Bilingual environment

[Amiridze, Nino]

Dear colleagues,

I would appreciate it if you could give me any advice on a problem related
with a biligual environment.

Because of my husband's job we together with our two daughters (5 and 7,5
years old) live in a small Upper Austrian village where my husband's
reserach institute is located.

Although some co-villagers are xenophobic, we did not really have serious
problems untill recently when our older daughter started visiting the
primary school (Volksschule) there. The teachers seem to be nice and our
daughter seems to be one of the best students according to their records.
But the main teacher who leads their class has started asking us to speak
German at home. We are Georgian nationals and although speak also other
languages including German we always speak only Georgian to our kids. First
of all because it is the most natural thing to do to speak a native
language. Second, here there is no one else but us who could address our
kids in Georgian and the only chance to learn the language they have only
with us.

Apart from the school subjects, at home we read with our kids books both in
German and Georgian. But it seems that just reading is not satifactory for
the teacher and she repeatedly asks us to speak German ``at least one hour
per day". 

I tried this several times and I think this is a dangerous experiment, at
least it seems to me to be so. My daughters started asking me why are we
different, why don't we speak German like others. Even when carefully having
explained that they started apologizing for us in the shops, buses, and at
many occasions that their parents, you know, don't really speak the German
language properly, and so on. I think they are developing a kind of complex
not only because of the teacher but also because of the peoples attitude
towards foreigners at the place of our residence.

Every time we meet the teacher, even if away from the school, she reminds us
to use German at home. Last year my husband and I explained to her that they
need to hear Georgian at least from somebody and perhaps the German spoken
by a native speaker is more important for their language development than
our German which is after all learned during the last 3 years. But we got a
sarcastic smile probably meaning that she simply didn't believe us thinking
we were avoiding her advice because of the lack of time or for some other
reason.

Could you please let me know your opinion about the use of languages with
bilingual kids and what results might follow. Could you give me the
refernces for popular articles written in German to show them to the
teacher? Does an educational offical have any right to plan a language use
in non-native families? I think we have a right to preserve our language and
culture and we think one of the most important ways to do so is to use the
native language at home.

Thank you very much.

With best regards,

Nino Amiridze

Utrecht Institute of Linguistics
Utrecht University