Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Bilingual first words

Here's an interesting dilemma. My daughter is saying what sounds like "mama" a lot. Only in Japanese, "manma" means food or eating in a kind of baby-talk. She uses the word to clearly indicate to us when she's hungry. But she also says something that sounds very similar (perhaps exactly the same) when pointing at me from time to time. The thing is, they are technically different in Japanese but it's hard for anyone here to distinguish Peanut's use of the word, is it actually mama or manma?

The dilemma is that I'm happy(!) she's communicating her desire to eat. I'm happy she's communicating at all! She's been doing this since she was maybe 10 1/2 months old. Cool! But I'm torn because it makes her identification of me harder to attribute based on her language at this early age. In the U.S. there would be no mistaking this sound for anything other than a reference to mommy. But here, I can't tell if she's pointing to me because she's hungry (she's still nursing after all) or if it's even intentional when she says mama.

I'm not sure how clear this all is; if you don't speak Japanese and can't hear the subtle difference it's very hard to convey. But the gist of this all is that I'm a little disappointed that I don't have that warm fuzzy feeling of hearing her call me by name. And to complicate things further, she's saying lots of things in Japanese - she's got at least 3 or 4 other words that she says in Japanese. I'm surprised to admit that I'm a little disappointed that more of her vocabulary isn't English. Silly isn't it? When Peanut is only 11 months old and her vocabulary will only expand with time.

But there you have it. Raising a bilingual baby is a wonderful thing and I'm not sorry for one minute that we're doing so, it's just...unsettling on occasion as well. Perhaps it's because we live in Japan right now and there are so very few English speakers around us. I think maybe there's an irrational part of me that's afraid that she won't speak English well enough to understand me. That's really, really silly I know, but I think being out of my element a little has me off-balance a bit. Because I don't think I'd give it a second thought if she spoke nothing but Japanese for the first few years as long as we were living in the U.S.

Huh.

11 comments:

  1. Oh, Congratulations! Peanut is uttering her first words...?!

    Totally understand how you feel on the manma/mama confusion. K is getting better at enunciating the "nn" sound when saying food/eat, but since "mah mah" is used to call the paternal grandma in Cantonese, I totally get confused on what he is trying to say all the time. I think he's confused himself sometimes...haha.

    K usually signs when he says the words and so it helps to alleviate some of the confusion...

    I'm sure they'll sort out their languages (and your Peanut will pick up English just fine) in good time.

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  2. Wow. She's talking quite early- take that all you 'bilingual kids are slow to speak' people!

    I know what you mean about the disappointment though. Meg'S first 6 months were pretty much all Japanese and I was so upset. Now she is about 60-40 Japanese English and really excited to speak English with us.

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  3. I have Japanese friends at the park who can't figure out which their children are saying, either. It wows strangers, though who see a one year old saying, what everyone thinks, is Mama!

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  4. I can see how you would feel that way. Hopefully soon there will be a noticable difference.

    Eat some soba for me! I miss Japan!

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  5. She's obviously a very bright little girl! I can completely understand your desire to hear her say "mama" first. While you are living in Japan, she is one of your strongest links to your cultural identity. Of course one day she'll be saying "mommy" so much it will drive you nuts, but I'm sure it's perfectly natural to be conflicted at this stage. :)

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  6. My little girl asks for "mah". She means milk. But in Swedish food is "mat." Husband likes to think she's speaking Swedish. Same kind of issue.

    You just speak English, and your husband just speak Japanese, and you'll be good to go. That's what I learned in linguistics grad school anyway :)

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  7. She is talking early which is amazing, I understand the hiccup in it all, waiting for the precious moment to be called "mother" in your native tongue, but nerveless, she chatting away!

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  8. Congratulations. My son is six years old and bilingual, so here is my BTDT advice: Assume that Peanut is saying English Mama and respond appropriately. Let the Japanese speakers in her life assume she is saying the Japanese word for food. That way she will distinguish the two separate languages.

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  9. Wow! She's already chattering away! What a smart cookie. Is she exposed to the word manma a lot? Do your husband or in-laws use it a lot? If not it could just be mama?

    Either way - I'm sure you are going to have a wonderful bilingual little one on your hands!

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  10. Wow! She's already chattering away! What a smart cookie. Is she exposed to the word manma a lot? Do your husband or in-laws use it a lot? If not it could just be mama?

    Either way - I'm sure you are going to have a wonderful bilingual little one on your hands!

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  11. You could always teach her a sign language to accompany the food request... they learn them so quickly and it can help distinguish between the two.

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