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 Growing up with three languages part 2

I have recently read some interesting articles and studies about bilinguals, but I have found very little on trilinguals.

When I was a child and teenager (back in the 80's and 90's) being bilingual was not that common. I remember being on a school trip and phoning home from a telephone box, with my Italian class mates listening in fascination as I spoke English to my Mum. What was normal to me was special for most of them.
These days being bilingual is not such a big deal, but being trilingual still is.
I know a few children being raised with three languages and my son is one of them. As with most parenting issues, I tend to ignore the advice I don't agree with and follow my own instincts. In this case my instinct told me that we should try to raise little one with three languages right from birth.
His first words were a mixture of German, Italian and English and by a very early age he could already distinguish between the three languages. When he was two years old and started constructing actual sentences, there was a prevalence of German, which is the language of the country we live in. But whenever we spent some time in Italy or England, his vocabulary would suddenly expand and he would become more confident in the other two languages.
By the age of three, Leo's Italian was at the same level as his German (especially after spending several weeks in Italy over the summer holidays), but his English mainly consisted of simple "yes" and "no" answers and some basic words. 
During the past year, he has often surprised us with his growing understanding of English sentences. Before he turned four he could follow most of what we were saying in English and watch Peppa Pig or Thomas the Tank Engine in English without any problems. Then around his fourth birthday and after spending time in Italy with his Italian and English family, we had a breakthrough: little one suddenly started speaking English, constructing full sentence and using different tenses.
"That was amazing!"
"We are going to the airport."
"The bridge collapsed." 
"When Henry arrived, Thomas left."
"Thank you for flying Lufthansa, on time!"
Now not only does he speak English, but he can switch from English to German and/or Italian and back without any trouble.
He knows exactly which language to use depending on the country, the person, the book or the character of the story. For example, if he is playing with Thomas the Tank Engine, then he only speaks English. If he is a pilot talking to the manager at Frankfurt airport, he speaks German. If he has to explain something to me he switches to Italian.
Sometimes he mixes words from different languages or he adds "en" to an Italian word to make the German equivalent or "o" to an English word to make the Italian equivalent.
For example: "Der bridge ist schon damaged" -->German & English
"In dieser Direzionen" ("direzionen" from the Italian direzione) -->German
"Ora metto il Deckel e poi squeezo il dentrificio" ("squeezo" from the English squeeze) --> Italian and German
As with "squeezo", the results are often hilarious.

Growing up with three languages

"British Airways to London Heathrow on Saturday, ready to land."

"Aereo Alitalia in partenza per Roma."

"Lufthansa Flugzeug von Frankfurt nach Chicago."

The other day I was listening to my three-year-and-ten-month-old son while he was playing alone in his room. The way he could switch languages was absolutely fascinating. He was playing with his little planes and one minute he was speaking English, the next he was making an announcement in Italian and 30 seconds later he had moved on to German.... 

There are so many studies showing the positive effects of growing up with more than one language and yet I still hear a lot of doubt and prejudice on the subject. For example, people often tell me that children learning more than one language start to speak later. It might be true in some cases, but in my experience it's not the rule. 

How many times have I heard the story about when I said "pwetty twee" in front of the Christmas tree at eighteen months?
 

Multilingual playground in Berlin

I grew up in a bilingual (English/Italian) environment, my son goes to a bilingual (German/Italian) nursery and I know several children that are growing up with two or three languages (including German, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Bulgarian and Farsi). 

A friend of mine was recently telling me about her son's new German nursery, in Berlin Mitte, where the majority of children speak two or three languages.

I haven't noticed any significant difference in the way multilingual children speak compared with monolingual children. In fact, in some cases I would say that their skills can be more advanced.

Of course, sometimes they mix their languages ("Io voglio mangiare Vanille Eis!") and the Grammar is not always perfect ("Io sono finito" instead of "Io ho finito"), but surely that's no big deal.

I remember when I was expecting Leo, I told my midwife that I was hoping he would grow up speaking three languages. She seemed to think that Italian and German would suffice and that English could be a secret language between Mamma and Papa. Well she couldn't have been more wrong: Leo already understands practically every word we say in English and, if we need to speak in code, we either have to spell the words out ("P I Z Z A" or "I C E"  "C R E A M") or say them in French (il est fatigué; never mention that little one is "tired" in English, Italian or German!). 

That works, at least for now.

Are you raising a bilingual or trilingual child? What is your experience? Comments welcome!