What the Folk!

Yes, 2 years!! It grows fast and isn't prone to split ends either, so it's just there, you know? That is why every time I think it would be nice to get it cut I decide to spend my money on something else. It did feel goooood to have it done now though

Now I need your advice on a more serious issue (for me at least):

My kids speak, read and write English. Mainly because they have gone to English speaking nursery and school, and because we lived in England for a year. I want them to be bilingual and I was planning to send our youngest to English speaking nursery as well. My problem is this: We had to move to the sticks because of my job. There are no international schools here so I have to be the one to see to that they keep using English. Getting them to read, especially Christiania, is quite easy. Christiania will speak to me in English as well. Nicholas used to do that. If I spoke to him in English he would answer back in English automatically. Now, after just little over month away from the old school he only rarely answers back to me in English. If I ask him to he will, but if I don't he'll speak Norwegian. I only talk English to them once in a while, usually while we're reading a book together or watching telly.

I am now considering making more of an effort, by simply going all out and speak English to them more or less the whole time. I know it will be a chore, especially at first, but I think it can be done. I am only afraid that I'll damage my kids while trying to help them I am particularly worried about doing this and scrweing everything up because it isn't my first language. I just don't want years of practice and money to go down the drain all because I had to take a job in the middle of freaking nowhere.

Just a minor meltdown

What do you guys think?

You write English beautifully. I'm sure you speak it just as well.
Everyone makes mistakes with the language - even native speakers!

Go for it - your kids will thank you later!

Oh, I think working at making your kids bilingual is a WONDERFUL thing, biscuit. I seriously doubt you'll do them any harm even though English isn't your first language. Like MM said, you write it fine, and I wouldn't think any mistakes you'd make in speaking it would be major. (My in laws make bazillions of bizarre grammar gaffes, and English is the only language they speak!) I'd say go for it, and I wish I could do the same with my son!

I'd say go for it. Loads of stuff online you can use also. Music, nursery rhymes and all that. If you stick to English at home and Norwegian at school or something I think it'd work fine. Its how most kids I know that are bilingual do it. One language at home, one for school/out.

Go for is Biscuit! You won't mess them up I'm sure. My step son grew up speaking both English and Swiss German. Now he's learning Italian too. Now that he lives in Switzerland my husband worries that he'll lose his English so he speaks to him only in English for that reason. And let me tell you, my husband does NOT speak the Queens English. He hardly speaks Keith Richards' English.

hahahahah it's true. He's very well spoken when he wants to be but in normal conversation it's like talking to someone who grew up in a swamp farming mud.

He he he:) Well, I guess I'll just work with what I've got

I explained the rules to the kids when I got home from work today, and they were fine with it. It was hard for me though. I kept slipping back into Norwegian It'll take some getting used to.

I did get Nic to talk to me though, and what's more, it seems Ben understands quite a bit more than I'd expected. I was on my lap top after work and Ben wanted to know if it was daddy's lap top. I said (in English) "no, this is mine!", and he repeated in Norwegian "oh, is it yours?". I was impressed

I find it hard not to facepalm myself when my in-laws utter the gems "flustrated" (a combination of flustered and frustrated), "spaided" (as in, "I got the dog spaided"), and "warsh the car."

Maybe your husband and my in-laws should go bowling sometime. They might come out of it with their own new creole!

Oh my God, that is HILARIOUS! Do they know that flustrated is made up or do they genuinely think it's a real word? I mean, I say Ginormous all the time but I know it's made up.

My husband knows his words he just choose not to use them. He uses words like "growed" and "is froze" and "aint". He does make fun of people who don't know what thier saying. Like he has cousins who think that crickets are called "crookeds" and that the dog got "the stempers" not distemper.

No, they don't know. To them, flustrated and spaided are completely correct. When my FIL first used "flustrated," I honestly didn't know what he was saying. I had to ask him if he was trying to say frustrated. He got kind of flustered (heh) and said, "Well yeah, you know what I mean!" It's like having Joey from Friends around all the time - except not as funny.

I don't want to come off as a grammar nazi, and I use the phrase "most bestest" like it's going out of style, but there's a point where having some good, dumb fun with language crosses over and become plain sad.

My next door neighbor one time went on and on about the "folk finish" on her living room walls. She must have said it 15 times, lol. It is a lovely faux finish. She is the best for that kind of stuff, she's a regular Yogi Berra, lol.

OMG it drives me insane when people mispronounce words or make up words (of course that only applies to people whose first language is English). A guy I work with says "irregardless" all the flipping time and it takes everything I have not to correct him. Maybe that's just the former grade school spelling bee contestant/wannabe writer in me talking.

My biggest word/sentence pet-peeve (or one of them...) is "I could care less."

Could you? Could you really?? Then why even say that? It's supposed to be dismissive!

"I couldn't care less."

*Sorry*

I'm kind of a word nazi as well...it comes from my Mom. But we screw up and we revel in catching each other. Sometimes I'll bait her with things I know driver her crazy like trailing off the end of a sentence with "....and whatnot..." Drives her batty!! Or I'll say "Supposably..." ~nails on chalk!~

(She also says "warsh." No idea why...she grew up here in MI.)

I had a knock down drag out over "could" care less on another board once. It was quite surprising to me to see so many people jump to the defense of the "could" care less-er by saying that since we all know what he means it's not a big deal. Um, no. When you say could rather than couldn't you are saying the opposite of what you intended.

Irregardless is another common one that makes people sound very stupid.

I like tooken, the past tense of take.