I thought I would share this one. It may be helpful to others with kids.
Back in 2008, I started this topic:
Children: Learn Russian & English together from birth, or learn Russian later? This was as my wife and I couldn't decide if our forthcoming daughter should learn both languages together or Russian later.
In the end, we decided she would learn both side by side, and we would accept her English skills developing a bit slower than other kids (which studies show is usually the case). Studies also show they catch up later on.
So pretty much from birth, when all together, we would use English, if I wasn't around, my wife would speak to her in only Russian. As she started speaking, when spoken to in Russian, she would only reply in English. Which demonstrated it was sinking in as she understood everything, but would speak little.
Last year, on the annual visit to the folks, an experiment was tried. Dochka went with the folks overnight to the dacha while wifey stayed in the town. The folks speak no meaningful English. We knew she
understood Russian by now, but refused to speak it. Well, with the folks, you speak Russian or you go hungry. After ten minutes crying in frustration, she started speaking simple Russian.
The last year saw her speaking Russian at home, but she wouldn't do it in front of me. Too shy. But she was learning and speaking it. Which I thought was great.
However, my wife expected the fluency of a Russian kid of the same age and was disappointed she "spoke like a three or four year old".
So right now, they are coming to the end of this years visit to the folks. At the start, a few weeks ago, watching and listening to her playing with other kids, my wife still thought her Russian was not up to scratch, and was a little dismayed by it.
With both of them, the total immersion in country for a few weeks makes the English take a temporary hit. Both are prone to pause briefly mid sentence while the right word in English comes to the front of the brain.
Again, a few days ago, off Dochka went with the folks to the dacha overnight (total immersion again), and it is reported that again, it was like turning the light switch on by the next day! The difference is like night and day. Suddenly, overnight, she engages with anyone with the same fluency as a local kid of her age. On the phone to me, she proudly announced that she now "speaks Russian properly". I tested her with a few random sentences
(remember she wouldn't speak Russian to me before) and she translated them on the fly, confidently, without pause or hesitation. Wifey tells me she has now 'reached the level I expect at her age'.
Today, on the phone, she asked me if I would buy her a toy the same as the kid she was playing with has. The toy has many variants, so I asked her which one and gave some examples as it has a lot of variants. She said
"Wait a minute, I will ask him", I then heard maybe a two minute Q&A, in Russian, between her and this other kid while she extracted from him the exact version of the toy he has. She then came back on the phone and relayed it in English with enough detail I know the version she wants.
On the same call she was counting in Spanish. Looking forward to going back to school so she can continue to learn Spanish there. Isn't it amazing how kids brains soak up information? I think we have another translator in the house.