My experience of teaching my daughter to speak Vietnamese in Switzerland page 3
Parents must spend much of their time talking with their children to help them develop communication habits. The more you talk the better at the language the children are, since there are words that have to be repeated day by day and take long time for the children to memorize. If we lack the patience it is easy to give up in teaching the language to the children.
Sometimes I teach Thythy simple words but it takes me so many times to recall them to her until she can remember them. When 3 years old, the teacher in kindergarten spoke Italian, Thythy could not understand and said nothing but “yes” in Vietnamese. The teacher even had to speak to her in English to make her understand what to do.
Thank to my husband, ThyThy now can speak Vietnamese very well. My husband understands that it is so difficult to learn Vietnamese in a place where there aren’t Vietnamese people like my place. My husband always encouraged and supported me to teach Thythy Vietnamese before teaching other languages.
My husband also tried to understand simple words used in daily context to take care of Thythy. When he answered her daughter, he used English, which make her good at English too. When in school, she can speak Italian.
Child's brain is very quick; so you do not worry that your children will not speak the language where they are living. Most children in Switzerland can speak 2 or 3 languages easily, because most of the parents living in Switzerland are from other countries. More than 50% of the children in the Thythy’s class are using more than one language well.
From learning from other mothers and people around, the key of success I want to share is when the children do not want to speak their mother tongue, you should not please them. They'll recognize that if they do not speak the mother language, they will not have what they want and manage to speak the language.
Of course, the parents must be serious about using the language with the children, avoid mixed languages to form the habit of using only one language when talking to her.
by Đồng An
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My experience of teaching my daughter to speak Vietnamese in Switzerland page 1
My experience of teaching my daughter to speak Vietnamese in Switzerland page 2
My experience of teaching my daughter to speak Vietnamese in Switzerland page 4
