The Kulas: Little Linguists

Misha and Sebby join the slide madness at the park in front of our apartment.

Josh and I still can't get over how good our kids have gotten at communicating in a second language. After a solid six months of Russian immersion at school every day, the kids do just fine in school and at the playground without relying on English. Now that the weather is so ideal, we have been playing outside with the children in our area. And since the boys are able to understand so much more now, it is much more rewarding for them as they socialize with other kids and improve their Russian at the same time.

Two girls join Misha to dig up dirt for our flowers.

Misha can really hold his own in Russian. There are always new words that he doesn't know, of course, but he's great at using context to understand the meaning. On top of that, his accent is so good that it leaves his parents feeling extremely envious. Misha now corrects our pronunciation. For example, when I say words, like быстро ("fast"), he tells me, "Mom, it's not beestra, it's bistra." (The Russian letter ы is a sound we do not have in English, and most adults learning Russian find it a bit tricky. It's like putting your mouth in the shape to say "eeee" but trying to say "i" as in "pig.")

Misha and Vladik on scooters.

Now that he is almost ready for first grade, he has started bringing home math homework and short texts to practice reading in Russian - sometimes about elephants, sometimes about dogs who traveled in space. To help Misha learn even faster, we found a teacher to give him extra lessons a few times a week. These home “classes” aren't really work; they're mostly fun conversations and having stories read aloud as a way to learn new words. We always hear Misha jabbering away in Russian and laughing during his lessons!

A three-person hug with Alihan

Misha and Sebby both have a natural sense of the language. When they hear Russian spoken around them, they switch immediately to speaking their second language. Misha knows more vocabulary than Sebby, which is understandable since a seven-year-old's world is much bigger than a three-year-olds. However, we are constantly surprised when we hear how well our little Sebby can speak Russian in complete sentences. When our friends come over and ask him questions, he responds easily and naturally. If they ask him what he did, he might say, “Ya mnoga paspal. Ya pakushal.” (I slept a lot. I ate.) Last week my friend asked him, “Gdye Misha?” (Where's Misha?) and Sebby launched into an explanation: “Misha nietu; on tuda uyehal.” (Misha's gone, he went over there.) After school, we sometimes ask Sebby "Chto ti kushal?" (what did you eat?) and he pipes up immediately, "Soop i hleb!" (soup and bread).

Saule teaches the boys a Russian hand-slapping game.

In many ways, Sebby's youth has really given him the chance to learn a second language completely naturally. Sebby has learned the language purely through situations, without using translation. Young children Sebby's age don't even understand the concept of translation. They have learned a set of words in their first language, and separately they have learned a set of words in their second language. They can use both sets of words very well. If you ask Sebby “Do you want water?” he will say “Yes,” just as if you ask “Ti hochish vodu?” he will say “da.” But if you ask him, “What is 'water' in Russian?”, the question doesn't even make sense to him. Since he has learned all of his vocabulary and expressions naturally, he speaks very well, with a more natural sense of grammar than adults.

To take one example, Sebby uses the expression “I have” perfectly in Russian. To say “I have an apple” in Russian, you say “u menya yest yablaka” - which word-for-word means “To me there is an apple.” Misha sometimes says it incorrectly in Russian (“Ya est yablaka”) because he's thinking of the English equivalent in words. Sebby, in contrast, learned the phrase as a whole without translation, and I hear him say “u menya est!” and “u menya nyet!” (I have it!, I don't have it!) just as Russian children do.

Being older isn't always a drawback, though. Misha has the advantage of knowing and appreciating the differences between languages. He finds words interesting and he often asks, “Why does Russian say it that way?” He also has a lot of chances to share knowledge with his classmates. They ask him words for objects in English and in turn he asks them the Russian names for things. Also, we have noticed that Misha is starting to pick up the correct endings for words, simply from listening to Russian all day. Russian has six cases, which means word endings change to reflect what part of speech they are used as (like German, which has four cases). Both boys have made so much progress already that we can confidently say they will be extremely comfortable in Russian by the end of next year!

The wonderful thing about Bishkek is that Russian isn't the only language you hear on the street. Kyrgyz is prevalent also (even though some city Kyrgyz people don't know their own language well and prefer to speak in Russian), and Kyrgyz language is a required subject in schools. That means that Misha knows a good handful of words in Kyrgyz, such as colors, numbers, and animals, as well as several Kyrgyz songs. Sebby also hears Kyrgyz at school, and sometimes I hear him say Kyrgyz phrases, like “chong bala!” (big boy) and “Bul emne?” (what's that?).

Misha and Sebby with Vladik

Now for an interesting story about Misha's friend Vladik:
When Josh and I were in Kyrgyzstan the first time, we taught a Russian guy named Pasha, who worked as a guard for the U.S. Embassy. Pasha's wife had just had a baby, and I was pregnant with Misha. After Misha was born, we started to hang out with Pasha and his wife Marina, and the kids - Vladik and Misha - would play. When we went back home to America, we lost contact with them. However, by a funny turn of events, when we came back to Kyrgyzstan in September, we realized we are neighbors with Vladik's family. On top of that, Vladik now has a little brother Yarik who is less than a year older than Sebby.