OPOL to the rescue!
one plus one = bilingual !
“She would only speak English to me but Chinese to my parents! That’s when it really clicked for me.”
We had my daughter back in September 2017 and, even then, I dreamt of her speaking, reading and writing both Chinese and English fluently.
Unfortunately, life sometimes just happens. I was always kept busy (and exhausted!) with my full-time job as a doctor in the NHS. I’m sure there are many other parents who could relate!
I didn’t have time to research and find out the different ways to raise my kids in a bilingual environment. Thankfully, however, my cousin-in-law gave me a direction - just interact with her in Chinese! I found hope from this, especially seeing that her own two children seem well equipped with Cantonese, Mandarin and English in their arsenal.
So that’s what I did. It took a little getting used to. I didn’t usually give running commentaries about nappy changes and opening doors and putting on shoes or sing to her in Mandarin (I let YouTube do that). At first, I kept thinking: “Well, she doesn’t even know what I’m saying. So what’s the point?”
I must also admit that I did feel a tad awkward at the beginning especially because my husband (quarter English, quarter Scottish, quarter Dutch and quarter Norwegian!) and his family speak only English. The majority of our friends also converse predominantly in English. It sometimes felt like I was being rude because it seemed like I was excluding them when conversing with my daughter.
Maybe it was because of this that I started off rather inconsistently. So when my daughter was about eighteen months old, she would only speak English to me but Chinese to my parents! They were adamant in speaking to her in Chinese at all times, while I wavered in-between English and Chinese. That’s when the one-parent-one-language (OPOL) thing really clicked for me. To quote a Disney film, I guess "Mother knows best”!
….and Father too!
My parents had no idea what OPOL was - so they weren’t consciously following a known method. Despite their efforts, I was skeptical at first (mainly because I was so inconsistent with it) until I saw their efforts proved me wrong.
So, I dove into a little research and found out about this OPOL method (see links below). And before I launched into full OPOL, I discussed it with my husband. I shared my awkwardness about speaking to her in Mandarin in an English-speaking environment and the difficulty of trying to speak both English and Mandarin to her. He was very supportive!
Fast-forward to today, my daughter is just over two-and-a-half and my son is about eight months. The youngest just babbles, giggles and screams most of the time but at least my daughter always speaks Mandarin to me, my parents and my sisters! Now, she’s very good at code switching (switching between languages), too!
It took a little time for her to adjust: knowing who spoke which language, and knowing the difference between the languages. But these things don’t necessarily have to be taught - persistence and perseverance is the key. The kids will pick it up on their own time!
I am no expert in OPOL but there are others who have researched and written extensively around the subject. Their content is amazing! Give it a try!
https://bilingualkidspot.com/2016/10/07/opol-method-one-person-one-language/
https://multilingualparenting.com/2015/04/15/one-parent-one-language-opol-is-dead-long-live-opol/
You can also join a community of parents trying to raise bi- and multilingual kids on these groups.
I’m curious: what methods do you use to help raise your kids with more than two languages? Are there any other methods out there? Please leave a comment below. Till soon!