During coffee with friends this morning, I had to do a little bragging. Jaxson now speaks 5 words: mum (Vietnamese for nurse or breastfeed in our family, but it literally means to gnaw), ăn (to eat in Vietnamese), Mama, Da (for daddy), and hi.
I’m been a bit lax about keep track of when Jaxson accomplishes his milestones, so I didn’t think too much of what his first words are. I’m just letting him do things at his own pace, which means he’s really mobile-and I’m tired.
Lately he’s been using ăn and mum interchangeably. Which makes sense if you really think about it. As I was telling this, Stimey exclaims, “You mean he’s bilingual already?”
I hadn’t thought about his speaking in terms bilingualism. I spoke Vietnamese almost exclusively with Sophia until she was 2 years old. Her first words were in Vietnamese. In fact when she was one year old, my mother-in-law complained to hubby (but no me, of course) that Sophia didn’t speak enough English. Mind you, hubby only knows a handful of Vietnamese words but is all for raising bilingual children.
Now I don’t speak Vietnamese with the kids as much as I’d like. I speak to the kids in both English and Vietnamese-whatever comes out of my mouth first.
After this morning’s conversation, I’m going to toot my horn a little bit.
Jaxson is almost one year old, and he’s bilingual! He understands both Vietnamese and English. The fact that his first couple of words are Vietnamese is awesome.
I’m feeling like a pretty cool mom right now.
Thanks for pointing that out Jean!