Read the below transcription of a discussion about multilingual language situations in Switzerland and see how Gretchen's ideas compare with yours.
English is not Gretchen's mother tongue: can you see any evidence of this in her contributions to the conversation?
Alison: How long have you been on this programme, Gretchen
Gretchen: On the BA programme?
Alison: On the BA programme
Gretchen: I started in March this year
Alison: OK and how is it going?
Gretchen: Fine — a lot of work
Alison: OK. Multilingualism bilingualism. Are you bilingual
Gretchen: No. I am Swiss from the roots.
Alison: Right. So what languages do you speak?
Gretchen: I speak Swiss German, High German, English, French, Italian and Spanish.
Alison: So why are you not bilingual or multilingual?
Gretchen: Because I didn't grow up with another language than German.
Alison: OK
Gretchen: I just learned it in school or abroad.
Alison: So what is your mother tongue?
Gretchen: Swiss German.
Alison: Swiss German and then the others you added
Gretchen: yes
Alison: later on. OK. You told me earlier on something about working as a social worker and using different languages.
Gretchen: Mm
Alison: Was that what you were going to tell me about?
Gretchen: Yes.
Alison: Right. Over to you. Tell me all about the situation.
Gretchen: I used to work in an institution for children who had problems with speaking.
Alison: Right
Gretchen: And a lot of them were bilingual or foreigners. And I would like to tell you one special child who was a boy, who was 7 years old when he came to our institution and he stopped speaking when he was around 5 years. And he was Swiss and his mother wanted him to learn 3 languages at the same time so she wanted him to learn English French and German. She moved around with him from Switzerland to France to England and back and she in the beginning he did well he spoke French and English and Swiss German, mixed it up so quite normal in this stage but then suddenly he stopped speaking at all.
Alison: Right
Gretchen: He was kind of over-challenged with that. And it took him 3 years in our institution until he picked up German and then spoke German on the right level of his age.
Alison: So was he literally not saying a word?
Gretchen: Mm in the beginning he didn't say a word and then he started like a baby with some sounds and he wanted to have holding
Alison: Yes
Gretchen: and we only spoke Swiss German to him and he went to therapy as well and to schooling and he stayed in this institution overnight as well. So I worked with him in his free time and he understood everything and we just had to take the pressure off him that he had to produce the language and after a while he started like a 3 year old … started talking.
Alison: And what did he start speaking — Swiss German?
Gretchen: Swiss German yeah. And only Swiss German.
Alison: Right. And that process took 3 years.
Gretchen: Yes.
Alison: About
Gretchen: Yeah.
Alison: And then what happened? Did you still keep in touch with him?
Gretchen: No
Alison: Did he then develop the other languages as well?
Gretchen: He went then back to school, to state school and then we lost contact. But when he went back to state school, he had the level of a normal Swiss child of what was he then 10 years old.
Alison: OK. so he made up what he had lost?
Gretchen: Yes
Alison: Yes
Gretchen: And the parents were advised to focus on German
Alison: Right. What was the parents' reaction to what had happened?
Gretchen: They were confused in the beginning and then they were full of remorses because they actually wanted the best for their child and they loved travelling and using the foreign languages. And the mother wanted to make it easier for her son. And she had another child, a younger boy, and she stopped doing it with him. So the other one was completely normal and normally developing with Swiss German.
Alison: So you say you were working with lots of bilingual children. That's clearly one very really quite extreme example. Are there other examples that come to mind?
Gretchen: The others are mainly foreigners living in Switzerland and often Italian or Spanish children from working class people. So the parents wouldn't know German, they would come with a translator to the meeting and they would speak their mother tongue at home and the child would speak Swiss German or should speak Swiss German at school and a lot of children manage very well with that. They have like two worlds, they have the world at home and the world at school but some of them they didn't manage so when they came to us for (at) 6 years they spoke like a 3 year old but in both languages. And some of them were rather confused when they had to start reading and writing at first class because they knew Swiss German but now they had to translate it in High German. And that was very hard for them. And usually after the two first years of schooling they were fine.
Alison: But it took 2 years to get the 2 modes of German sorted.
Gretchen: Yes. So they actually came for the first class and did the first class in two years. and then they went back to state school for the second year.
Alison: So then they were a year older than their classmates?
Gretchen: Yes.
Alison: Did that cause problems?
Gretchen: No. The many children with other problems they do the first year in two years. And in that age there was not much problem with that.
Alison: Right. That elective mute for 3 years is very interesting, isn't it?
Gretchen: Yes.
Alison: A little boy who chose not to speak. That's quite fascinating. I'd love to know what state he is in now. Do you keep in touch with any of them at all from that time?
Gretchen: Not from my side. Sometimes the children want to stay in contact. They come back to us.
Alison: And are they allowed to?
Gretchen: Yes they are.
Alison: Do you still work there at the moment?
Gretchen: No
Alison: So where are you working now?
Gretchen: I work now for a language school and I teach German French and English
Alison: And you still say you are not multilingual?
Gretchen: (laughs) Not from birth.
Alison: So to be multilingual, do you have to have more than one language from birth? By your definitions?
Gretchen: Yes Yes
Alison: OK. OK. That's fine. How would you rate your Swiss German, your German and your French? Which do you feel strongest in? Which do you feel most comfortable in?
Gretchen: Swiss German and English.
Alison: Right
Gretchen: So when I'm in an English speaking country, I start thinking in English and dreaming in English immediately. Not with French. I find it harder with French. For French is still for me a language of work of teaching, not of my soul, but English and German they are … sometimes I feel them equally … and when I was in England for a longer time I also used to write my diary in English.
Alison: That's interesting. And how long were you in England?
Gretchen: For half a year and when I came back from England I kept on writing my diary for about 3 years in English.
Alison: Do you still keep a diary?
Gretchen: Yes.
Alison Still in English?
Gretchen: No. Now it's in German again.
Alison: And what prompted that change, do you think, having kept it going for 3 years in English?
Gretchen: It was … it became the language of my soul. I had the feeling that I could express more and better in English than in German
Alison: and now it's gone back to German being the more expressive language?
Gretchen: Yes. Yes. At the moment. But I'm sure if I went to England again and would stay there for another year, I would change again.
Alison: Do you have children?
Gretchen: No
Alison: Right. So I can't ask … Your husband is Swiss German? So the language of the home is Swiss German?
Gretchen: Yes
Alison: If you have children, do you think you will try and bring them up bilingually or not?
Gretchen: Not in the beginning. I would stick to Swiss German just to give them a ground for the language but I would support them, if they are interested in learning languages, I would support them, definitely. Send them to English school or just doing games with them in English or French.
Alison: Do you think seeing the little boy who was overloaded has actually affected your own views on this? That you would be scared of overloading your own children?
