Thursday, December 16, 2010

Compliments of the Season

We are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow. I am not sure how many blogging opportunities I will get, but I just wanted to congratulate everyone on their holidays. Whether it's Christmas, or Hannukah, or Al Eidha, or Kwanza, or New Years, or Russian Christmas, or Russian Old New Years - I am celebrating with you! The great thing about winter is that everyone has something to celebrate.


To me, one thing that really sums up my holiday spirit is a tangerine: bright, sweet, with a tangy surprise that you need to unwrap. When I was growing up in Soviet Union, we didn't have that many fruits in winter, as there are available now. For New Year's - our only winter holiday - we used to get подарок (literally - a gift), a bag filled with goodies: 1 apple, 1 orange, 3-5 tangerines, suckers, Lemon Drops, fudge, some chocolates, and walnuts. This was a classic present that every Soviet child received throughout their kindergarten and grade school years. Of course, our parents bought us other gifts, but this was a highlight of celebration, because the entire class would chip in on those goodies, and parents would sort them in individual bags. 


Every year, I would get a photograph of myself in a carnival costume holding my podarok, with tangerines in it. Knowing that this would be one of the few opportunities to eat them, I would prioritize all the stuff in my goodie bag to ensure the continuity of my tangerine indulgence. The last thing in the bag would be a tangerine.


Then, the year when my aunt left the Soviet Union, my parents traveled to Moscow and to Lithuania for her stuff and brought home ... a huge case of tangerines! Right in time for New Year's! They spread them on a blanket in the corner of our living room in order to prevent rotting, and for the first time we could eat all the tangerines we wanted. The continuity of indulgence was guaranteed by a pile remaining on the blanket. I was sick that winter and had to be quarantined (or maybe it was just an excuse for more tangerines?). I remember picking out just 3 to 5 tangerines at a time, placing them on a brass tray and eating them slowly, enjoying every segment. I don't think I ever got to the point where I couldn't eat them anymore. I just kept going back to the pile with my brass tray, until only bad ones were left...


A couple of years ago, here in Denver, I was walking home from work. It was just a couple of days before Christmas, lots of snow, and pretty chilly. On the 14th & Grant, a homeless man asked me if I had any change to spare. I didn't. "But", I said. "I have some tangerines. Would you like some?" He enthusiastically replied yes. I reached in my purse and pulled out 3 bright tangerines and placed them in his hands which he held like a bowl. "Thank you", he said, and from his voice I could really tell that he would enjoy them. I don't remember his face or what he was wearing. Just those tangerines in his bowl shaped hands. Bright orange surrounded by white, cold snow.


What strikes me is that we really enjoy things if we don't have that many of them. In other words, we cherish things when they aren't overly abundant. We remember those moments of abundance as happy moments, if the abundance is not all the time. I am not saying that we should all become homeless, but I probably wouldn't appreciate tangerines today as much as I do, if I had them year around growing up. Maybe the key to happiness is to find a tangerine moment in everything we do.


Happy Holidays!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Tune in

So, here is a new idea for exposing your child to even more foreign language media - online radio stations for kids. It took me literally 5 seconds to find a Russian radio station, which streams directly from Moscow (there is a down part about this - the shows run on Moscow time, ceasing all children programming around 9 pm) and offers variety of shows for children and parents, including story times, music hour, educational shows and shows on parenting and pediatrics for parents - all in Russian! Obviously, Sasha is a little bit too young to follow what they say on the radio, but this will be a great tool to promote more Russian around the house.

Another great thing about those radio stations is that their websites usually have archives of previous shows, as well as games, resource links, and coloring pages. A couple of quick searches - and I found a some stations in other languages, too. Here are all my finds:

Russian - www.deti.fm

I couldn't find anything in Spanish, tough. Maybe Google translator messed up my translation of "online radio for children" into Spanish?

In my opinion, listening to online radio is better than listening to audio classes in the same language, because a bilingual kid does not need a language instruction, he just needs more exposure to various media and people who speak that language. Of course, it wouldn't be right to just stick your child in front of the computer (since this is internet radio) and walk away. Parents should be listening, too, and singing along, playing along, and following up after a story or a show to make sure that the child understood what was going on. It helps to read the programming schedule and show description in advance, so that you are prepared to guide your child through the new information he will be getting from the radio.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Funny words

Sasha finds шпатель (Russian for spatula) funny. I don't know why, but every time he pulls out the spatula out of his treasure basket and I name it, he giggles or at least smiles. He also tries to repeat the word. There must be something about how this word sounds that makes him giggle, I suppose.

