Lögberg-Heimskringla - 03.10.1963, Blaðsíða 5

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 3. OKTÓBER 1963
5
Bringing Up Children Bilingually
By George O. Tolten
Dr. Anders K. Orvin, in
his capacily of Director of
the Norwegian Polar Insti-
tute, directed Norway's par-
licipation in the Internation-
al - Geophysical - Year P r o -
gram, Lasl year he was one
of Norway's representatives
to the conference in Wash-
inglon which formulated the
new intemational lreaty re-
garding the Aniarclic.
When people hear that my
wife and I, both of us bom
in America, are bringing up
our children bilingually with
Swedish and English, most of
them think it is a wonderful
idea. There is, however, a
small minority who claim this
might somehow h i n d e r a
Child’s development, but this
opinion is not generally held
to be valid. On the contrary,
learning two languages is
thought to confer many bene-
fits. And it is therefore our
hope that many Americans
with some foreign background
who have or expect children
may want to know how we
have done it.
It is easy to write up a
recipe for some exotic dish.
You just list the ingredlents
and describe the process of
preparation and cooking. But
in bringing up children to
speak another language, you
have to take into account the
special conditions in each fam-
ily. I will describe our experi-
ence as one case, but will try
to point out at the same táme
the general requirements and
problems.
The first question, of course,
is whether it is worth-while
having a second language in
the home. What good is it? In
the case of French, German,
Spanish, or Russian it is ob-
vious that it could greatly
help the child in school and
college. But what about a lan-
guage like Swedish, which
only eight million Swedes
sp>eak and which is taught in
relatively few American
schools? From my own ex-
perience I would say that it
brings cultural enrichment,
family solidarity, a greater
appreciation of American and
world culture, and an almost
inexpressible satisf a c t i o n.
Language is not an end in
itself but a vehicle for be-
coming part of another people
and thereby becoming a big-
ger person. Furthermore, ac-
quiring a language in child-
hood is the only painless way
of avoiding the agonizing
hours otf repeating infantile
phrases when beginning the
study of a foreign language
as an adult. Besides, child-
hood is about the only time
When most of us can leam
another language without a
tell-tale American accent.
A point that should be em-
phasized here is that leaming
another language does not re-
duee one’s abílity in one’s na-
tive tongue. Linguists agree
that each new language you
earn makes it easier to learn
another, but most people do
not understand this. Com-
mand of another t o n g u e
makes one more sensitive to
nuances and more aware of
how to manipulate language
as sueh, including one’s own.
A case in point is Carl Sand-
burg, who learned Swedish in
his childhood. Our own ex-
perience also serves to bear
this out. When registering our
older daughter, Vicken, in
kindergarten, my wife was
a s k e d what language was
spoken at home. When she
replied “Swedish”, the regis-
trar started to write down,
“Weak in English”. Actually,
a reading readiness test we
had just given to Vicken
showed that her vocabulary
and grasp of English were far
superior to those of most chil-
dren in her age group. Al-
though she has above average
intelligence, we have reason
to believe that k n o w i n g
Swedish “synonyms” for most
of her English words also in-
creases her English vocabu-
lary.
Many of our acquaintances
f r o m bilingual households
make no attempt to pass on
their second languages to
their children. Because they
acquired it painlessly some of
them are really unaware of
how hard it is to learn a lan-
guage when they are older.
Others are trying to escape
their foreign background un-
der what is to my mind the
erroneous assumption t h a t
they are thereby becoming
better Americans. But they
only become narrower Ameri-
cans. Others are too cowed by
their children and shut up
like clams when their chil-
dren shout at them, “Don’t
talk that funny talk!”
The ways in which my wife
and I acquired our Swedish
in childhood are relevant to
our decision to bring up our
children bilingually. My
wife’s background is less un-
usual than mine. Both of her
parents were among the last
wave of Swedish emigrants to
Minnesota, and she grew up
in the small town of .Warren
where at that time most of
the neighbors spoke Swedish
and the minister preached in
that language. In the last dec-
ade, of course, this has almost
entirely changed. You have to
tune in Chicago for a Swed-
ish sermon, and my wife’s
mother speaks English to most
Of her acquaintances now. As-
trid’s next younger sister is
less fluent in Swedish, and her
youngest one (now in gradu-
ate school) refuses to say a
word in Swedish though her
comprehension even in writ-
ten Swedish is good. This is
a typical pattem in the “great
melting pot”. Too many of the
vitamins are boiled out.
