Language Barrier
Hey guys, today I'd like to share a little bit of my experience about language barrier.
So, as I've mentioned before, I've lived in Belgium for about 7 years, from newborn to toddler and childhood. My parents are Indonesian and they were studying to get their masters degree and that is when I came to the world. At home, my parents would talk to me in Indonesian language, and at the age of 4 months I had to be taken care by a daycare because obviously my mother had to go back to school and that was the only way possible. At daycare they spoke Dutch, so as a toddler I grew up speaking both Dutch and Indonesian language. After 'graduating' from daycare at the age of 3 I went to a preschool (Dutch-speaking). I spoke Dutch basically pretty much every time and mix it with Indonesian language at home. Then 3 months later our family flew back to Indonesia and I went to an Indonesian preschool. The funny thing was that I was still speaking Dutch and I have adapted this french sounding 'r' (Some Dutch speaking people use it. So there was this time my teacher asked the class what color she was showing (it was red). Every kid said 'merah' (Indonesian language for the color red) and I was the only one saying that it was 'rood' (Dutch for red). My teacher would say 'Yasmin this is 'merah' ' and I would insist that it is not 'merah' but it's 'RRRROOD' with my french sounding r. lol. But then eventually I got used to speaking the Indonesian language and forgot 100% of my Dutch. How super.
At the age of 8 I went back to Belgium where I have to learn Dutch again from 0. Everything went pretty well, I spoke Dutch fluently and Indonesian too. My friends and teacher had no problem with me still learning Dutch and speaking English the first 3 months. They were very supportive. Again at that time, because I was so used to speaking Dutch all the time at school, I mix Dutch and Indonesian at home. When I got back, BOOM! It was like a bomb! I was in a culture shock and I had really bad language barrier! Honestly, because I was speaking 2 languages pretty much throughout my childhood which is a crucial time of language development in a child , and the language level that I was learning was pretty much the basics. I was limited in speaking for deeper conversations with more complex words. I constantly have to translate languages in my head, sometimes when I'm confused I would just mix terms so that it doesn't have to be so hard for me explain things. And until today to be very honest I still have problems with words and saying the right things, delivering it right, I still mix languages up. Like, I know what I want to say, but I just can't get it out in the right words with the right order of grammar which leads to hesitations and a sometimes little bit a stutter. When I first came back, some, very few actually are pretty cynical because sometimes I use a little bit of English words, and I don't know, maybe I sounded snobby or whatever to their ears, but yeah I thought that was the best way I could explain things.
So what I can say from my story is that, yes moving countries with different languages, affects a child's language development. But the great thing is that from what I've learned at least, I learned to respect people in diversity, being very tolerant of different cultures and having the understanding about people with language barrier. Actually I had a junior whom I had to 'mentor' (my friends chose me to mentor him because they knew I had been in the same situation), he spent 8 years living in England, he understands Indonesian language but he doesn't use it. He speaks English pretty much all the time (and yeah, I knew there were cynical comments like 'oh why doesn't he just speak Indonesian?' 'Oh what a brag!'). But I let him anyway, because I completely get him 100%. Language is a process.
If you have the same language barrier problem as I am. Don't worry. I guess reading, writing and discussions are very helpful. Don't be shy to speak up even though it's hard to pick the right words, even though you might sound like a mixed up dictionary with a lot of 'uuummm's and 'ugh, what's the word?' . Even though your friends are like 'huh?what???'. Just keep trying. The point is for you to be heard and language barrier won't be that much of a problem. ;)
Love,
Yasmin
So, as I've mentioned before, I've lived in Belgium for about 7 years, from newborn to toddler and childhood. My parents are Indonesian and they were studying to get their masters degree and that is when I came to the world. At home, my parents would talk to me in Indonesian language, and at the age of 4 months I had to be taken care by a daycare because obviously my mother had to go back to school and that was the only way possible. At daycare they spoke Dutch, so as a toddler I grew up speaking both Dutch and Indonesian language. After 'graduating' from daycare at the age of 3 I went to a preschool (Dutch-speaking). I spoke Dutch basically pretty much every time and mix it with Indonesian language at home. Then 3 months later our family flew back to Indonesia and I went to an Indonesian preschool. The funny thing was that I was still speaking Dutch and I have adapted this french sounding 'r' (Some Dutch speaking people use it. So there was this time my teacher asked the class what color she was showing (it was red). Every kid said 'merah' (Indonesian language for the color red) and I was the only one saying that it was 'rood' (Dutch for red). My teacher would say 'Yasmin this is 'merah' ' and I would insist that it is not 'merah' but it's 'RRRROOD' with my french sounding r. lol. But then eventually I got used to speaking the Indonesian language and forgot 100% of my Dutch. How super.
At the age of 8 I went back to Belgium where I have to learn Dutch again from 0. Everything went pretty well, I spoke Dutch fluently and Indonesian too. My friends and teacher had no problem with me still learning Dutch and speaking English the first 3 months. They were very supportive. Again at that time, because I was so used to speaking Dutch all the time at school, I mix Dutch and Indonesian at home. When I got back, BOOM! It was like a bomb! I was in a culture shock and I had really bad language barrier! Honestly, because I was speaking 2 languages pretty much throughout my childhood which is a crucial time of language development in a child , and the language level that I was learning was pretty much the basics. I was limited in speaking for deeper conversations with more complex words. I constantly have to translate languages in my head, sometimes when I'm confused I would just mix terms so that it doesn't have to be so hard for me explain things. And until today to be very honest I still have problems with words and saying the right things, delivering it right, I still mix languages up. Like, I know what I want to say, but I just can't get it out in the right words with the right order of grammar which leads to hesitations and a sometimes little bit a stutter. When I first came back, some, very few actually are pretty cynical because sometimes I use a little bit of English words, and I don't know, maybe I sounded snobby or whatever to their ears, but yeah I thought that was the best way I could explain things.
So what I can say from my story is that, yes moving countries with different languages, affects a child's language development. But the great thing is that from what I've learned at least, I learned to respect people in diversity, being very tolerant of different cultures and having the understanding about people with language barrier. Actually I had a junior whom I had to 'mentor' (my friends chose me to mentor him because they knew I had been in the same situation), he spent 8 years living in England, he understands Indonesian language but he doesn't use it. He speaks English pretty much all the time (and yeah, I knew there were cynical comments like 'oh why doesn't he just speak Indonesian?' 'Oh what a brag!'). But I let him anyway, because I completely get him 100%. Language is a process.
If you have the same language barrier problem as I am. Don't worry. I guess reading, writing and discussions are very helpful. Don't be shy to speak up even though it's hard to pick the right words, even though you might sound like a mixed up dictionary with a lot of 'uuummm's and 'ugh, what's the word?' . Even though your friends are like 'huh?what???'. Just keep trying. The point is for you to be heard and language barrier won't be that much of a problem. ;)
Love,
Yasmin
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