He also really enjoys when I mimic cats, tigers, and lions. Cats purr and meow, and Sasha loves my meow sounds and tries to repeat. And tigers and lions roar, which in Russian is just a rolled R, and that makes Sasha very eager about rolling his Rs, although he has been unsuccessful in that, as of yet.

And, of course, Sasha himself says some stuff that make me giggle: bookabooka, takalaka, gheegaleega, and many more. I am pretty sure that bookabooka is just another way to say book, or it might be even a combination if English word and Russian grammar (Russian word for book - книга - ends with a which marks feminine gender of the word).

As for the other funny words, it's hard to say what he means. In one situation recently, he said a very long undecipherable sequence while looking at me, like he was trying to communicate something to me, and when I asked him: "What did you say?", he giggled and said yet another long sequence that did not sound anything like the first one. This might be just another form of mature babble, where he just uses a lot of syllables without naming a specific object. (Maybe he wanted me to play him cartoons on DVD. Who knows... Recently, he has been showing a lot of interest in that DVD player.)

But as we know, no verbal utterance is just utter. If a child communicates, he does it for reason.

A friend of mine shared with me recently that she knows a mother that does not really "trust" my friend's opinion on communicating with young children. Basically, my friend was asked what was the point of talking to a 10 month old, if they just babble senselessly. A recent study from Cornell University showed that the way mothers respond to babble utterances impacts how fast infants learn all sounds of their language. So,  definitely, talking to a small child - even if you don't understand the word he says - makes a difference in their language acquisition. Of course, you cannot strike a conversation with your infant about the scandalous WikiLeaks publications or tell him a hilarious joke by Jon Stewart, but it makes all the difference if you just narrate their daily life and their moves through their environment, so that some day he can tell you about a bookabooka by Malcolm Gladwell that he recently read.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

A new school with Russian immersion program

As I was writing previously, Global Village Academy was applying for a new charter school north of Denver. The school would feature four dual language immersion programs, including Russian-English. So, the great news that I received a couple of days ago is that their application has been approved. Here is the full email from them:


Global Village Academy
Announcement
We are pleased to announce that the Adams 12 Five Star School Board unanimously approved the Global Village Academy charter!  GVA will open for the 2011-2012 school year.

We are in final negotiations for a building in the Northglenn area and a final decision will be made by the end of January.  We know that many of you are anxious to start with volunteer work and more information on that will be coming by the end of the week.  Where you can help the most is with student recruitment.  Tell all your friends and neighbors about GVA!

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support during this process.  This could not have happened without you.  We look forward to working with you in the coming months.

Sincerely -

Christina Burton
Executive Principal

John Kaufman
Vice Principal

Charmaine Nicolau
Communications Coordinator


This is especially thrilling because there is a total of 2 or 3 other Russian immersion programs in the US. So, our options for Sasha's dual immersion education were very limited, but now there is this new school in  Denver Metro Area. Well, by 2015, we have to move to the suburbia in order for Sasha to attend that school. He is already on the waiting list with them for that year. I will let you know further details, as I get more messages from them.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Books, books, books...

I haven't written anything in a while, and I would like to blame it on Thanksgiving weekend. As everybody else, we had four days filled with turkey feasts, visits with friends and car trips. Car trips is something that we don't do often, because we don't own a car. And I noticed that car trips resulted in not just less movement, but, with mommy and daddy sitting in the front, also in less direct communication with Sasha. It was mostly him listening to mommy and daddy speaking English. So, I guess, long weekends and vacations will always mean more English, and I would just have to make up for Russian afterwards.

During the dinner at a friend's house, Greg was telling everybody how he reads "Great Day For Up!" by Dr. Seuss to Sasha every morning. As Greg was reciting two or three lines from the book, Sasha all of a sudden said very loud and clearly: "Up! Up!". I am not sure if he understands that he could use this word to tell us that he wants to be picked up, but he definitely remembers the book.

