Different languages in formulative years...

[Kenn]

Just wondering if any of you have had experience talking and teaching your kids in different languages at home.

My wife speaks fluent Mandarin and I speak it just a little. I speak some Khmer but will probably defer to my parents for them to expose my son to the language. I intend to mainly use Mandarin and English though while my wife plans to speak primarily Mandarin.

Do any of you have any tips for helping your child become multilingual at home? What did you do to help your child(ren) learn more? What didn't work?

 

[csdax]

I think it's great that you're planning to expose your little one to different languages. That was my plan, too, but my husband said his German wasn't good enough (which it is, according to all the other fluent German speakers who've heard him). My oldest is in French Immersion now, though, so at least she's getting one extra language.

I don't have any advice from experience, but from everything I've read, just go for it. I've heard that a good approach is to have each parent talk to the child entirely in their chosen language when they're alone with the child. When both parents are with the child, e.g. at dinner time, choose a language and stick to it for that conversation.

I think that having more than one language in the home, there isn't really a way to get it 'wrong'!

 

[singledad]

My DD mom and I had different first languages, and we wanted our daughter to be fluent in both.

Its quite simple really - babies brains are very good at picking up languages. We just each spoke our own first language to her, and she is now fully bilingual.

Some tips - Try not to mix the languages to much - if each of you consistently sticks to your own language, it will help her to understand that they are two separate languages, and minimize the time she talks in a mish-mash of both.

Expect that she will <U>appear to</U> be slower at developing her vocabulary than other children - it isn't really true - it's just that only half her vocabulary is English! Just keep this in mind when comparing her language skills to other kids, and don't get worried if she seems slow. She probably isn't.

Expect her to go through a period where she mixes up her languages, switching back and forth between them within one sentence. She has to learn that they are separate, and should be used separately. When my DD mixes her languages (and she still does), I make a point of asking her if she knows what the word is in the other language, and if she doesn't, I teach it to her. Interestingly, the grammar seems to come naturally.

If you want to expose her to a third language, I would start that as soon as possible - ideally from birth, or even before! The younger she is, the easier it will be for her to pick it up, and the more natural it will feel to her. My DD is now in the process of learning a third language, it I can see that she finds it much harder already, even though she is still young. I wish I had the opportunity to expose her to all three from birth!

 

[Kenn]

Those are great strategies, Caroline and singledad! I will definitely keep these in mind.

My main concern is that my Mandarin is not that fluent but I want to ensure my son has a good foundation and whatever I can do to help him will be key. In addition, my Khmer isn't that great either but I would love for my son to have some understanding of his heritage and my side of the family's language.

Would you recommend switching it up every other meal or so? (i.e., lunch - mandarin, dinner - english) Or should we keep it consistent whenever we are all together? As in, when we are all together, we speak one language. But when we are alone with our son, we speak our primary language.

Thanks again for the great advice!

 

[csdax]

Personally, I think I would switch it up a little bit - but like I said, I don't have first-hand experience with this.

It's great that you're thinking this out and having a strategy in place before your son arrives, but try not to over-think it. You will fall into a pattern of what feels natural in terms of what language you speak, when. But for a little while you may find that you're so exhausted with a newborn that you can barely remember what language you're speaking, anyway!

You're obviously very excited about this, and I'm very happy for you!

 

[Kenn]

Haha, we are excited!

And true to my nature, I probably am over thinking it quite a bit. Hopefully that doesn't rub off too much on my son

I will probably end up speaking some mixture of Chinese and English (Chenglish) with him so I'm hoping I don't confuse him.

Thanks for the warm wishes!

How is the French Immersion working out for your daughter?

 

[csdax]

How is the French Immersion working out for your daughter?

She loves it, and she's teaching her little sister French, too. We passed the principal in the corridor one day, and Erika piped up "Bonjour", which caught me by surprise!

It's so funny to hear Erika singing songs in French that she's learned from Zia.

"Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samdi, Dimanche, Jours de la semaine." (To the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat).

Even in French Immersion, it's a slower process than I'd expected, though - I guess we missed that biggest window of opportunity, when she was a baby!

 

[Kenn]

I'll admit that I tried to sing that song just now. It was pretty bad though and I'm sure your daughter sings it way better than I do!

We have some Chinese schools down here that teach on the weekends. I'm looking into taking my son there at some point.

Are there lots of immersion type schools in your area? What were your criteria for choosing the one you did?

 

[singledad]

Would you recommend switching it up every other meal or so? (i.e., lunch - mandarin, dinner - english) Or should we keep it consistent whenever we are all together? As in, when we are all together, we speak one language. But when we are alone with our son, we speak our primary language.

