Animal Sounds!

[Patricia]

Dear parents of multilingual children,
Who knew the cows spoke different in Finland than in Ireland! and not only cows but pigs, frogs and dogs for that matter! I imagined that raising a bilingual baba was going to be a challenge but this is nuts!
So my question is this? In your families, did you also use your native "animal sounds" as well? I was sitting with my husband and my 11 month old daughter today playing with a farmyard jigsaw and, as we both pointed at the pig and said "oink oink" and "Grr Grr" respectively, I just felt so dreadfully sorry for her and am in a panic now that the poor child will be so confused and afraid to ever say anything!

Would love to hear how you experienced parents, dealt with such situations, and general advice on how to approach, raising a bilingual child?

Many Thanks from a neurotic mother!

[Amandine.K]

Our kids are French/Finnish bilingual. We never found your situation to be a problem. They quickly learnt and realized that mum and dad speak different languages. At now age 6, our daughters will make animal sounds differently depending if they play in French or in Finnish. As long as you are consistent then your kid will be fine

[EP]

Grr Grr

No, he didn´t sau grr grr, he said röh röh

[Patricia]

Grr Grr

No, he didn´t sau grr grr, he said röh röh

well whatever he says himself, the squirrel and the bear seem to all sound the same to me!!!!

then again that could be down to the hubby's rustiness!!!

Many thanks.....after a relatively good night sleep..somehow this doesn't seem as urgent an issue as it did yesterday

[Mölkky-Fan]

For my kids we treated it as a game... my daughter spoke Dutch, English, Chinese and Finnish and had lots of fun telling us the different noises that animals made. We also used to ask visitors what noise animals made 'in their country'. Our kids thought it very funny, and it helps them understand the difference between languages, cultures etc

[raamv]

For my kids we treated it as a game... my daughter spoke Dutch, English, Chinese and Finnish and had lots of fun telling us the different noises that animals made. We also used to ask visitors what noise animals made 'in their country'. Our kids thought it very funny, and it helps them understand the difference between languages, cultures etc

nice one!!