And as I previously wrote, he is becoming quite a book lover, spreading the night time books on our bed, when it's time for bed time stories.

His favorite Russian book is "Where did the sparrow eat his lunch?" by S.Marshak. It's about the sparrow eating lunch at the zoo with all these different animals. He ate carrots with the elephant, and grains with the rhino... And the crocodile almost ate him. Sasha really loves that book, anticipating every line. He also pulls it out from the shelve, when he is in that play area.

In the meantime, the holidays are rapidly approaching. So, I tried to find some nice winter time books at the library. Now, the problem will be that Sasha does not really want to read any new books. Instead, he prefers to read his favorite ones over and over again. So, I tried the counting book "One Snowy Day" with no success.

Any other suggestions for good winter time books?

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bilingual schools

You might think that it is too early to be thinking about Sasha's education when he is just a year old. In case of our family, just choosing a good school is not enough. It is critical that the school that we choose does not discourage bilingualism.

Why would I say "discourage bilingualism"? Well, the widespread ELA programs (English Language Acquisition) discourage the use of any language other than English in a school setting. Kids who speak some other language more fluently than English are called English Language Learners and are told to take ELA classes, as well as some of them are paired up with English native speakers for improving their English communication skills. Apparently, legally, public schools are supposed to provide everyone with equal access to education, and that is why those ELA programs started appearing everywhere. It may be a great program for newcomers to America, but at the same time it sends a message that kids should deny their identity and that all other languages are not acceptable.

Fortunately, there is also a movement for dual language immersion education. Dual language immersion schooling starts out at Kindergarten or 1st grade level with kids spending 50% of every school day in a language other than English. That means that half of their classes (including math, history, etc) are taught in a language other than English. And in many cases you need to have special educational materials, because you cannot just use English language math books when you are using Spanish as a medium. These programs slowly introduce more and more English, and generally immersion programs end in the 8th grade. The logic behind K-8 immersion programs is that there is a critical period for language learning which closes at approximately 14 years of age. After that, it takes more effort to learn new languages. (Which is true, if you think about all those youngsters that take in languages like a sponge, while their parents struggle to learn a few hundred words for years).

While there are many immersion school, public, charter and private ones, around the US, it is actually very difficult to find a Russian immersion program. There is not enough community need and not enough general interest in Russian. The most wide spread immersion programs are the ones in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and French. There is also a new interest in Arabic. And there are some regional specifics, for example, Hawaii has several immersion programs for Hawaiian language.

In Denver, there is no Russian immersion program currently. However, Global Village Academy - a charter school in Aurora, CO - has applied for a new school in a suburb north of Denver. Their new school, if approved, will offer the Dual Russian-English Immersion program. We live quite far from that suburb, but we have already put Sasha on a waiting list with this new, not-yet-existent school. If it does not open, we will have no options for immersion education in Denver for him. So let's hope it will.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Language delay in bilinguals

So far, I have met two children who are being raised with multiple languages and have been diagnosed with a slight language delay at 18 months.

In Denver, there is a special free service from Denver Options, where a development specialist can come to your home for free, observe the child and diagnose any delay in speech or motor skills.

In two cases that I have heard of, children were diagnosed with a speech delay, and now their parents are being discouraged from using other language with their child. By other language I mean other than English. So, now these parents are confused: "Did my bilingual efforts cause this delay?".

This has been blogged about, and talked about: "Well, don't you think that your child will be confused about what language he should speak? Well, aren't you concerned how he will do in school?"

In my opinion, this is just how people discomfort with foreign culture and language manifests itself. "I am confused about this bilingual code switch, and so this child should be, too". In the reality, there are many places around the world where people live in a multilingual society - Switzerland, Ethiopia, India, and many more. And nobody in those societies questions whether their child should speak more than one language. In those societies, this is the only way to success in school, social life and business.

Coming back to those kids that I know. One is 3 years old, and another one is 19 months. They do seem to be more quiet in comparison to other kids. The 3 year old uses only English. She has been in English speech therapy, and her mom felt that using English with her would help. By now, she can still address her in her native language (I am omitting the information about what languages are being used with those kids, because I do not want those families to be identified), but the child only responds in English.

