Georgia's story 

1. When did you arrive in Dubai?

Georgia and her family arrived a year ago in February 2006.

1. Please introduce your family and the languages spoken by each family member.

Georgia is Italian and her husband is Austrian and they have spoken Spanish together ever since they met in Argentina.

Georgia and her husband have one daughter, Federica, who is 4.5 years old and one daughter, Lavinia, who is 2.5 years old. Federica was born in Holland whereas Lavinia was born in Egypt. Georgia herself has grown up in an Expat environment whereas her husband grew up in a monolingual environment. Georgia speaks Italian, Spanish, English and some German and her husband speaks German, Spanish, English and a little bit of Italian. Georgia only speaks Italian to her daughters whereas her husband only speaks German to them. Just before the move to Dubai Georgia and her husband had tried to switch from speaking Spanish to each other to speaking German and Italian to improve the exposure to both languages for their daughters but because her German and his Italian aren’t very good, it was very difficult and tiresome and when they had to organize the move to Dubai they eventually gave up.

Federica is fluent in Italian and English and picking up some German. Italian is still Federica’s strongest language because for the first two years she has been mainly with her mother. English is getting stronger every day because she had an English-speaking nanny and is at an English-speaking school here in Dubai. Federica understands probably 70% of what her father says but as she is rather shy she speaks single German words but not full sentences. She has already picked up single words in Spanish.

Lavinia attends an English nursery and since she has always lived in an English environment, English is her strongest language. Now that Lavinia is starting to talk there are lots of English words. Both girls only pick up German from their father and there is a house rule that they can only watch TV and DVD’s in German or Italian. The family spends roughly 2 months per year in Italy compared to “only” two weeks in Austria. In Italy there are cousins of similar age. Federica is interested in reading and writing and she reads in Italian but is mainly excited about English books. Georgia says it’s a daily battle what they want to read and watch compared to what their mother wants them to read and watch.

1. What are the language goals for your kids? Why is it important to you that your children learn these languages?

Georgia is confident that Federica and Lavinia will be fluent in Italian, German and English and would like to introduce her daughters to a fourth or fifth language if there will be the opportunity. It is very important to Georgia and her husband that their daughters learn their mother tongues but they don't want to be overambitious and are realistic that the level of the written German and written Italian might be lower than if both girls had grown up in Italy or Germany. Federica and Lavinia will read, write and speak English to the level of a native speaker as they attend an English school/nursery and live in an English-speaking environment.

1. How did you hear about the multilingual network?

Georgia heard about the multilingual network through another mother at her daughter’s nursery.

1. Did you attend the “How to raise children bi-/multilingual” workshop? Did attending the workshop have any impact on your language goals? Did you implement any changes afterwards?

Georgia and her husband both attended the workshop. Although Georgia says that it didn’t really change their strategy on how to raise their daughters multilingual, the workshop definitely clarified and reinforced their strategy. Especially her husband realized the significant part he has in teaching his daughters German. Before the workshop he would allow his daughters to watch cartoons in English while preparing breakfast whereas now he is firm that only cartoons in German are allowed. Her husband is now sticking to the language rules they have agreed upon.

1. Do you attend the multilingual network meetings? What motivates you to attend?

Georgia is still attending some meetings but she said she is less interested in the presentation topics this year. She reckons she already attended most important topics and learned a lot. This year she also had some health problems and less spare time.

1. How often do you use the multilingual website? What do you use it for?

Georgia thinks she only uses the website maybe twice a month. She is mainly interested in the language resources such as activities/courses and playgroups. She also checks on the current topic for the monthly network meetings. Thanks to Silke she has started the Italian playgroup, which is great fun and the website has allowed her to run the playgroup in a more professional way than before. She also takes her two daughters to the German singing class offered by a member of the multilingual network.

1. Where are you now in relation to the language goals you have set?

As mentioned above, English is up and running and Italian is under control. The language goal for German is to let it develop naturally and Georgia pointed out that a few weeks in Austria over the summer will help a lot.

1. Do you face any problems that keep you from achieving your language goals? What else would help you to achieve your language goals?

Georgia thinks that in many ways support to teach Italian is missing. It is hard to find Italian DVDs, music, books and although she can organize to buy language material in Italy, it would be easier if it were available in Dubai. German language material is slightly easier to get in Dubai but there are not enough schools offering German or even Italian classes. Georgia feels the need to improve her German so that the family language could become German and her daughters would be more exposed to German but she hasn’t really looked into the availability of German tutors, maybe after the summer break.

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