Bringing up a nipper in LOS

My apologies for the lack of posting recently, my time is somewhat limited now the kid is in control, although I still fully intend to post when I can.

Bringing up a kid in Thailand is a little different from how it might be in the UK. For one thing, it's warmer, most of the time quite a bit warmer; rather than be confined to the indoors due to poor weather (as he might be in England) in Thailand he often has to be kept indoors due to the heat..... Everytime I walk him from, say, the car to a shop, various blankets / shirts / hankees are thrown in my direction to protect his little features from the blazing sun.

The other thing that springs to mind is language.

Everybody accepts that Aiden will most likely speak two languages, but, I would be a liar if I said that there wasn't a little competition for which language he will learn first.

I, of course, want Aiden to speak English prominantly, being that I am his dad, and would like to say a few things to him on occasion, but this feeling is echoed by his Thai family. I think the poor little sod has his work cut out, even at this age. (incidently if anyone who has young kids in Thailand who can offer any tips on language development, would be greatly appreciated). I don't think it will be much of a problem, as he is surrounded by the Thai language everyday, and Sutiya and I only speak English (as my Thai is dodgy at best) I hope he can soak it all up without too many issues.

Another thing is work.

As Sutiya and I often work together, this has meant that Aiden has tagged along with us.

I have to confess, I wasn't sure how this would 'pan out', or whether it was practical, but it has worked well so far. Thailand's more relaxed attitude towards kids / family and work in general has meant we are freer to venture out together, and take advantage of Thailand's endless range of decent quality, affordable pitstops and hotels ..

Whether this can continue as he gets older is anyones guess.

Having a young family in Thailand is alot of fun, but as he begins to run around etc I will no doubt have nightmares about snakes / creepy crawlies etc, something I wouldn't worry about in the UK, but I'm sure if I was back at home in England I would replace this worry with something else...

Have a happy and safe Songhran and thanks for reading.

Comments

[Mike]

Ben nice to see you so to speak. The nipper looks great. With language like you I will be interested to see how it develops.

My experience with Doy, who has only been exposed to English for a year is that she is becoming bilingual, Thai is her stronger language, but I expect this to change as she gets older.

I'm not sure if its confusing(for her) but she often uses Thai and English in the same sentence.

[Ben Shingleton]

Hello Mike :) Nice to hear about little Doy, I think it gives them a great advantage, i'm a little worried he's gonna speak more thai than I can handle! But guess it will be a good way to pick up the lingo also. Nice to hear from you hope all's well.

[Jamie Monk]

I have 2 kids, both born here, age 8 and 5, both bilingual. Kids learn fast, they learn everything, your boy will be bilingual... rather like you, my wife and I speak English most of the time, and my Thai is also dodgy after 10 years here. It will amaze you how he grasps both languages. But yes, the competition is on.. if you want him to speak English... speak to him all the time and enjoy fatherhood :)

Cheers
Jamie
Phuket

[Jon]

Ben,

Your little fella looks well.

My little'un is almost 18 months and thought he is yet to speak he understands a lot of English and Thai. If anything his English is probably stronger as - like you, my wife and I converse in English (though she speaks to him in Thai).

We are still pretty competitive with languages so I make sure I spend at least an hour with him talking English. He picks up an understanding of words v quickly, though his speaking is limited to car and pla (ปลา) aka fish.

Look forward to hearing how you get on.

And I totally sympathise re time for blogging, mine is (albeit rarely) done late night usually.

[Ben Shingleton]

Hello Jamie, thanks for the tips, always v handy to get the know-how from someone in similar situation. I'm v happy the boy will be bilingual, although right now I intrigued how this will develop. I have to seriously sharpen up my Thai I guess, although not sure when?! Am loving fatherhood, and I'm making sure the little 'un gets his fair share of English exposure, as I have a whole army of Thai's to compete with! Thanks for your message and all the best to you and yours. Ben

[Ben Shingleton]

Hiya Jon, thanks for the message, thank god I'm not the only one with the competitive streak, the more we go along the more I realise I have to be a little selfish in terms of talking English to him, or its likely he won't get any of it as he's so exposed to Thai. I reckon if it were up to the Thai's I'd have to use a phrase book to talk to him ;) Good luck to you and yours and congrats on the marriage, hope you had a great day!

[Camille]

Hi Ben,

My kids are tri lingual, Dutch (my native lingo), Thai (oops, does Southern Thai count as well?) and English, bits and pieces.

The key is to stick speaking one language to them, in your case English. Do it consistently however! Everybody else will be talking Thai to him anyway, so no need to worry in that department.

Children learn (and forget) languages easy, it's no problem for them to switch half sentence into a different language.

Enjoy!

[Ben Shingleton]

Hiya Camille, it amazes me how much the little ones can soak up!

Thanks for the comment, receiving comments from those with personal experience has helped chill me out, and made me realise moreso what lucky little beggars these bi / tri kids are, so thanks all!