The second child has been diagnosed with a slight speech delay just a month or so ago. Originally, the father raised the concern about the child not saying any words. Denver Options diagnosed the child and offered speech therapy. Now, therapist comes about once per week and plays different games with the girl, games that would encourage communication. The therapy is in English. Sign language is also being introduced. The mom tries to copy the speech therapy techniques, and also switches more and more to English.

I have just seen the second girl again today on the playground. And at some point during play, she raised her hands to the sky and said something. We didn't really understand what she said and what language was used, but she does say stuff. I wonder if the therapy is working or if there was no delay. According to this article on Mommy Maestra, which is written by linguists who are working on a study of language delays in bilinguals, testing a bilingual child in one language guarantees lower scores than testing a monolingual child of the same age group. But if you combine vocabulary from both languages, you may get even a higher score. So, the question is if those programs available in our communities can properly diagnose language problems in bilinguals.

At the same time, I would like to say that Denver Options is probably a great service, because it is free, and they come to your house. I am just seeing two families that are convinced that their bilingualism caused speech delay in their child.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Sasha, Books & Kiki

I am a strong believer that you cannot just drill a vocabulary into a small child and expect him to know and use those words. Our environment sets up the stage for learning, and the first words that a child learns reflect his day-to-day living, his routines, his likes & dislikes.

And so, it is easily explainable why the new addition in Sasha's vocabulary is книжки / books. And I have to say that I have heard him saying book in English, and also trying to pronounce книжки in Russian. The Russian word for books is very difficult to pronounce, because it has the sound zh (there is no way to really spell it in English), but he just says kiki instead of knizhki.

Sasha is being read to by Greg in English every morning and every night. The repertoire includes Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton, as well as others. I read to Sasha in Russian, but I do it during the day when the mood strikes, and there is no routine around it. We keep cardboard books on the lowest shelve in the living room, and Sasha can pull them out if he wants to. That's usually when I read to him. I just read the books that he pulls from the shelve, and with advice from a friend, I am just translating the English ones as I go.

So, lately, when Sasha sees books and wants us to read to him, he says kiki a lot. Also, there were nursing sessions, from which Sasha just crawled away towards kiki. The episode when Sasha used the English word was also a nursing routine right before bed. Usually, I nurse him, and then Greg comes in and reads him some bedtime stories. So, on that particular occasion, Sasha was overly excited and did not nurse too well. He kept stopping looking at me and saying stuff that I don't understand yet. So, he looked up and said: "Papa?" And I responded in Russian: "Yes, Daddy is coming soon, let's eat some more". So, he nursed another second or two, looked up and said: "Book?" So, obviously, the English word is strongly associated with Dad, who reads to him in English.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Language & TV

I think we all are aware of the "evil" side of television entertainment. American studies linking childhood obesity to TV date back to the early 80s.  And before that, in the 1970s, psychologists used to show kids violent movies to see how they react, and the results were astonishing: kids with less TV per day were more sensitive to violence with their pulse fluctuating more than those kids who watched a lot of TV on a regular basis. (A side thought: Isn't it kind of wrong to place a child in front of a violent movie just to see how he reacts?)

Nowadays, there is plenty of research on language development and screen media (the term screen media encompasses television, recorded video, computer games and entertainment), and the results are not in favor of the latter: When young children watch TV, they tend to babble less, they tend to have less interactions with adults, and, as a result, they tend to acquire vocabulary slower than those kids with little or no TV exposure.

Truthfully, I have a TV on in the background, as I am typing this, but Sasha is asleep at this point. When he was a newborn, we used to watch TV a lot, having it on most of the day. That practice had changed with different family members who were helping us to babysit when Sasha was 3 - 7 months old. Nowadays, TV is on only when he is asleep, and some days we don't turn it on, at all. It's probably healthier for us, too. At the same time, we don't want to miss our favorite sitcoms that are on on Mondays. So, on Mondays we turn the TV on for an hour or so, and one of us occupies Sasha, while the other watches TV.

I wholeheartedly agree that television presents a distraction for a young child, not a learning tool. Of course, Sasha is distracted by TV when it is on, but 1 hour per week accounts to only 1 percent of his awake time, and 99% of his awake time he has opportunities for both independent play and adult-child interaction.

