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Raising Kids with many languages | ||
Tags: Children | Multilingual | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5612 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 9 of 61 25 September 2009 at 8:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've heard the one-language per parent thing works best with two native speakers - but does that mean you get limited to three at most (one native from each parent, plus wherever you live, if it's different)? I wonder what the best way to create multilingual kids who are fluent in more, or even if it is possible.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 10 of 61 25 September 2009 at 11:04am | IP Logged | |||||
Exactly. There must be 100% consistency, because if the children get to choose which language to speak, they'll always choose to use the strongest one -- or they'll choose to switch between them depending on which one's strongest in which context.
Experts reckon that within the family, you can teach three: Mum's language, Dad's language, family language. So each individual parent talks to the children in their own chosen language when the other one's not around, but when the parents are talking to each other or having a group conversation with the child they use a third -- but again this must be done consistently. Basically, if you're 100% consistent in your choice of language, it should never occur to the child that he can mix his languages, for at least the first few years anyway. There may be the odd word borrowed across where he doesn't know the word for something in one of the languages, but you can address that quite easily by teaching them the words they need as they go. (According to my lecturers anyway. I'm not a dad yet.) That's a theoretical 4 languages: mum, dad, family, community. Get a foreign nanny and you've got 5. Send them to a bilingual school and you're up to 6. Of course if there's two community languages in the area, and that bilingual school is bilingual in one of those and a foreign language -- or is maybe even a trilingual school -- then you're up to 7. Do you have any cousins or friends in other countries that you could sent the kids to spend the summer holidays with? There's another language or two right there. Whether a kid would be able to cope with all that... well I wouldn't know. It does seem rather heavy to me.... 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5586 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 11 of 61 25 September 2009 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'll be speaking German, Spanish, and English with my kids, regardless of what my wife speaks. (I hope she is multilingual!!!) The most emphasis is going to be put on Spanish and English I would think. German is great for the world of business, so I hope I can talk to my kids in all three languages.
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| Choscura Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5549 days ago 61 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Thai | Message 12 of 61 25 September 2009 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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At this point I'm kind of thinking of doing native languages for me and the Faen, plus some self-study and tutoring in other languages for the little tyke (Latin, Chinese, German, Russian)- so with this he (or she?) is up to six, but four of those are introduced later.
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| LatinoBoy84 Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5576 days ago 443 posts - 603 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Latvian | Message 13 of 61 25 September 2009 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Not a parent, but if I had kids one day I would only speak to them in French. Though my native language is Latin American Spanish, I would speak French for three reasons: 1)My parents would only speak to the child in Spanish 2)The kid gets French from me 3)My own French is refined through daily use and interaction. I hope that the mother will teach the child her native tongue as well (German, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese or Arabic are my top language choices in a wife, hahah)
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| Glendonian Bilingual Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 5718 days ago 26 posts - 37 votes Speaks: French*, English* Studies: German, Italian | Message 14 of 61 25 September 2009 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Can anyone think of a way for one parent to speak two languages to a child, but without breaking a sense of
consistency? What if my husband speaks only English, but I want the child to be trilingual? I can't see how it would work to speak French on even-numbered days and German on odd! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| anytram Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie France Joined 5670 days ago 85 posts - 89 votes Speaks: German*, Polish*, French, English Studies: Japanese | Message 15 of 61 26 September 2009 at 11:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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That would probably confuse the child (in my humble opinion). It should be rather situation-related. Why can't you wait for the child getting a little bit older and going to classes from an early age on? That would be a fixed situation, easy for the kid to identify.
While languages are important and I guess all of us are here, because we love them, why force your kid to do more than maybe good for their own sake? (Especially you should know the language perfectly yourself before teaching your kid something wrong or inadequate!) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6719 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 16 of 61 26 September 2009 at 1:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My friends are raising their children in both Hungarian and English. They do this by speaking English when outside of the home, but the rule is that, whenever they are at home or even out together (without English speakers) that they speak Hungarian.
One child is 15 months, so doesn't say much of anything at this stage. The other is 3 years old and she speaks above average in both languages and can switch between them easily. Both parents speak Hungarian in the home, and both speak English outside of the home. I have no experience or knowledge in the area, but perhaps if your partner spoke language 1, you spoke language 2 at home and language 3 outside of the home? Personally, I would stick to the two languages and then find a kindergarten or school that will teach the third language. At this stage (I don't have kids, nor are they on the near horizon), I plan to raise my children with a second language - which will probably be Hungarian because of my personal closeness to this language and its people. I plan to do the same as my friends have and speak Hungarian in the home and English outside of the home. If my child shows and interest and chooses to undertake studies in other languages, I will fully support that. But mostly I would just like my child to learn a 2nd language for the learning benefits it will offer him/her. If, by the time I have children, I have a good level of fluency in another language that perhaps I feel more 'useful' in the world, then I would probably teach that. But I doubt it, because Hungarian is close to my heart - so that's what I would like to share. Edited by Katie on 26 September 2009 at 1:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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