A wise man once said nothing

My son, Hai Nam, is learning to speak three languages: English, Vietnamese and Spanish. He enjoys listening and repeating. He can copy pronunciation and intonation with good accuracy. There are a few phonemes that have taken more time to develop than others. In chronology of development, they are f, m, th, L, and in Spanish, rr. Vowel sounds did not pose much difficulty, but perhaps long vowels came after short vowels.

We have been reading books to him in all three languages. It was very interesting to see that at two years old he was recalling full sentences. And, now after two and a half years old, he produces original full sentences. Perhaps, because I speak to him in English most, I recognise his English speaking skill best. But, now that my father has been speaking with him more in Spanish, he is producing it independently, as well. 

From the age of two he’s had complete and accurate recall of the alphabet song in English and in Spanish. Although as Spanish letters are not all single syllables, that one has been more difficult. For instance, the letter y is ee-gree-AY-ga, a four syllable word.

He recognizes and names sounds outside, like trucks backing up on the road. The sound of a chair moving in another room. He can ask and answer questions, which is great because he can express needs and desires.

The one persistent error is with personal pronouns. He mixes up subject and object pronouns, and possessive adjectives. He’ll use you for himself and I or me for the person he’s referring to.

He also slips up with word order in negative sentences. He’ll say ‘should not’ and ‘not should’ interchangeably. 

I’ll be very interested to learn what his earliest memory is when he’s older. I’ve so often recalled places from childhood based on photographs I’ve seen of myself there. Even still, I believe my earliest memories are from around two years old. Particularly, I remember falling down the stairs when my parents went to look at the house they rented for us from the time I was two and half to the age of ten.

It’s great to hear Nam recall a full sentence from days ago. He just said something I had told him about our pet cat. He said, “It’s hard to control a cat.” 

Speaking of time markers, he’ll use yesterday for any day before today. So, when the power went out a few weeks ago. He was saying a couple weeks afterward, “The power went out yesterday.”

All of this seems to validate the lexical approach, the audio-lingual method, and the value of a text-rich environment. I make this point as an observation of my son’s own effort to learn, not because we have pushed him to recall words or sentences. Repetition and recall of his own volition leads me to this conclusion.

He enjoys nursery rhyme animations called Little Baby Bum and Buster the Bus. These have certainly provided great input, in addition to our communication at home and on videocalls with my wife’s family in Vietnam.

For my part, I’ve been frustrated when my son is uncooperative, but from the time his speech was emerging, I’ve suggested, “Let’s talk.” His ears perked up, and he stopped whining. He was genuinely interested in my instruction or reason as to why he should not do what he had been doing.

It has become very difficult to get him to have a nap in the afternoon. I recently tried establishing rules, but Nam wasn’t keen. Without rewards or punishments related to sleep, the rules were ineffective. And, I couldn’t see any benefit to punishment in this case, because I had wanted him to relax enough to fall asleep on his own. So, I still rely on car rides or walks in the stroller to get him to sleep in the afternoon.

I’m not surprised, though. I remember that during preschool I had been very sad one day when I overslept during nap time and woke up alone, not knowing how long my friends had been up and playing already.

Since our moment to moment desires respond to fleeting impulses, I’ll conclude with the advice that I’ve needed myself, that I’d recommend any language learner, and that I’ll give my son when he needs a reminder: Life is not a sprint but rather a marathon.