Traveling With Kids: Foreign Language

Traveling With Kids: Foreign Language 

Today I stopped by the travel agent to confirm our Italian cruise
details.  I took my 3 year old in with me and he was patiently
waiting for my conversation to end. 
As we walked out the door, the ladies said goodbye to him.
He turned around and said “Ciao, Arrivederci, Bis Dann, Tschuss”.

This was unprompted and made me smile.  I have said goodbye to him in
German in a few different ways, including Bis Dann (means “until later”,
and Tshcuss another way of saying goodbye.)  He has learned
the Italian words in his Italian class.

However, many times he does not acknowledge that I speak German
to him as he is busy playing and he does not usually speak it to an
American who speaks to him in English!

This made my day.  And you know what? Locals LOVE to hear a small child
say hello, goodbye, please and thank you in their language.  It
speaks volumes about respect – oh yes, back to the basic respect!

And it is VERY easy to learn these words in any language and works great for
adults as well.  If you want to go beyond this stage, learn how to count
and use it in every day life.  In our house, we say 5 things we are
thankful for every night.  Instead of saying the numbers in English,
I have changed it to Italian.  When I wash my son’s hair, he counts to
10 in German while I am rinsing his hair with water.  These are easy to do
and familiarize a child with basic language they may hear in the airport
or on the plane.

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