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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 9 of 69 14 October 2006 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
Well I'm sure it won't be for a long while yet as I'm still 19. I don't want to get married or have a child until I'm financially secure and such. Yes, I'd like to raise my children to speak both English and German. I hope to become "fluent" in German by my mid 20's. Then maybe if I'm lucky enough to settle down and have kids I'll speak German to them and my wife could speak English.If my wife doesn't know German she'd also get to learn as well.It would be only natural for her to learn the same words the baby is learning as it grows up. It would cool to have our own little family "code" to speak in if we're out in a crowded public place and want to speak about a private family matter or something. Not too many people speak German in the States. It would also be a treat to travel to Austria on family vacations and be able to communicate perfectly. That way the whole family could really get right into the culture. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| George111 Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 6665 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 10 of 69 15 October 2006 at 3:00am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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I am fascinated with the idea of bilingual children. My maternal grandparents are lebanese but they unfortunately never took the time to teach my mother arabic and now refuse to teach arabic to me. I almost feel the need to mourn this loss of what could've been!
Anyone who has the opportunity to raise bilingual children should seize this opportunity to give their children what i believe would be one of the best starts in life imaginable with both hands! One of my best friends is perfectly trilingual, english-German-dutch. She was raised by her dutch mother and German father in Australia. I think some of the main fears about raising bilingual children is that they will never learn one language properly and may even suffer academically. My experiences with this friend lead me to believe that exactly the opposite is the case. My friend speaks english with no accent whatsoever and in fact was awarded the english prize along with the french prize at my school. She is currently studying law in Paris. My friend was taught her languages by the method mentioned earlier by several members, that is one language, one parent. She learnt english by exposure to media and at school. Good luck to all those hoping to raise bilingual children! Edited by George111 on 15 October 2006 at 3:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sabrina Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Denmark Joined 6652 days ago 36 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, Danish*, French, English Studies: German | Message 11 of 69 15 October 2006 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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To anyone who are thinking to raise a billingual child: If you do it, you have to be sure that your child doesn't 'forget' the language. Even if it's their native language it's possible to miss it. I say this because I have experienced it myself.
I was born in Denmark in an Arabic family. The first 2 years or so of my life didn't I speak anything but Arabic. Later I went to the kindergarten (in Denmark) and even that I haven't any knowledge of Danish I mostly just spoke Danish in a very short time. Still, because my parents weren't that good in Danish I just spoke Arabic home. Because I was spending my time more home than outside, thus spending more time in an Arabic-speaking community than in a Danish-speaking, I was more 'fluent' in Arabic than in Danish. Once I got to school (6 years old) I used much more Danish than Arabic, and became as fluent in Danish as in Arabic, here I mean orally, because I hadn't any knowledge of the written in any of these languages. But as I went to school and began to read and write I became much better in Danish and thus I 'missed' my fluency in Arabic, and it got worser by time. In a teenager age the only way I was using my Arabic was while I was talking with my parents, even when I spoke with my brother I talked Danish, so my Arabic really got bad. Not to mention that I still didn't could write nor read in it. In the same teeanger age I took some classes in Arabic but it was so bad that I really didn't learned anything in 2 years. And my parents didn't have time to teach me it. Now I'm getting a tutor who teaches me the written Arabic. So even if you raise your child with two languages, don't let him/her lose it. Edited by Sabrina on 15 October 2006 at 6:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 69 16 October 2006 at 6:28am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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Sabrina, very sound advice. I think every parent who wants to raise bilingual children should be aware of this. It's so easy to "forget" languages without realising.
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| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6891 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 13 of 69 16 October 2006 at 6:43am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
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I agree with Sabrina and Patuco. People often tend to think that bilingual means absolute fluency in both languages and I find that this is not true in many cases. You can be bilingual and yet speak both languages badly or be much stronger in one language than the other. I know of a few people back in bilingual Gibraltar whose English and Spanish leave a lot to be desired (Patuco is definately not one of them), including family of mine.
As a good many of us Gibraltarians 'code switch' or speak mostly Llanito (our local dialect), it's very easy to be lazy and drop in an English word instead of trying to find the correct Spanish version. I'm guilty of doing this and have found lately that it has led to quite a few gaps in my vocabulary, something which I am currently trying to remedy through reading Spanish books and newspapers and listening to Spanish TV and radio (something which I rarely bothered with back home!). On a related note, albeit slightly off-topic, the Instituto Cervantes has been thinking of opening a branch in Gibraltar and, during a 'reconnaissance' visit, they remarked on the low standard of Spanish spoken in Gibraltar and expressed shock at the lack of Spanish newspapers and books in our bookstores (the latter being a silly thing to worry about as we can easily cross the border and buy them in Spain if we wanted). So while we are a bilingual community, we sometimes overestimate our linguistic abilities, myself included. As for forgetting languages, while I don't think it's possible to forget *everything*, it is certainly possible for words to slip from one's active vocabulary back into obscurity. In the last few years, I haven't really had much opportunity to speak Spanish in my everyday life so I find myself constantly forgetting words I once knew! Some of this is down to the fact I have a poor memory but I also believe a lot of it is due to a lack of practice. As with any activity, practice certainly makes perfect, so you have to keep working on your languages constantly. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 69 16 October 2006 at 9:18am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
Very true indeed, although I'd imagine that the trouble starts when you're trying to juggle 10+ languages...not that I'd know!
That's why I've already got my children signed up for extra lessons ;-) Seriously though, you're perfectly correct about the level of English and Spanish over here. In fact, I'm more concerned about the relatively low level of English considering that it's the official language. You should see the spelling we get in school!
Thanks for the compliment, Kelly. I actually struggle sometimes to remember to speak incorrectly for fear of being thought of as putting on airs, e.g. if I used proper English or Spanish with the plumber who's coming to fix my boiler he'd just think that I was some know-it-all posh tw*t, so I've got to make deliberate mistakes and use more slang words than I would normally. Edited by patuco on 16 October 2006 at 9:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 15 of 69 16 October 2006 at 11:29am | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
So are these native speakers of English and Spanish that have a lot to be desired of how they speak? This "dumbing-down" or backlash against posh speech would make a good topic. I find it annoying when I use a word that's maybe a bit "complicated" to some and they feel I'm trying to be above them. However, I refuse to speak incorrectly so I'd rather get the backlash than compromise my English!
Is it really that easy to cross the border? I read somewhere that many were having a hard time with long delays crossing the border because of something to do with Spain. With regards to the original topic, my suggestion for raising bilingual children would be to make sure the usage of the languages is fun. Never would you want your kids to think "oh no there's daddy with that [x language] grammar book, run and hide!" 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||||||||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 69 16 October 2006 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||||||||
I'm afraid that I haven't painted a very good picture of Gibraltar. Let me just clarify that we are not a a bunch of illiterate oafs who can't speak in any language :) Most of us are actually quite literate in English, but it's some aspects of our Spanish which lets us down. We can converse freely in Spanish to the extent that probably only a native Spanish speaker would realise that some constructions and vocabulary were a bit "off". Obviously there are those of us who have bothered to learn a bit more Spanish (mainly vocabulary) and try our best when the situation arises.
I agree with you, but when pretending to be as illiterate as they are prevents me from being ripped off, then I'm willing to dumb myself down! Perhaps you should start the new topic and we can continue this there rather than deviate further from the original topic.
It's easy to cross the border if you're prepared to wait a while in a rather slow queue. I'll explain more via PM if you're interested since it's not really appropriate for discussion here. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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