American Moms in Bergen

[Anonym bruker]

I will be moving to Bergen soon with my daughter who is half American and half Norwegian so I'd like to get in touch with American Moms. Hope to hear from y'all.

 

 

[motherofthree]

Hi: We live about 3 hours from Bergen in a small town.. but Bergen is very lovely.. I believe there is an international school there. I am sure it will be easy to meet English speaking mothers and children. Best of luck

[Gorgonvaktmester]

We live right outside Bergen, I'm Norwegian and my wife's American. I'll tell her to check out the forum once she's back from vacation!

[Chunky81]

hi,

 

i'm norwegian but my husband is american. we live in bergen, in the city and have a boy that is 14 mounths old.

we speak english at home and hopefully the little one will be fluent when he starts talking.

 

 

let me know if you need any help or want to meet up

 

[Anonym bruker]

English speaker here to, and I have a question for Chunky.

 

Why do you speak English at home? Most professionals recommend that each parent speak their mother tongue to the child. This makes it more likely for the child to be fluent in both languages. If you live in Norway the child should be fluent in Norwegian first if you want to choose a language.

[shari_z]

Hi to Anonym just over:

 

Do you have any links to support this theory? I hear about it all the time, but I've never actually read any data to support it.

 

I'm American and my husband is Norwegian. I speak English to our daughter, he speaks Norwegian. English is our language between us as a couple. When our daughter was an infant, the helsestasjon gave us a study done by a woman at UiO (if I'm not mistaken, this was 7 years ago) that said if both parents are fluent in the non-native language, then that should be the language spoken in the home. In our case, it should have been English as my husband is fluent in English.

 

He didn't want to do that, much to my dismay. Our daughter was integrated into Norwegian culture/society: Norwegian church every week, Norwegian neighbors and friends, Norwegian barnehage, etc. I was the ONLY person who spoke English to her. She was 5 years old before she spoke English, and only then because we were in Texas and she found out that speaking Norwegian didn't produce a response from her grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins. She is 7 now and her English is very much a second language. She is, to be blunt, awful at it, and I find that distressing.

 

Another couple we know chose to follow the same advice we received and made German their language at home. Their children are fluent in both Norwegian and German and have not had the problems with the non-native language (German) like my daughter had (with English).

 

Sorry to "steal" from the thread, but if you could produce some links pointing out that each parent speak their native language, I'd like to read them. We are expecting our next child in 4.5 weeks and I'd like this one to learn English much sooner.

[Maddys_mom]

Looks like I'll be moving to Bergen sometime in October. I am sad that my daughter will miss her first Halloween in the US, I was wondering if you ladies would like to get together to celebrate with our little ones.

 

Let me know what y'all think.

 

 

 

 

[EPCDallas]

Hi, I'm American, with two toddlers (14 m girl & 27m boy), near Bergen. Would love to meet up plz email me at: paigedallas at hotmail. Thanks.

 

or others interested to meet up w babies:)

 

Paige

[EPCDallas]

Hi, imho I disagree w the 'experts' on this point, and have asked my Norwegian husband to speak English in our home, because:

 

1. *I* am the only person speaking English to our children (and until we visited the US recently for 4 months, our kids were only responding to Norwegian. Now my husband is also speaking English to our kids.)

2 I'm American, hence the children are half American, so I want them to be fluent in both our native languages, esp as if they ever want to live in the US, or if we move back to the US, they will need to be fluent in English (or Spanish). And I want them to be able to speak w their American sister who does not understand much Norwegian

3. I'm their mom, so I of course want my kids to be able to understand MY native language too; if I am the only one speaking to them in English they will NOT be fluent, as imho & personal experience, they will and do ony pay attention to Norwegian since that is what everyone else is speaking to them. Every couple I know in the US who tried your suggestion in their home in the US now have kids who only speak English, not the other parents language too.

 

Since we do live in Norway, yes of course the children WILL be fluent in Norwegian as that is all they hear other than me speaking it, but I also want them fluent in English, my native language, too--which is why I've asked my husband to also speak English to them.

 

And no I have no studies or experts to back me up, other than my own and other mothers experiences--but since it's my children, I'd rather go w my gut:)

 

Paige

 

 

 

 

[EPCDallas]

hi, that sounds fun,feel free to email me about it.

 

paigedallas at hotmail