Amazingly, the students learn the languages without confusing them much. This leads to multiple languages being used in a single conversation. A good example occurred at Jaiden's end of school year party. Jaiden was sitting with two of her friends, Bayu and Gung Ayu. Bayu speaks Indonesian and English equally well. Gung Ayu speaks mostly Indonesian but understands both, and Jaiden speaks mostly
English but understands both.They were talking about episodes of Tom & Jerry that they had seen recently, and they were switching between langugages without even thinking about it (Remember that they are all four year olds, so they usually say things that don't make sense and laugh at things that aren't necessarily funny.) It went something like this:
Me: Siapa kesukaanmu? (who is your favorite?)
Jaiden: My favorite is Jerry.
Bayu: My favorite is Tom.
Gung Ayu: Saya suka waktu Tom dipukul Jerry. (I like it when Tom is beat up by Jerry)
Bayu: Waktu saya nonton itu kucing minum dari gelas. Lucu sekali! (When I was watching it, the cat was drinking from a glass)
Bayu: The cat was drinking from a glass!
Jaiden: That's silly, cat's dont drink from glasses. (laughter)
Gung Ayu: Ha ha! Kucing minum dari gelas!! Aku pikir kucing makan pohon. (more laughter)
Jaiden & Bayu: The cat ate a tree?
Bayu: Tidak, kucing makan tikus. Kucing makan Jerry. (No, the cat eats the mouse. The cat eats Jerry.)
Jaiden: But sometimes Tom & Jerry are friends.
Gung Ayu: Kucing minum arak! (laughter from the boys)
Bayu: Orang tua dimakan buaya! (lots of laughter)
At this point, I jump into the conversation because Bayu just said that his Dad was eaten by a crocodile...
It made me think about how blessed Jaiden is to be learning a second language at an early age, and she doesn't even have to try... It also made me think twice about entering a conversation among a bunch of four year olds.
