Hi

L

Latascha

Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2011
Messages
154
Reaction score
1
Hi,
well...where do I start?! I grew up in Germany, still living there, but was brought up bilingually. I'm HoH, same as my husband and I was really curious about the deaf culture in the USA, so here I am.
We both know DGS, which stands for german sign language, but I was always wondering about signing in english. It all got a bit more complicated, when our daughter was born, because I would just speak english with her, but my husband wants sign language to be her first language. I totally agree with him, but if nobody is around, it is really hard for me to NOT use english. English words, german signs didn't work at all (of course not, but I did have to try:roll:), so I just came up with the idea of learning ASL.
Right now I mainly speak english with her (about 70%) and use about 30% sign language. Sometimes I actually speak german, but that's pretty rare.
We both were wondering if 3 different languages wouldn't be a bit too much for a 1 year old, so I'm not really sure if we keep up with it, yet I can't stop with english or with signing.
Well, if you got any questions, shoot.
 
:wave: Welcome!

I don't think 3 languages for a baby is too much. They pick up the stuff so easily when their young...

A friend of mine is actually teaching his twins Taiwanese, Mandarin, English, and he's thinking about adding a few other languages to the mix.

:D
 
I agree, their little brains are incredibly flexible. Go multi-lingual!
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. One language is enough, not to get confuse with other languages if the child can handle that. If you have a hearing child, then go for other languages as long as the hearing child are not confused about using different languages. As for the deaf child, yeah, it can be confusing to trying to understand in different languages at a very young age. If you are using German Sign Language along with American Sign Language when signing to your deaf daughter, then maybe that is not too bad there. I had never had any experience like that when I was young but I remembered when I was in my Senior year at the mainstream high school for French class. I could not pronounce proper in French but I could write French better. Now I am all rusty even in Canada. That is because I was living in USA after I graduated from high school and not be able to be around French people. :lol: Just don't pressure your daughter to learn more than one language.

I hope you have fun reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. :wave:
 
:ty: I like AD already.

My daughter is hearing. For now I speak english with her and sign german. I think that's the best way to make sure she learns those two languages. German she can pick up with the rest of the family or other people.
I'd love to teach her ASL but therefore I have to be really fluent at it first and that is not the case right now. (It is somewhat impossible to find an ASL class anywhere in this country.)
 
Back
Top