I think no TV rule, which many households adopt when their children are young, is a good one. But this can be modified for other families: no TV when your child is awake, and when he is asleep, the sound should be kept to the minimum. A tiny TV indulgence for parents is not a big deal, as long as the rest of the time parents are not just physically present, but are also available for two-way interaction with their child. Let's face it: your TV might be off, but you may be texting, talking on the phone or reading the newspaper for hours, which means no interaction opportunity for your child.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Blogging about blogging

I have been recently thinking about how many parents out there are blogging about raising their children being able to speak English and Russian languages. And it turns out there are not that many of us. So, I decided to share with you what I have found out.

The author of Learning with Mouse is a Russian speaking mom of a girl who is growing up in a trilingual environment - with dominant English and a pinch of German and Russian. It sounds like their multilingual story is not very successful, as the mom has been in the United States for a while now and says that raising her daughter in English feels more natural. English is also the medium for the media - books, movies, etc. If a book is in Russian, the child wants it to be read and translated. Both parents still try to expose the child to Russian and German,  but with monolingual English preschool it appears to be difficult.

On Bilingual Monkey, a Russian native mom encounters new sides of her own culture and laughs with her husband as they see their son trying to juggle Russian and English. It's too bad that she stopped contributing to it.

A 6 year old on http://spasfam.blogspot.com/ has recently decided that he loves Russia and all things Russian. The family has no native Russian speakers, but is willing to support their son's interest. So far, it seems like his motivation might be able to get him at least some knowledge of culture and basic words.

Irina McGuire seems to use the same method like myself - One Parent One Language. At this point, her son is about two years old and can differentiate between Russian and English, name parts of the face in both languages, and even mixes both languages together when building sentences (which is not a bad thing; the child is just experimenting to see what is proper in which interaction). That gives me hope that some day Sasha will reach this level, as well.

***
There is an update on Sasha's vocabulary. I have also added the English vocabulary page that proudly contains one word.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Searching for foreign language books

This proves to be quite a task, as there are many websites that cater to bilingual education by offering bilingual books. Personally, I think that purchasing bilingual books is not necessary. There is more sense in finding books in one language, in other words, purchasing monolingual books in two different languages. First, if the book can be read in two languages, which language will be preferred by a child? If a child is very interested in characters, but cannot pick in what language this book will be read to him, the monolingual book benefits to acquiring more vocabulary.

Second, I feel that offering bilingual books means raising your child on generic culture: no culturally authentic characters, no authentic interactions, etc.

Worldlanguage.com, as well as Amazon offer foreign language editions (I searched Russian edition) for books that were originally published in English. They are beautifully made, but I see the same problem arising - generic characters and utterances. If you are looking for foreign language books for your child, here are the methods I suggest:


  • Stop by a branch of your public library that is located in a neighborhood with high percentage of people who speak the language you are trying to teach your child. Most likely, there will be books donated by someone in the community and, even if you decide not to check them out, you can at least get a list of children authors.
  • Search authors.
  • Search "Russian children books" (or whatever language you need) instead of "bilingual children books".
  • Team up with other parents to start book exchange to keep your selection fresh.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

More language on a walk

Times when Sasha would nap on our walks have passed. Nowadays, it's all about looking around, exploring, meeting people and animals... While walks have always been part of our daily routine, now they have become part of his awake time.

For me this means, every walk (which may last an hour to three hours) can be an opportunity to teach him more Russian. As I push the stroller towards Cheeseman park, I point out squirrels, dogs, cars, people, bicycles... At this point, he can already recognize what I mean when I point out a dog. So, just saying (in Russian): "Look! It's a dog!" is not enough. I narrate with details: "Do you see two dogs over there -  a black one and a white one?",  "Look at that big, shabby dog across the street!", "Do you see a dog coming towards us?", "What does that dog say? Woof! Woof!". The same applies to squirrels, which fascinate Sasha beyond description. And so, I go into details about each squirrel in the park, its ears, nose, fuzzy tail and what it is munching on.

The way I see it, the more narration, the more contexts I provide Sasha with. His brain can then decipher my speech and identify the words that he has heard before in similar contexts. Animals excite all children at his age, and that excitement means high level of interest which translates into high motivation to learn.

