One of the best parts, I think, of being a multicultural family is that our children will grow up naturally speaking multiple languages. Here in Bali nearly everyone is at least bilingual. The national language is bahasa Indonesia and most television and books are in this language but Balinese is the language spoken at home and to other Balinese people. A great number of people, especially in the tourist areas, also speak a third or fourth language. English is the most common with Japanese probably coming in second. Made speaks fluent Balinese, Indonesian and English, is semi-fluent in French and knows a little Japanese. Of course coming from a mostly monolingual country and not quite even being fluent in Indonesian yet, I feel most inadequate.
When Maya was a baby I assumed she would start speaking in English as I was her primary caregiver and I speak only English to her and most of the time with Made. In fact as it turns out, now she hardly speaks any English at all and at 3 months shy of turning two, her Indonesian vocabulary is catching up to mine and her Balinese has already passed me by.
At home Made’s family rarely speak pure Balinese to her, opting for Indonesian instead but she seems to have picked up Balinese as the dominant language and will ditch the Indonesian word as soon as she learns the Balinese equivalent. As i only know a handful of words in Balinese, it’s getting to the point where I can’t understand her.
Maya is speaking in proper sentences now and daily throwing in new words that we had no idea she knew. She will use a handful of English words with me but still vastly prefers the Indonesian or Balinese equivalent and will often get cross and shout it back at me if i say the English. I’d really like to strengthen her English at this point but it is hard when everything around is in Indonesian. She watches far more tv than i’d like already but I am considering getting cable in so we can get some English programmes (and 99% of Indonesian tv is terrible anyway). If we do end up putting her in an international school then that will help too but I’m still undecided.
While it is slightly annoying that she’s picked up more Balinese in her 21 months of life than I have in 3.5 years of living here, I’m hoping that I can actually start learning from her and that one day I will be at least conversational in Balinese.
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