My son has added a few new words to his vocabulary:
- "An apple", he also knows that it is "яблоко" in Russian. He learned this word when his was shown to an apple tree.
- "Муха" [a fly] in Russian, he knows what it means it English. He learned this word while watching me trying to get rid of an annoying big fly buzzing around the room. Later he saw a fly in a fairytale written by the Russian children's poet Korney Chukovsky Mukha-Tsokotukha [Buzzing Fly]. Now he says that all flying insects are "муха".
- He also uses the Russian words "книга" ['kniga', a book], "мама" ['mama', mommy], "папа" ['papa', daddy], "камешки" ['kameshki', small stones] (he pronounces it as [kais']), "каша" ['kasha', porridge], "йогурт" [yogurt], "пить" ['pit', to drink], "кушать" ['kushat', to eat], "печенье" ['pechenje', biscuits]. He knows the meaning of all these words in English.
- He uses the following words in English and knows what they mean in Russian: "fish" (рыба), "oh no" (о, нет), "wow!" (здорово!), "this is" (это), "owl" (сова), "shoes" (туфли), "plane" (самолет), "careful" (осторожно), "get down" (спускайся вниз), "hello" (привет).
- He knows these words in English only: "on, off" (when referring to the light), "up, down" (when referring to movement).
- He knows these words in Russian only: "нос" ['nos', nose] and "глаза" ['glaza', eyes].
- He knows names of numbers in English and Russian but does not understand the concept.
My son makes up simple sentences in English and knows what it means in Russian:
- e.g."train gone", "train go", "bye-bye train", in these sentences he uses all English and Russian nouns that he knows;
- "all gone", when he knows that his meal is finished or we are going to sleep or going home.
He makes only one sentence in Russian, using the verb "катись" [slide down] and all Russian or English nouns that he knows.
My son also recognizes songs and rhymes in both languages.
An interesting observation - my son knows the concept of a boat, that it's an object that floats on water. So, he attributes this notion to a floating soap dish in a bath. He also makes associations between all moon-shaped objects and "the moon", as well as all ball- or apple-like objects with the words "a ball" and "an apple". At the moment it seems that my son assigns one general word to a whole group of words that are determined by the same attribute - mainly it is a movement verb.
But this journey into languages started with onomatopoeic words in Russian: "ту-ту" [tu-tu] for a train, "би-би" [bi-bi] for a car, "у-у" [u-u] for a plane, "кап-кап" [kap-kap] for rain drops, "гав-гав" [gav-gav] for barking of a dog, "мяу-мяу" [miau] for a cat, "пи-пи-пи" [pi-pi-pi] for twittering of a bird, and "ням-ням" [njam-njam] for eating. It seems that onomatopoeic words help draw a preliminary picture of the world.
- "An apple", he also knows that it is "яблоко" in Russian. He learned this word when his was shown to an apple tree.
- "Муха" [a fly] in Russian, he knows what it means it English. He learned this word while watching me trying to get rid of an annoying big fly buzzing around the room. Later he saw a fly in a fairytale written by the Russian children's poet Korney Chukovsky Mukha-Tsokotukha [Buzzing Fly]. Now he says that all flying insects are "муха".
- He also uses the Russian words "книга" ['kniga', a book], "мама" ['mama', mommy], "папа" ['papa', daddy], "камешки" ['kameshki', small stones] (he pronounces it as [kais']), "каша" ['kasha', porridge], "йогурт" [yogurt], "пить" ['pit', to drink], "кушать" ['kushat', to eat], "печенье" ['pechenje', biscuits]. He knows the meaning of all these words in English.
- He uses the following words in English and knows what they mean in Russian: "fish" (рыба), "oh no" (о, нет), "wow!" (здорово!), "this is" (это), "owl" (сова), "shoes" (туфли), "plane" (самолет), "careful" (осторожно), "get down" (спускайся вниз), "hello" (привет).
- He knows these words in English only: "on, off" (when referring to the light), "up, down" (when referring to movement).
- He knows these words in Russian only: "нос" ['nos', nose] and "глаза" ['glaza', eyes].
- He knows names of numbers in English and Russian but does not understand the concept.
My son makes up simple sentences in English and knows what it means in Russian:
- e.g."train gone", "train go", "bye-bye train", in these sentences he uses all English and Russian nouns that he knows;
- "all gone", when he knows that his meal is finished or we are going to sleep or going home.
He makes only one sentence in Russian, using the verb "катись" [slide down] and all Russian or English nouns that he knows.
My son also recognizes songs and rhymes in both languages.
An interesting observation - my son knows the concept of a boat, that it's an object that floats on water. So, he attributes this notion to a floating soap dish in a bath. He also makes associations between all moon-shaped objects and "the moon", as well as all ball- or apple-like objects with the words "a ball" and "an apple". At the moment it seems that my son assigns one general word to a whole group of words that are determined by the same attribute - mainly it is a movement verb.
But this journey into languages started with onomatopoeic words in Russian: "ту-ту" [tu-tu] for a train, "би-би" [bi-bi] for a car, "у-у" [u-u] for a plane, "кап-кап" [kap-kap] for rain drops, "гав-гав" [gav-gav] for barking of a dog, "мяу-мяу" [miau] for a cat, "пи-пи-пи" [pi-pi-pi] for twittering of a bird, and "ням-ням" [njam-njam] for eating. It seems that onomatopoeic words help draw a preliminary picture of the world.
