Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Russian

I haven't spoken much about doing Russian with Nicholas. Make no mistake, we may be loving Chinese at the moment but Russian will always be his second language. The reason I don't mention it so much is that it is such an every-day thing for us! We speak Russian as often as I remember to (not as often as I would like!) and I make an effort to do most activities twice - once in English, once in Russian.

Thus Nikki's Russian succecesses are not being lauded as quite so impressive as Chinese, since I actually do speak Russian with him and have done since he was born. So here is an update on Nikki's Russian progress (which I estimate to be a couple of months behind his English):

Nicholas says hello, goodbye, please, here you are.

Nicholas can name parts of the body: hair, eye, nose, chin and bellybutton.

Nicholas can point to parts of the body when asked: head, eye, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, arm, leg, bottom.

Nicholas can ask for food: milk, biscuit, porridge, banana, cheese, pizza, bread, juice.

Nicholas can recognise foods: strawberries, raspberries, tea, water, pasta, potato, carrot, cake/pie, eat, drink.

Nicholas can say bath words: splash, bubble-foam (as opposed to bubbles)

Nicholas can understand bath words: towel, bath, bubble, dry off, get dressed, change nappy, put on nappy, get undressed, swim.

Nicholas can understand actions: wave, point, kick, nod, kiss, tickle, stand, sit, crawl, sleep.

Nicholas knows animals and their sounds: cat, dog, donkey, horse, pig, goat, sheep, cow, fish, frog.

These are not complete lists, just the words I can think of right now. There are more every day and I can't keep track!

Most days, Nicholas watches a couple of episodes of his Russian DVDS and looks at some flashcards for different objects/actions. He often uses some Russian words and others he uses almost exclusively (ie. won't say it in English, even though he can). We count in Russian almost as much as we count in English.

So if I don't talk about Russian much, it is just that what we do is so normal to us that I don't think to blog it! I think of Russian as his second native language, rather than his first foreign one.

4 comments:

  1. Hi,

    Dropping by to say hi. So impressive that you are teaching your child Chinese. I have studied Chinese for a short time and even then it is hard for me. Bravo!

    Can't imagine teaching Tiger Russian :)

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  2. I only know a few words and phrases in Chinese - we are learning together and I am sure he will soon surpass me!

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  3. Hi,
    I would love to see some activities in Russian with Nicholas. Maybe you have some printable to share and maybe you need something I have. The reason I ask is that I want to introduce Russian to my son. I know how to speak and write in Russian (probably lowest level) so any basic activity would be easy for me to implement. And honesty I don't have a time to prepare every activity in each language so I ask people around :) I hope you understand.
    I enjoy reading your blog and to see Nicholas's pictures. He is so adorable baby!
    marta@alohabroadband.net
    Have a great day!
    Marta

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  4. To be honest, I don't do a lot of printables with Nikki at the moment - most of what I do outside of LR is oral. I will definitely upload whatever I do make, but for the most part I use pictures/toys and speak Russian, since he is still a bit young for worksheets.

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