Yesterday, my little one sat down at the table and said "Mummy, I need a prat". I've been enjoying hearing her stop-gap responses to language she can't remember, but this time I thought it best to offer her the appropriate word."Would you like a plate?""A prate?""A plate""No, I need a prat". She has been problem-solving … Continue reading The joys of translanguaging
Tag: Third culture family
Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the weaker language
In my last post I gave some examples of moments when my bilingual daughter is clearly influenced by grammatical structure and language in her default language (Portuguese) and applies it to her weaker language (English). There have been a few moments when I have seen this happen the other way around but it seems to … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the weaker language
Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the dominant language
I mentioned in my last post that my daughter, who is growing up bilingual and is now three and four months, does actively translate between her languages. I'll explain a bit more here about why I think this is interesting, how I know she's doing it and I'll give some examples. Firstly, I think this … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the dominant language
Bilingual children and language development – Over-generalisation of specific rules
As I mentioned in my last post (which describes our language journey as a third-culture family), my daughter is currently most comfortable speaking in Portuguese. This hasn't always been the case but now, at three and three months, Portuguese is her default language and if she finds it difficult to express herself in English she'll … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Over-generalisation of specific rules
Our language journey as a third-culture family
I've written previously about how language fascinates me and how amazing I find it to witness my daughter acquire two languages as she grows up. You can read about that here. She's now three and three months. I'll give a bit of background about our language journey as a third-culture family. [I'm using the term … Continue reading Our language journey as a third-culture family
Daily rhythms of life and death
On her third birthday our little one gained and lost her first pet. We both gave and (unwittingly) took it from her. She used to ask to see the fish every time my husband took her to town with him so we decided to give her a fish for her birthday. But it was a … Continue reading Daily rhythms of life and death
Third culture Christmas
We are a Brazilian husband, a British wife and a Brazilian-British daughter currently living in Brazil. This year I'm trying to be intentional about choosing meaningful traditions for Advent and Christmas that will point us as a family to Christ. I've written more about the reason for this here. As a third culture family unit … Continue reading Third culture Christmas
Brazil from the outside in 