Citizenship

[pne]

I've talked it over with Stella and it looks as if the child will only be German.

It would be possible for the child to acquire British citizenship if we moved there later and lived in the UK for at least three years, though that might cause it to lose German citizenship unless it applies for a special dispensation.

Maybe it's for the best—there's no telling how much English it'll pick up, and it'll never have lived there.

Comments

[noidd.livejournal.com]

You always speak to it in English. Wife always speaks to it in German.

That will produce full bi-lingual children. They will even have an English accent while speaking english and a German accent when speaking german.

My sister has done this for all her children. She lives in Sweden. They all speak with a pure english accent in English and Swedish while speaking in that language.

bilingual children

[pne.livejournal.com]

You always speak to it in English. Wife always speaks to it in German.

That will produce full bi-lingual children. They will even have an English accent while speaking english and a German accent when speaking german.

If only it were that easy. I've considered this, too, and it seems the most obvious (and it's essentially what my parents did with us), but I see at least the following two catches:

1. I'm not sure whether I could consistently speak to my children in English. I should speak more English to Stella to help her practise, but in practice (heh), I forget, mostly because I'm used to speaking German to her and because it's a lot easier to elicit a response this way.


2. In the end, it depends on the child whether they're willing to be bilingual or not. At least, that's the conclusion I've drawn from hearing various stories. Some children respond well to an attempt to raise them bilingually, some don't.

For an example of the second point, there's the story of the child who was raised bilingually English/Klingon and started speaking Klingon but later rejected it (brief Wired article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.08/mustread.html?pg=8)).

Also, as one person who commented on this article (http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001190.php) said,

It's my understanding that when you try to raise a bilingual child by having each parent use one language exclusively, there are often problems if one of the languages receives little external reinforcement and the child realises that the respective parent can understand the other language.

which are other problems I see, especially since I (as the breadwinner) will be at home a lot less than the mother who speaks the national language which the child will learn from playing with other children and at school. (Though, to be honest, English is one of the easiest languages to provide external reinforcement in since it's probably easier to procure English-language books/videos/nursery rhymes/etc. than material in other languages, simply due to the large number of English speakers.) Also, Stella doesn't speak hardly any English, so the child would have a problem if it tried to speak to her in English. (In our family, both parents spoke both languages fairly fluently, though they spoke only one language each to the children after I was three, when my mother switched from English to German with me.) But the children will still find out that I can speak German, since I'll be speaking German to Stella, so they may want to take the easy way out.

Finally, there's the example of my little sister. As I recall the story being told, she initially spoke good English, but when she got into kindergarten and found out that nobody else spoke English, she rejected it and wanted to speak only German.

My father continued to speak to her in English, but she would only respond sometimes (saying "I can't understand!" sometimes instead, and nearly always replying in German). (She does speak English now, though, though maybe not quite as well as my other sisters.)

So yes. I think that the "one parent, one language" approach may be the most conducive to raising bilingual children, but in the end, it requires the child's co-operation and is not failsafe. It did work for me, though, and as you said, I acquired a British accent when speaking English (which school later changed to an American one, but the British is resurfacing) and a German accent when speaking German, and I'm very glad of my two languages.

I'd like my children to have two languages, but I'm not sure of my discipline and their success. Maybe I'll have to try to pretend I don't speak German.

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

Can't they get dual brit/german citship?

[pne.livejournal.com]

Not easily. Since I'm a "British citizen by descent" (I was born in Germany and have British citizenship only by virtue of my British-born father), I can't pass on my citizenship.

That means the child won't be born with British citizenship, though it could acquire it later, especially if we moved to the UK. However, in that case it might be difficult to retain the German citizenship it acquires automatically at birth, since Germany tends to frown on dual citizenship and you typically lose German citizenship when acquiring another country's citizenship after birth.

So if it was dual from birth, there'd be no problem, but I don't think that's possible. Unfortunately. I think dual would be nice, too.

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

yeah, I'm brit by decent too. It's the german bit which is weird.. they don't want you to have both. Why? I know in australia if you want to be apart of intelligence it's the only time you lose your dual..
What are you guys up to?

(j/k)- hope everything works out.. Britcit is extremely useful to have. But I don't think you should have to give up the country you were born in..

Let me know what happens..

[pne.livejournal.com]

they don't want you to have both. Why?

I imagine for similar reasons to why the US discourages dual citizenship: because of problems it may cause when two countries have claim on a person. I couldn't tell you for sure, though.

Britcit is extremely useful to have.

Hm. Though inside the EU, it's not much of a muchness since citizens of member countries have pretty much the same rights in any other EU country.

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

Yeah, maybe it is pretty much the same in EU countries, Australia isn't EU tho.. That's probably why it makes the difference for me. It gives me access to all those countries I'd only have limited access to without..

Anyway, all the best in your decision. I've found tho, that kids never know what they want until it's too late. I vote speak to them in both languages from birth, if they choose not to speak them later- that's up to them. But as someone whose parents only spoke English, now I'd give anything to have grown up in a bi-language family.. I'm going to have to learn my languages the hard way-- total immersion in the country! :S

Have a fabulous weekend, and on Monday when we have our public holiday, I'll spend a few moments thinking of my friends around the world stuck at work...

but I'll probably forget :)

[pne.livejournal.com]

What public holiday do you have on Monday?