A thought on language

I know there are a thousand different ways to teach a new language and every family will be different but I just wanted to share what we are doing. In the beginning, in the orphanage, we started with flash cards that we had bought at a local bookstore in Mariupol. It was a great way to interact and to bond early on. It helped me learn some basic Russian words and for Alex to learn some English words. Then once we left the orphanage, I graduated up to a workbook that I had bought in Mariupol that had instructions in Russian and exercises in English. This is more of a self-study thing but he seemed to like it.

I continued with this at home, but realized that I needed something a little more to add to the conversational piece of this. So, I broke down and ordered Rosetta stone English. They are having a special right now, $100 off. As many of you know, I am not that big a fan of Rosetta stone, but it has its place in getting conversationally off the ground pretty quickly.

It came in yesterday and Alex seems to love it. He admitted to me that he was up to 4:00 am doing it and when I went downstairs this morning to get him up finally at noon, he was sitting on the couch doing it as well. So I think I have made a hit. I guess he likes the visual component.

In addition, I have opted to not get a tutor. On the first day home, I invited Victoria over just to talk to him, but he seemed like he didn't really want to talk in Russian - or let me rephrase - there was nothing he was dying to tell me that I couldn't understand. He and she just chatted for a while. Then he spoke to Vira when she came over this weekend. And Rob's daughter called him on his phone yesterday and he spoke for only 2 minutes. I thought they would yak away, but he seems very unwilling to speak in Russian and the few times he has, he seems a little sad afterwards. He seems ok watching the movies I got him in Kiev before we came home, or talking to friends, but otherwise, he seems to be unwilling to engage much in Russian. I wonder if it makes him homesick?

Anyway, because of this, I have opted not to have a tutor in the house. We are just trying to muddle through on our own. I don't know if this is good or bad, but it seems right for him. There was once in the store yesterday when he wanted something special that I didn't think we had in America, so I called Deb and luckily her daughter was with her and she was able to tell him that we can't get it, but other than that, we haven't really needed help.

Alex is pretty open with us and if he needs something, he will usually speak up and try to ask for it. So this might not work with kids that are a little more shy, or unwilling to try out their English skills. Just thought I would pass along our experiences. Would love comments.