Do You Speak OPOL?
by Valerie Collins
~ bloomin' bilingualism ~
Children, of course, are not born into the one-on-one mother-and-baby limbo so beloved of childcare books, popular psychology and ad agencies, but into a complex web of relationships within a complex society. When two or more languages are spoken in that society, we may worry about our kids getting mixed up. In fact, conservative estimates suggest that more than half the world's population is bilingual or multilingual, and children are perfectly able to learn several languages from the cradle. We can help this natural process by being aware of different approaches to bringing up bilingual children followed by parents worldwide.
When discussing bilingual kids, the language of the community in which the family lives is called the majority or M- language. The other language is called the minority or m-language. Here, for clarity and simplicity, M is Spanish and m is English.
The two basic patterns most families follow (unless they have no pattern at all) are:
OPOL: One person/parent one language. Each parent and any other person involved with the child (grandparents, nannies etc) uses one language when speaking to the children. For example, Mum speaks English to the kids, Dad Spanish.
ml@h: Minority language at home. Both Mum and Dad speak English with the kids.
BPBL: Both parents both languages. For example, the whole family speaks English during the week and Spanish at weekend, Spanish and English alternate weeks, English at home and Spanish on outings... many patterns are possible, the important thing being that it works for you.
Many families find that OPOL and ml@h get mixed up; in particular OPOL is used in one-on-one parent-child situations and ml@h or even Ml@h when all together. This will largely depend on the parents' ability to understand and speak each other's languages, and which of them they habitually use with each other. One partner may not speak the m-language well or at all, may be learning it, or simply feel uncomfortable with it, especially if the couple spoke the M-language together when they first met.
Another factor is who cares for the children during the day: the regular presence of M-speaking people like local grandparents, babysitters and so on may lead to the M-language becoming the all-purpose family language (Ml@h).
But all is not lost. Small children will still come to associate a particular language with a particular person, grouping or situation provided you follow your established pattern as best you can. However, it's counterproductive to become too rigid or uptight about it, like the Swedish woman I heard about who got so upset when her child spoke to her in Spanish that she took him out of school altogether.
Cultivated with a light touch, bilingualism will bloom in its own time. The most important thing of all is that we communicate. That's what language is for, isn't it.
Sunflowers, Cordoba, Spain
Valerie Collins is a professional writer, freelance translator and former English teacher. Her site, Worlds Apart Review, run jointly with Brenda Townsend Hall, provides writing and editing services as well as an opportunity for expatriate writers to showcase their work and belong to a supportive cyber community.
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Copyright © Valerie Collins. All rights reserved. Please contact the author for permission to use this article (includes reprints in mailing lists, newsletters, and/or any other purpose/format) and give details of its proposed use. Any and all use of this article in any way without permission is prohibited under copyright law.
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