I don't think the particulars of the system is important. What is important is to decide on a system, and implement it consistently.

How often do you see your parents? As long as you'll be able to understand them, you could just ask them to make a point of consistently speaking Khmer around her. She'll pick it up from them. My DD has more than one friend who had nannies who speak a different language, and consequently are fluent in three languages.

Knowing that you will be under immense pressure just trying to cope with the new baby, try to find a system that would come easily to you. Eg. if you aren't comfortable in Mandarin, leave that to your wife, and speak English. (Remember that if you consistently use bad grammar, for instance, she will learn that from you).

If you mix-and-match at random, she will struggle to see them as distinct languages and would have a hard time learning to speak only one language at a time. This could potentially cause problems at school. Picking up languages are easy for babies - their brains are pre-programed to do it. The hard part is to get her to use only one at a time.

We started off with each consistently speaking in our own first language, even to each-other (we often did that naturally anyway, even before she was born). When my wife passed away, I switch to a morning/afternoon system. I don't really follow consistently it anymore, but my daughter is now almost 6, and doesn't have a problem distinguishing between the two anymore. Yes, she does still mix, but then, so do I. It doesn't really matter anymore, since she knows how to not mix when it matters.

Good luck! I think you are doing a wonderful thing for you child by bringing her up bilingual.

 

[Jeremy+3]

All of our children are bilingual, however here things are done differently, traditionally children are raised speaking only Welsh and then you introduce English when they turn seven, it typically takes about a year for them to have the fluency level of English children of the same age.

 

[akmom]

Do you mean that you are expecting a baby? I wouldn't worry about how fluent you are in those languages. Babies are like 3 years old before they can churn out sentences; you'll be way ahead of him/her!

 

[Kenn]

akmom: Yes, we are still expecting. Baby is just a few months away and I'm getting my game plan ready for when he arrives. Hopefully by then, I will have improved my Mandarin some.

singledad: You make a great point about staying consistent. I think that might be the direction for now. My wife will speak Mandarin. I will speak English. Then we can adjust our conversations accordingly when he gets older and more mature in both languages.

Jeremy+3: Is there a reason that Nottinghamshire teaches children in that way (starting at age 7)? How are the results when parents start earlier or later? How have your kids adjusted to speaking Welsh and English?

 

[singledad]

All of our children are bilingual, however here things are done differently, traditionally children are raised speaking only Welsh and then you introduce English when they turn seven, it typically takes about a year for them to have the fluency level of English children of the same age.

Past generations here learnt second language like that - in school, from the age of 6 or 7, and third languages years later. It does work, but I think my DD has an advantage - for me, English is definitely a second language. I am not, and will probably never be 100% comfortable with it. My DD, however, sees no difference. She not only speak two languages, she is completely bilingual - ie. she basically has two first languages.

Perhaps they do a better job of teaching English in Wales than here, but I still think it would be easier to make use of an infant's natural ability to pick up language, rather that teaching it later.

 

[Jeremy+3]

Past generations here learnt second language like that - in school, from the age of 6 or 7, and third languages years later. It does work, but I think my DD has an advantage - for me, English is definitely a second language. I am not, and will probably never be 100% comfortable with it. My DD, however, sees no difference. She not only speak two languages, she is completely bilingual - ie. she basically has two first languages.

Perhaps they do a better job of teaching English in Wales than here, but I still think it would be easier to make use of an infant's natural ability to pick up language, rather that teaching it later.

Well by eight children here have equal language skills in Welsh and English after experience English for around 9 months, for areas of Wales where English is there first language they have similar results after being exposed to Welsh for the same amount of time. I started learning English at 14 as when I was at school it was only just being introduced as a language in schools, I was fluent when I left school at 16 as were most of my peers. Then if you go to college at 16 you go from being schooled in Welsh to being schooled in English as you're most likely to attend an English speaking university if you go on to university.

Our youngest three started learning English at four, as we were living in England at the time as soon as they started school everything was in English anyway, so they started learning from their first day of school.

 

[Kenn]

Our youngest three started learning English at four, as we were living in England at the time as soon as they started school everything was in English anyway, so they started learning from their first day of school.

Have you noticed any differences for your children that started to learn English at age 4 as compared to those that started at a later age? How is their Welsh coming along? And how have you and your partner coordinated together in teaching your children both English and Welsh?

 

[Jeremy+3]

Have you noticed any differences for your children that started to learn English at age 4 as compared to those that started at a later age? How is their Welsh coming along? And how have you and your partner coordinated together in teaching your children both English and Welsh?

No different, Welsh is there first language so I'm not really sure why you want to know how thats coming along. They learn English at school, not at home, so we don't teach them English.