Teaching kids to be bilingual

[miki]

I'm curious if any parents who speak a language other than English and want their kids to also learn that language have a particular plan to do this. I have one friend who is Persian and she exclusively speaks Farsi to her daughter and only speaks English when her husband is around. My brother and his wife have a more casual approach. All these kids are still pretty young so I don't know how successful either of these strategies actually is.

[newbelly2002]

DH and I are both American. However, we've been over here in Germany since DS was 5 weeks old. Because DH is fluent in German, we decided to try to raise DS bilingually. From everything that we have read, it is best for the child to have one parent speak solely one language to the child for the first 3 years. For example, DH will speak to DS only in German, but he will also speak in English to me regardless of whether DS is around or not. I do pretty much the same thing. The one exception is that I do speak German to DS if we are out and about in the city so as not to draw too much unwanted attention. We have kids music and books in both languages. DS is on the cusp of speaking. His passive vocabulary is excellent in both languages. His active seems to be combining the two right now--which we had been told happens. For examplke "vow-vow" is the German equivalent of "bow-wow" or "dog.' However, while DS started off by saying "dow-vow" putting the two together.

It takes a lot of patience and work--especially for poor DH up at 2 AM and NOT wanting to talk in German as it is not his native tongue! But in my opinion it is totally worth it. There's a lot of research out there showing that some of the "language paths" in kids brains close-up from disuse after about the age of 7 (?) or so. When kids learn a foreign tongue later, it is translating. When you can do it at a young age they don't have to think about it, they don't have to translate.

I'm no expert here,just a lay person like you, but this has been the results of our efforts and research. Good luck!

Paula
Mama to Dante, 8/1/02

[marit]

We are both Israelis living in the silicon valley and we speak Hebrew to our DD. She hears English in daycare and everywhere else, so I guess she is raised bilingual.

I guess if the second language is not one of the parent’s native language you would need some planning, but if the second language is your mother's tongue then it comes very natural. I can't imagine speaking any other language with her, this is what comes out of my mouth. In fact when I'm around other people with her, for example a play date who speaks only English, I try to be polite and speak English too when I turn to my DD, but it feels very weird.

So she's going to speak Hebrew because that's all she hears at home and she's going to speak English because we live in America and sooner or later she is going to interact with the other kids in daycare/preschool/high school/collage whatever...

HTH,

[cdlamis]

I am fluent in Portuguese. My Mom is Brazilian and she has only spoken Portuguese with me since I was born. It was the best gift she could have given me. My dad is American so I grew up speaking English to both parents but understood every word of Portuguese from my Mom. I never had any confusion with either language. I think its great even if the child understands the language but doesn't speak it very well. It will open up a whole new world of languages and cultures.

I did want to teach Portuguese to Julia and even bought the Bilingual Baby tapes (Videos like Baby Einstein but they teach different languages). It is hard for me since English is the language that comes naturally so I haven't been good about speaking Portuguese to Julia. My mom does only speak Portuguese with Julia though so we'll see how she does with that.

Hope this helps a little- Good luck!

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b32dc745c42b

[cchavez]

I try to speak Spanish to DS as much as possible. But Spanish is my 2nd language so it takes a lot of effort.

DH learned Spanish first but since he doesn't spend as much time w/ DS....we decided I should be the one to help DS learn Spanish.

I think it can be a very difficult task if both parents are not native speakers...which is my case. And even though DH is a native speaker he more accustomed to speaking English. Like the other poster said as a parents you tend to use what feels more natural.

What helps me is that I was a bilingual speech-language pathologist for 5 years but it is still not enough to make me speak Spanish to DS all the time.

I am hoping that he will appreciate the Spanish language by being exposed to it as much as possible.

If he understands the language and appreciates it, I think he will at least have a foundation in another language and will hopefully want to use it as he gets older. I actually heard quite a bit of Spanish growing up so I had a receptive foundation, so I was able to practice as an adult and be an expressive bilingual.

[cilantromapuche]

I grew up in Argentina to an American father and Argentine mother. It is important to teach my kiddo Spanish but harder than I thought. I am not consistent. WE are going in Feb. to Bs. As. so hopefuly that will get me kick started. I do try to read in Spanish and sing. I have read that to pick a time to talk (ie. a fun time like play time). My Dh and I occasionally spaek in Spanish and will probably do so when we won't want him to understand which should encourage him to want to learn.