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How to raise Bilingual Children? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| unlocked87 Groupie United States Joined 6621 days ago 42 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 1 of 69 13 October 2006 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not a father yet or expect to be one soon, but I was curious about how one might go about raising a child to be bilingual.
You see I want my children to have the gift that I never had. To be able to speak in more than one language fluently. I don't want them to have to go through the trouble I've gone through with language learning. I wish my parents would have exposed me to another language when it was natural for me to acquire new languages. So what kind of system do you think would be most effective? I was thinking maybe having one parent speak one language while the other speaks the other. The child might not know he's speaking English or German. He might think it is "Mom's language" and "Dad's language" and those are the ways he has to communicate with each of us. Then when he gets older he'll learn about all the languages and what he's speaking and then we'd work on him being literate in each. What other methods have you heard of or would think would work well? Thanks. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AML Senior Member United States Joined 6826 days ago 323 posts - 426 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish | Message 2 of 69 13 October 2006 at 11:28pm | IP Logged |
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try the search feature up top. There are good threads on this topic
already. example: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TID=387&KW=children http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TID=1149&KW=bilingual http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp? TID=1785&KW=children http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/guide/raising-polyglo t- kids.html (fix spaces when you copy and paste) Edited by AML on 13 October 2006 at 11:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| unlocked87 Groupie United States Joined 6621 days ago 42 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 3 of 69 13 October 2006 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks.
It can't hurt to have fresh ideas from members that have joined recently though. Not many threads are made each day. Edited by unlocked87 on 13 October 2006 at 11:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 4 of 69 14 October 2006 at 12:27am | IP Logged |
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I agree. As fun as it is to read the old threads, it's also good to hear new thoughts and experiences. I've seen this thread started perhaps twice since August, and each time, it's been stunted with a search reference :^).
One of the articles I read about the subject referenced each parent speaking to the child in one language, like you noted above. It covered an example where when one parent ventured into the 'other parent's language', the child didn't like it, and urged the father to go back to 'his' language. But if one speaks to the child in multiple languages from the getgo, s/he seems to have no trouble receiving multiple 'codes' from the same person. When I was on a plane to or from Boston last winter(or this winter...or this spring...can't remember), I saw a couple and their three-ish year old son. The dad addressed him in English, and the mother spoke to him in Spanish. I also remember another article I read where a polyglot who spoke dozens of languages said the best way to learn them was to have a different person speak each language to you from the time you were 2. I recall his father spoke to him in one, his mother in another, his grandmother in a third, and so forth. Combined with traveling with his parents, he stated it gave him about half a dozen languages before he turned 10 or so. Edited by lengua on 14 October 2006 at 12:42am 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 5 of 69 14 October 2006 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
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That's a really interesting way to approach teaching a 2nd language to a child. I am also nowhere near expecting a child, but when I do, I would also like to teach him/her at least a 2nd language - something I wish I had been exposed to when I was a child.
My friends are raising a Hungarian child here in Australia. They speak to her in both Hungarian and in English. Usually they speak English in front of people who cannot speak Hungarian, and Hungarian at home and in front of people who can. They speak to her in Hungarian for the most part in front of me, because I am learning and they want me to speak to her in Hungarian. Of course, most other people around her speak to her in English - only a few speak to her in Hungarian. Their daughter seems to cope fine with this - she seems to understand both languages without hesitation (well, as much as an almost 1 year old can be expected to understand). She has started to speak, and most of her words are Hungarian with only a few 'universal' English words - like "bye-bye" and "mama". My guess is this is attributed to the fact that her parents always speak to her in Hungarian when they are alone. I often wonder how she will cope as she grows older. I have never seen a child grow up in a similar setting, so it does particularly interest me. I know another Hungarian family (I have only know them for about 6 months or so) who have a 10 year old child. She of course learnt both Hungarian and English - but I am unsure of the setting. She is unable to write in Hungarian, and can only read very basic books, yet she can speak without hesitation. She speaks English perfectly and attends an English speaking school (of course).I don't know of her grades at school, but her writing and reading level would be at that level of most 10 year olds. I have been told that she occasionally has spent a number of months in Hungary with family and has been able to cope socially without much problem. She joined sporting teams etc without a problem and can talk to her family there, but refused to go to a Hungarian school and instead home-schooled in English. She also went through a 'stage' earlier this year where she refused to speak Hungarian and would only reply in English or sometimes ignore whoever spoke to her in Hungarian. I'm not so sure that this is anything more than knowing that she is 'different' to most of the kids at her school and not wanting to be.... I would be interested to hear other people's opinions or experiences with teaching/learning second languages as a child. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| justinwilliams Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6690 days ago 321 posts - 327 votes 3 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Italian | Message 6 of 69 14 October 2006 at 6:02pm | IP Logged |
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I have two cousins that are perfectly bilingual (French-English). The way they got this was by having an English babysitter taking care of them for some years when they were maybe 8 years old. Neither their mother nor their father were speaking English but still they grew up being bilingual.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| geranio99 Heptaglot Newbie Spain Joined 7025 days ago 26 posts - 32 votes Speaks: Catalan*, Spanish, FrenchC1, EnglishC2, GermanC2, Italian, Romanian Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 69 14 October 2006 at 7:11pm | IP Logged |
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I have just been father of twins and started to speak to them in German, although it is not my native language. My mothertongue is Catalan. My wife speaks to them in Spanish and I speak to my wife in Catalan. My parents also speak Catalan to them. At weekends we use English media (English TV, music, DVDs, etc.)
For people interested in raising multilingual children, I recommend this website: www.multilingualchildren.org By the way, unlocked87, will you also be raising your child in German? If so, I would like to know which materials you intend to use. Regards, geranio 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 8 of 69 14 October 2006 at 7:28pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you for that link, geranio. I'm reading the articles there, and they're quite informative.
And congratulations on the twins! Edited by lengua on 14 October 2006 at 7:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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