Of course, each walk can also be a missed opportunity. We walk the same streets every day. And depending on the hour, we might not meet any dogs on the way to the park. But I don't want to be silent as we walk, I want to pack him with more phonetics and grammar. And so, I sing on the way to the park. (I wonder if the locals think of me as "that crazy singing lady with the stroller".) My repertoire includes mostly songs about walking, travel, and wander.  I know that, at this age, Sasha cannot really understand each word I am singing, but it gives him more exposure to Russian phonetics (the sounds of the language).

At the park, we are surrounded by English, obviously. And even though I converse with other parents and children in English, I still address Sasha in Russian only (One Parent One Language method), including description of what's going on around us: "Oh, that girl is just having so much fun on the swing!", "See how those children are going down the slide?", etc. This creates some confusion, mostly between me and toddlers. A four year old claimed that I said: "Snickerdoodle". I tried to explain to him that I was speaking Russian, which is a different language. He did not understand that. His parents commented that he has not been exposed to any language other than English, so he would not know what is a language.

I am sure that Sasha will know that concept, because he has exposure to more than one language.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Thoughts - Half of world languages might disappear by 2100

In a Wall Street Journal article about a new language recently discovered in Himalayas, the author gives a sad statistic: every two weeks, the last fluent speaker of a language dies. What this means for all of us is that we might lose as many as half of the world languages by the end of this century! Isn't that terrifying and sad?!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Russian and Montessori

I am fascinated by the Montessori method. Although there are many opponents of Montessori here, who say that the Montessori method does not provide enough structure and lets students fall behind, I see how this method can boost creativity and adventure spirit in small kids. And those qualities are very important for learning.

But here is what I am struggling with. On one hand, I would like to use some of Montessori techniques with Sasha. On the other hand, I feel that my narration during his play helps him to acquire Russian language faster. And narration leads to direction: I often find myself leading him towards certain toys and objects, when I try to talk to him during play.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

First words

I have added a page that will keep track of Sasha's words. As of now, his vocabulary is only in Russian. Once he starts using English words, I will add a page to track his English vocabulary.

I am tracking words that Sasha has used in context and the use was not prompted by adult's repetition. Here are some examples:

Thursday, October 14, 2010

The talking puppy

My family sent Sasha a Russian speaking puppy for his first birthday. In actuality, it is Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Learning Puppy that speaks Russian and is sold in Russia. It is great to have a toy that speaks my language, for a change. Not that I think that Sasha can learn any words from this puppy, but there are many ways to incorporate it into our daily plays.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Hawaiian Pattycake

This is not necessarily about teaching languages to your child, but about how you can customize Patty Cake rhyme for your particular culture. This what my Hawaii-grown husband came up with:

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Twinkle twinkle little star - Russian translation


I love picking out children books at the Denver Library. But with our setup at home (I use Russian with Sasha and my husband uses English with him), I cannot read majority of them to my son, unless they are picture books. Picture books are easy to translate in Russian as I go, but the poems are a different thing.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The Zoo and Russian playgroup


On Tuesday, Sasha and I had a zoo date with another Russian speaking mom and her daughter.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Language DVDs for bilingual babies?

There are several DVD series and individual DVDs out there that may attract those parents who are interested in raising their child in two or more languages: Bilingual Baby, Baby Einstein: Language Nursery, Brainy Baby...

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Russian playgroup - still no success

If I will be the only one around here whom Sasha can hear speaking Russian, the chances are he will not value Russian language as highly as English. 

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Contrast objects help to learn sounds

This week, I stumbled upon the website of the Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia. Their infant studies provide some amazing information about bilingual babies, as well as about language acquisition in general. Their research is fascinating. Today, I just wanted to talk about one particular discovery - how babies acquire sounds, specifically those sounds that are similar, but different.

Monday, September 27, 2010

What language does he babble in?

That's a good question! According to Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph. D., "there is no reflex to say 'gooh'" ("Raising a bilingual child", Living Language, 2008). So, that means that every time Sasha is babbling he is trying to say something or, at least, practicing the sounds he heard. With my linguistic mind in action, I can imagine that, if he is practicing the sounds he heard from us, he should have a nice stew of English and Russian.