Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - A big move, with a 5-year-old

raveneye · 09-03-2005, 03:22 PM

Where to start . . . .

We are very seriously planning on moving permanently from Miami Florida to Croatia (a small country in the Balkans, won its independence during the Balkan war in 1995). We have just one child so far, a 5-year-old girl. Part of the reason for moving is to be closer to my family in Croatia and my wife's family in Berlin.

Our daughter was born here in Miami (I'm American too; my wife is German). She speaks both English and German as native languages, plus a little Spanish. If we move to Croatia she will start first grade in a small village school where only Croatian is spoken.

We're a little apprehensive about the transition for her. Neither I nor my wife speaks Croatian (yet) so there's not much we can do to prepare her. Has anybody here put their child into a school where nobody speaks their language? At her age, I think she'll be able to pick up the language pretty fast. In fact, if we stay there through her teenage years, then Croatian should become her preferred language (it seems inevitable that kids prefer the language spoken by their peers over that of their parents), although I think she'll always retain her English and German as well, from home conversation.

But I'm just a little worried about the transition .... it will be a new house, new countryside, new people, new culture, new school, new language for her. We'd have a meeting with the school administration and her teacher beforehand to make sure she's treated respectfully and with understanding etc. I guess I'm just looking for a little reassurance . . . here in our neighborhood a lot of the kids never spoke English before school, but in most cases the language switch wasn't coincident with a major move.

Any thoughts/advice is welcomed.

09-03-2005, 03:22 PM	#1 (permalink)
raveneye Born Against	A big move, with a 5-year-old Where to start . . . . We are very seriously planning on moving permanently from Miami Florida to Croatia (a small country in the Balkans, won its independence during the Balkan war in 1995). We have just one child so far, a 5-year-old girl. Part of the reason for moving is to be closer to my family in Croatia and my wife's family in Berlin. Our daughter was born here in Miami (I'm American too; my wife is German). She speaks both English and German as native languages, plus a little Spanish. If we move to Croatia she will start first grade in a small village school where only Croatian is spoken. We're a little apprehensive about the transition for her. Neither I nor my wife speaks Croatian (yet) so there's not much we can do to prepare her. Has anybody here put their child into a school where nobody speaks their language? At her age, I think she'll be able to pick up the language pretty fast. In fact, if we stay there through her teenage years, then Croatian should become her preferred language (it seems inevitable that kids prefer the language spoken by their peers over that of their parents), although I think she'll always retain her English and German as well, from home conversation. But I'm just a little worried about the transition .... it will be a new house, new countryside, new people, new culture, new school, new language for her. We'd have a meeting with the school administration and her teacher beforehand to make sure she's treated respectfully and with understanding etc. I guess I'm just looking for a little reassurance . . . here in our neighborhood a lot of the kids never spoke English before school, but in most cases the language switch wasn't coincident with a major move. Any thoughts/advice is welcomed.