More on Amy

[pne]

Amy has started praising herself; when she does something successfully, she'll occasionally say, "Good!"—perhaps because that's what we tend to say when she does so :) She'll also sometimes say "anke" (a variation of either "Danke" or "Thank you") when she does something.

Also, we're still wondering whether she's a leftie or not; while she uses both hands for some things such as feeding herself with a spoon, I have a feeling that she uses her left hand more often.

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was born and raised in Germany, and I'm fluent in German.

My father is British, and he's always talked to me in English (and my mother did so, too, until I was about three) -- my first language was English. And I went to an English-speaking school, which is what I credit with my fluency in English (my sisters, who went to German-speaking schools, also all speak English, but I think it's fair to say that my level is a bit better than theirs, simply because I've had more opportunity to speak it over the years). I'd say that both English and German are my native languages.

I learned French at school for four years and can get by in conversation, and I spent two years in Greece and Cyprus, where I learned Greek, which I can also speak. But those languages aren't at the same level of fluency as English and German.

And I love languages in general and pick up bits and pieces here and there; I couldn't count the number of languages I know at least one word from. But I wouldn't claim to be able to hold (or even understand) a conversation in most of them, even if I might be able to pick up a sentence here or there.

And I hope that Amy will grow up to be bilingual, though it's not certain -- some children reject bilingualism and speak only one language (usually the language of the surroundings), while others understand the second language but speak only the first, and still others have some fluency in both languages. We'll see where Amy fits in.

(I had also planned to speak Klingon to Amy, but Stella nixed that from the beginning. So, she might become bilingual but probably not a polyglot, at least not as a child.)