Where we are now

I have a long list of blog post titles that I want to blog about, lots of them looking back at things that have happened/not happened over the last two years, but it seems to make sense at this stage to look at where we are now. Our daughter is now 2.5 years old and never seems to stop talking...predictably, but still rather sadly, this is just about always in English. My husband has done a great job of being totally consistent in talking to her solely in Persian, but of course she knows he speaks and understands English as it is our main language between us at home and so she seems to have subconsciously decided to speak to him in English too. I can only assume that seems the easier option for her developing brain! She does however appear to understand everything he says to her, and often tries to translate things for me, knowing as she does that I only speak a "tiny bit Persian" (her words!). She responds really positively to other people talking to her in Persian, but unless she spends a significant amount of time around people speaking the language, it doesn't seem to have much of an effect on her talking. We have noticed that when spending whole days or weekends with other Persian-speaking friends or family members that her output increases a bit, she will use more Persian words when talking to my husband. The hope remains that one day if we can manage to spend some time in Iran, or if family could come and stay with us for an extended period, that she would happily start talking a bit more. For the moment, we have small victories! She always calls her father "Baba", something which is very important to him. I am watching out for this changing when she begins school and she may feel the need to conform... There are a few other words that have remained stubbornly Persian - I am not sure why - perhaps they are easier to say, or sound nicer to her, or they have just become habit. Some examples are "patou" for "blanket", "cammerband" for "belt or seatbelt" and "gardan" for "neck". Other words that she seems comfortable using in Persian and does use with her father are the numbers 1-10, the colours, some food names and body parts. Her production of Persian language can be quite strong - if asked outright what a word is "in Persian", she usually knows. The main thing for us at the moment is that she seems to be really happy trying out her Persian words and having this special language relationship with her dad, and some other friends/family members. She has a really good grasp of the differences between the two languages and can identify which books are English, and which are Persian. She knows who speaks which language, and will have a good go and speaking to her family in Iran on the phone - and sometimes pretends to talk to them on her play phone, in Persian. The conversation is limited (!) and consists mainly of "Salam, khoobi? Khoda hafez!" (Hello, how are you? Goodbye!), but it is wonderful to see her trying it out and experimenting, having fun. We definitely want to avoid her bilingualism becoming a burden on her and so far, it seems to be working... Khoda hafez!