How many languages at once?

[arivecchi]

So DS just started a Chinese immersion program at school which is great. However, I also want the kids to learn my native language which is Spanish. They know a bit but I want them to get more exposure. Would you tackle two languages at once? That's how I did it as a child, though I did only learn my third language in high school. I know in Europe kids are bombarded with several languages at once and it seems to work.

Thoughts?

[goldenpig]

So DS just started a Chinese immersion program at school which is great. However, I also want the kids to learn my native language which is Spanish. They know a bit but I want them to get more exposure. Would you tackle two languages at once? That's how I did it as a child, though I did only learn my third language in high school. I know in Europe kids are bombarded with several languages at once and it seems to work.

Thoughts?

Well I may be too ambitious, but we are attempting three foreign languages! Mandarin, Spanish and ASL. I'm not aiming for fluency though, just exposure. I asked the nanny to speak to them in Spanish as much as possible. (I also know some Spanish, actually I know more Spanish than Mandarin because I took it in HS and college, but am not fluent). I am working on learning Mandarin and ASL. I am watching Signing Time with the kids and signing to the baby. I did signs with both of the kids and now they are teaching the baby. Both of them were signing before they could talk (like 7-8 mo) and it was really fun to see what they were thinking. The older two were in Mandarin camp over the summer and really learned a lot, now they know more than me I think. Sometimes I sign the word as I say it in Spanish or Mandarin to reinforce it. I think if you are fluent in Spanish and only speak to them in Spanish and he gets only Mandarin at school it will be fine. (I wish we had a Mandarin immersion program!) I've heard it works well when one parent speaks one foreign language and the other one speaks another--the kids seem to be able to sort it out. I'm more of a hodge podge and not very good at any of them, but it's the best I can do for now. (Dh is even trying to teach them some French, LOL). I just want them to be exposed to foreign languages at a younger age than I was so they have a better chance of becoming fluent if they choose to keep up with it.

[swissair81]

Do it! My kids are native English speakers and they are learning Hebrew in school. Even so, I am always bugging my husband to talk to my kids in his native Yiddish and Swiss German. They should know their parents' native languages. I would far prefer they learn his German than his English (which is fluent, but his phraseology is definitely Germanic).

[swissair81]

^^ I have extra impetus to want them to learn his native languages because DH has a fair number of relatives who don't speak English- including his father and 2 of his grandparents. I know how irritating it is to talk to them (and they are truly lovely people), and it's even worse over the phone when there's no context or visual clues.

[schrocat]

Absolutely. Both DH and I speak 4 different languages each and it's all sorted out somehow. DS1 will be starting French and Spanish at school as a paid afterschool activity.

[oneplustwo]

Go ahead and do it; your kids will be fine. My best friend in college grew up in a South American country while her family was from a European country, so she grew up speaking Portuguese, Finnish and English from the start (because she went to an English-speaking school, very common there) and is fluent in all three (and later on became fluent in one or two more). Tons and tons of families do the same all over. In the US it's harder as the culture here is not as open to multiple languages, but it can be done.

[chottumommy]

I speak 5 different languages fluently and DH speaks 4. Our kids can understand all 4 and can converse in 3 pretty well. So I would say go for it.

[Asianmommy]

I think it's fine to learn more than one language at a time. The kids have been learning Chinese from a tutor for years, but the older one recently started taking Spanish in junior high. She thinks it's fun.