Language that you kids don't understand

bubbebia

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 1:15 pm

We also used Spanish and occasionally a little Yiddish but the Yiddish didn't last too long. That they picked up too easily. None of them speak Spanish at all so we can still use it even though they are grown.

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 1:29 pm

We live in Israel so my daughter's hebrew is better than mine and DH's Wink

We speak english at home so she understands that 100%.
My husband grew up in SA and so he always tells me I should learn Afrikaans. Maybe one day Smile

zaq

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 2:12 pm

amother wrote:

Why wouldn't you just talk in another room or outside the house or when they are not there? It is not polite to talk in another language when you know other people can't understand it. People do this to me, specifically two friends to each other ( I am the one who can't understand), just sitting there, and I find it very rude.

It IS very rude, makes no diff if it's your kids or another adult who's being excluded. Why don't you call these women on it? If you continue to take it in silence, they will continue to exclude you. Which would bring up the question of whether these so-called "friends" are worth keeping at all.

r_ch

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 2:32 pm

We ran out of all possible secret languages with my oldest dd's! Now they speak them too.

littleprincess

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 3:15 pm

Dh and I spk Hebrew to each other and Yidish to the kids. But they quickly picked up Hebrew.
One evening at supper I told dh (in hebrew) "let's put the kids to sleep" to which dd (4) reacted (in yidish) "I don't wanna go to sleep"
Kids pick up languages very fast.

amother

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 6:00 pm

I don't like the idea of excluding someone (even a child) by deliberately speaking a language they don't understand. But I do use English euphemisms with sophisticated language when speaking with DH in front of our English-speaking son.

amother

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 6:18 pm

Japanese. Both DH and I are competent speakers. It would be great if our kids pick up Japanese or Chinese but they're really tough and foreign languages to just pick up from listening.

rw555

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 7:02 pm

amother wrote:

Japanese. Both DH and I are competent speakers. It would be great if our kids pick up Japanese or Chinese but they're really tough and foreign languages to just pick up from listening.

Seriously ?

heightsmom

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 7:13 pm

When my parents did not want me to understand the conversation they spoke in Yiddish. That ended when when I piped up with a response to a conversation!!

FranticFrummie

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 7:17 pm

I could never do that. DD has severe anxiety, and if she thought that something was going on that she wasn't in on, she would automatically go into a panic attack and assume something was seriously wrong. She can't read facial expressions well, so even good news would come across as scary to her.

She also has excellent hearing. Confused

Any conversations that are sensitive subjects must wait until she is out of the house, or asleep. That's just how it is, and we manage.

btdivorcedmom

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 10:57 pm

There is no language I can speak that my older child will not get at least general idea of what I am saying. If I only have to hide it from my younger child, I can get away with my native tongue as long as I use really sophisticated and not-often-used-in-every-day-life words, but a lot of times that is very hard to do Wink

Bruria

Sun, Oct 20 2013, 10:58 pm

morah wrote:

We can't hide behind language. Dh grew up in a Hebrew speaking home, I grew up in a French speaking home, and we are transmitting both languages to our kids- in addition to English of course! Nowhere for us to hide- I guess this makes dh's case for taking up Klingon :-)

Hahah I could totally see my husband taking up Klingon too!!

Kugglegirl

Mon, Oct 21 2013, 12:23 am

Maybe Pig Latin?

DH & I don't seem to need a secret language. Have no problem sending the kids out of the room if DH & I need to have an adult discussion.

lech lecha08

Tue, Oct 22 2013, 3:31 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

We live in Israel so my daughter's hebrew is better than mine and DH's Wink

We speak english at home so she understands that 100%.
Smile

Same here. We can still get away with spelling out certain words in English though

Fox

Tue, Oct 22 2013, 6:44 pm

Bruria wrote:

morah wrote:

Hahah I could totally see my husband taking up Klingon too!!

Klingon is also more effective for threatening your kids!

"Cease tormenting your brother or face my wrath. It is a good day to die."

chatouli

Tue, Oct 22 2013, 7:10 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

We live in Israel so my daughter's hebrew is better than mine and DH's Wink

We speak english at home so she understands that 100%.
My husband grew up in SA and so he always tells me I should learn Afrikaans. Maybe one day Smile

My parents spoke Afrikaans in front of me when they wanted to discuss something private and I never picked it up, except for "bloexem", which made me run and hide - you could ask your husband what that means, if his parents are of a certain generation it will be forever burnt into his brain!