids his age speaking that language, take trips to home country, but be aware it's an uphill fight all the way to adulthood, and many parents give up at some point during the way. |
Anonymous
| What is the language/culture? Honestly, with some languages/cultures, you can probably find an in-home daycare provider--or possibly even a preschool/daycare-- that will honor your request. That's probably the easiest way because your child will see others immersed in that language or culture. |
Anonymous
| Don't worry, half smokes aren't very good and Mark Lerner may be the last person alive with a DC accent. |
Anonymous
| Well I'm American and my 3 year old hates eating my food too. Most 3 year olds are just picky. Keep offering the food. We make DD eat all the vegetables and try some of everything else. She's gotten a lot better that way. |
Anonymous
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Keeping up a minority language certainly is an effort. There is no real magic to it, other than keep at it. Your sister (and your parents) should only speak to your nephew in their home language, even if they are around people that do not speak/understand your home language. It helps if the family language is the minority language as well. Your sister can try ignoring if she is being spoken to in English. I rarely do. Instead, I repeat in my native language and move on.
As for the food, just feed him what your sister cooks for the family, but make sure that there is one thing that your nephew will eat. If you are Asian, maybe egg-fried rice. If you are Middle Eastern, maybe pita with hummus. (Apologies in advance if anyone found this generalization offensive.) |
Anonymous
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Indian-Am here -- grew up in the US in the 80s. Food is easier -- literally don't make American food at home or make it sparingly like 1-2x/wk. When all the dinner choices are the food of your ethnicity, he has to eat that whether he complains or not. I mean I HATED it, but I grew up eating Indian food for dinner (I only eat it a few times/yr now that I don't HAVE to). Frankly there was no deep and meaningful reason my parents did this -- they simply cooked Indian dinners bc that's what they liked/knew how to cook + they took the stance of - I'm not a short order cook, you'll eat what's served. Breakfast and lunch was more "American" -- eggs, cereal, sandwiches, frozen pizza etc. Again no deep and meaningful reason for that except that they were short on time so those foods were easier.
Language is harder. In my home, my parents didn't force it at all. They spoke to us in both English and Hindi. We mostly responded in English but in Hindi too -- and as adults both my sister and I speak it fluently to the point that their friends who raised kids in the same generation as us are SHOCKED that my sister and I speak Hindi with no discernable accent/trouble (but also speak American English w/o accent too). IDK what they did in those other homes but MANY of my peers can only understand/not speak it, or if they speak it -- it's very limited with a strong American accent and they can't have a full conversation because they don't know enough words. |
Anonymous
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OP, I was born in this country, but was dismayed when DS at 3 learned about pizza rolls and white bread at daycare!
He also discovered when he was around 10 that malls and certain entertainment venues existed where we lived and we had never told him 
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Anonymous
 LOL
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Anonymous
| Sunday school for your native language. Constant exposure to the language and the foods. Cartoons and books in the language. |