Children not speaking English in kids club

[Eliisa77]

We will cruise Oasis of the Seas next February. Our DD 7 and DS 6 don´t speak English (we are from Finland and speak Finnish, naturally :D). Does somebody have any experience with children not speaking English in Adventure Ocean or any other kids club? My kids are very social and open, so I know they want to at least try it.

[The Mister]

No direct experience, but...

 

I will tell you that on our one cruise so far, our English-speaking children got along perfectly fine with their non-English-speaking peers. In the 3-5 group, of course this is much easier, since so much of their social interaction is action- and play-oriented. Common language is helpful but far from required. Our daughter apparently got along with everyone.

 

In the 6-8 group, our (high-functioning) autistic son ended up connecting with a South Asian (Indian) boy who, according to the counselors, knew no English. (The counselors acted like this was a normal occurence.) I don't think the two actually had any conversations, but I think perhaps the other boy wanted to hang out with the "different" kid who acted a bit crazy. Whenever I saw the other boy, he seemed to be having a great time despite not understanding precisely what the other children were saying.

 

I should also mention that, according to a family that we know who sailed on the Oasis a couple of years ago, in the Oasis kids' club, English speaking children were the *minority*. Apparently at the time, since the Oasis was still pretty new and THE BIGGEST EVER, people were coming from all around the world to see and experience it. I have no idea if this is still the case. I would expect that, in general, for this reason, the newer ships tend to attract more international travellers than the older ones.

 

In other words, if my limited experience is anything to go on, your children will likely do fine. :)

Edited May 15, 2014 by The Mister

[Starlight Durban Cruising]

I Googled this one and a few sites mentioned that:

 

"... finnish language is very unique, most linguists consider it to be related with turkish, hungarian and even basque languages. ..."

 

Don't know how true that is, however, do your children speak or understand any other languages, such as French, German or Dutch? You may be lucky as some of the employees in the kid's club might be from European countries and they often speak a number of languages.

 

How about asking the cruise line about the language skills of the kid's club staff - but you should ask this about a month or so before your cruise at most because staff change regularly. At least if there is someone on that team who can translate then your kids might be able to overcome any translation issues. Hope it all works out. Happy cruising.

[Baxter]

I don't have direct experience with this on cruise ships. But we did experience it first hand at a resort in Mexico -- our kids were the only English speaking kids. There were probably 5 different languages represented. Never once did the kids mention it, or let it impact them. They found ways to communicate through play and activity. We were very impressed.

[sailinglisa]

Kids have an amazing ability to communicate without saying a word. Gestures, facial expressions and an almost amazing ability to understand and anticipate without a word being spoken. I've seen it happen a few times and it's always amazing to watch.

[Dayenu]

Our son was 7 when we came to the US, he didn't speak English, went to a regular public school. A week later he brought a friend to play in our apartment. How they communicated is still a puzzle for me :)

[Eliisa77]

Thank you for all the answers! :) Our kids don´t speak any other language yet, and as said Finnish is very unique language. Maybe I´ll ask RCI, you never know if there´s somebody who speaks Finnish. Nevertheless, Oasis is built in Finland. :D

[mr.purple]

As you say your children are social I don't think they will have any problem connecting to other kids.

 

My son is also very social. When meeting children on vacation he just jumps into the activity, no matter what language they may speak.

 

He's now 5yo and has travelled a lot with us. (USA, half of Europe, some African countries)

He only speaks dutch, but never had a problem connecting with other kids and having a good time.

 

Have witnessed whole conversations, each in their own language.

Sometimes they're talking about a completely different thing, but most of the time they are surprisingly on the same level.

[Starlight Durban Cruising]

As you say your children are social I don't think they will have any problem connecting to other kids.

 

My son is also very social. When meeting children on vacation he just jumps into the activity, no matter what language they may speak.

 

He's now 5yo and has travelled a lot with us. (USA, half of Europe, some African countries)

He only speaks dutch, but never had a problem connecting with other kids and having a good time.

 

Have witnessed whole conversations, each in their own language.

Sometimes they're talking about a completely different thing, but most of the time they are surprisingly on the same level.

 

I think Mr.purple is right. Kids can communicate so easily even without the same language, after all a nod means YES in so many languages, and accordingly the head shake (side-to-side) means NO, and then most kids will have no qualms about showing their new friend how something works or is done.

[jean s]

I would not worry about this. I work in an elementary school where one third of the children do not speak english. In fact there are 17 languages spoken in the school. Amazingly the children have no problem communicating with each other. They all play very well together and seem to have no difficulty getting along. Just make sure the kids know exactly where the bathrooms are when you leave them in the kids' club.