Chaosteorier

This blog has been in a sorry state indeed. But then again: I had no real purpose (other than ‘everyone else has a blog, darn I need one too!). So now I’ve decided what I’m going to share with everyone who dares to read these pages: bilinguality.

 This blog is as much about personla bilingual experiences as it is about raising a bilingual child.

I’m bilingual myself (danish-german) and I’m raising my son, who is also bilingual. His father is not. We live in Denmark, but both my German parents live here, so we’re lucky, since we are able to support Eikes bilinguality far more, than many.

There are many definitions of billinguality, from the strictest to the softest. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll let the linguists discuss what is correct and what is not; for the purpose of this blog, I use the following definition:

Bilinguality: native-like control of two languages. (Bloomfield, L. (1933) Language. Holt: New York)

Why?, you ask. Because that is the definition that describes me, and what I aim for by raising my son. Bilinguality as mine cannot easily be explained, but imagine living in a country, where they speak a different language. Can you easily abandon your native language? Would you have the need to express yourself, to think or to read in your native language? I feel that way about German and Danish. Both languages are so through and through a part of me that they define me.

While the soft definition of multilinguality (the ability to communicte in more languages) would have me trilingual, I don’t believe I am. Because I do not feel in english and because I do not, well, need english (in a psychological way, that is). It is a practical language, I admit, but I’ll never communicate directly in English - the meaning (or feeling, if you like) will always have been translated and thus been further removed from the original feeling. This is not a problem per se, but still comes into play when discussing feelings (ie. with lovers, children). And that is also the reason why I cannot imagine speaking English with my child; he has a right to hearing my opinions from heart, and not through some dictionary.

Anyway - this all turned a bit feely. But to return to the purpose: This blog will

• Describe how it is to raise a bilingual child. And add personal experiences to Eikes development.
• Review webpages, books, anything concerned with bilinguality.
• Probably describe where society fails to include bilingual children.
• Describe my own expriences with bilinguality.

You’re welcome (encouraged to!) leave commnets. Whether you agree or not – I’m stuck in doing things my way and believing that very bilingual is bilungual the way I am. Both which, I believe, are very silly conclusions.