My wife Astrid is now a
rarity even for a blonde, blue-
eyed second-generation Swed-
ish-American. Her Swedish is
fluent. Her mother’s decision
to use only Swedish at home
was based on her desire to
íave her daughter speak per-
fect English! She reasoned
that since she knew English
so poorly, but Swedish per-
fectly, she would speak Swed-
ish at home and let the pub-
lic school environment teach
her daughter English. A trip
to Sweden for a year when
Astrid was five and six ce-
mented her Swedish in the
language-learning years. The
first grade in school took care
of her “American”. As a re-
sult Astrid speaks both lan-
guages without an accent, un-
like a number of second- and
even third-generation Swed-
ish-Americans, who k n o w
only a few words of Swedish.
While Astrid was learning to
read English in school, her
mother sat down with her
now and then and pointed out
the different sound values of
the alphabet in Swedish. With
the beckoning w e a 11 h of
Swedish books at home, from
the classics to modern maga-
zines, Astrid has grown up
with Swedish literature.
That I speak Swedish is
more unusual, because my fa-
ther, an American of many
generations, never learned a
word of Swedish. My Swedish
background came through my
mother who met and married
my father while she was on
a tour of the United States
with an exhibit of her sculp-
ture. Being born and brought
up in Washington, D.C., where
there was no Swedish com-
munity, I heard Swedish only
from Swedish visitors at our
home. I first got a basis in
Swedish during a summer
spent in Sweden when I was
just tuming eight. After that,
although we had a Swedish
cook for a time, my opportu-
nities for talking Swedish
were few and far between.
Since the common bond of
a Swedish background was
one of the factors that brought
my wife and me together in
the first place, I made an at-
tempt to improve my Swedish
and bring it up to an adult
level. I bought a grammar to
study before we took a be-
lated honeymoon to Sweden
to visit our countless relatives.
Later I sat in on a Swedish
course and thus I was some-
what linguistically prepared
When our daughter Vicken be-
gan to learn to talk.
To begin with I was very
skeptical that we could ever
get her to speak Swedish in
an American milieu with no
Swedish playmates. It was
thus a great thrill when she
began to prattle and things
came out in Swedish. It made
me really. conscious of how,
important and powerful a par-
ent is in the life of a little
child. AU those S w e d i s h
words came from no one else
but Astrid and me.
Soon, however, we got re-
inforcements. Little Vicken
begin to visit Astrid’s parents
for part of each summer in
Minnesota. Since there were
practically no local playmates
in her age group, Vicken
heard only Swedish for long
periods. Later, when Vicken
was three, an aunt of mine
from Sweden came to stay
with us for a c o u p 1 e of
months. She could hardly
speak any English and Vicken
felt important and useful in
translatdng for her when nec-
essary. Later again, a cousin
of Astrid’s also visited us from
Sweden accompanied by her
mother who knew not a word
of English. These visits had
the effect of convincing Vick-
en that Swedish was of some
use and that somewhere far
off everybody spoke Swedish
even on the streets!
When Vicken was only one
year old, I sent to Sweden for
a catalogue of children’s
books. I ordered Einar Nehr-
man’s Gubbar i rim and the
treasury of children’s poems
and stories, Min skattkam-
mare. Vicken loved to be read
to; so reading to her in Swed-
ish combined her motivation
with the learning process. As
a result she knows most of
these children’s verses by
heart. Since they are some-
thing which Swedes have
much more in common than
we have Mother Goose
rhymes, Vicken now has a
cultural bond which will al-
ways be a source of pleasure,
and she can in time pass on
to her children at least two
cultures.
We have built up a sizable
library of children’s books of
ali sorts, from Elsa Beskow’s
old-fashioned Puttes aventyr
i blabarskogen to Astrid Lind-
gren’s high-wide - and - hand-
some Pippi Langstrump. Vick-
en has almost as many Swed-
ish as English books. For a
while I would translate Eng-
lish books into Swedish as I
read, but soon Vicken learned
which were written in which
language and would insist on
their being read in the orig-
inal.
All this reading of chil-
dren’s books out loud in Swed-
ish has been wonderful for
my Swedish in developing a
vocabulary, in fluency and
command of the idiom. At the
same time I read adult novels
in Swedish to myself for
pleasure, eschewing a diction-
ary as much as possible, be-
Framhald á bls. 6.
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