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Languages for my children | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| glorawish Pentaglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6909 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, French, Russian, German, Spanish | Message 1 of 32 27 December 2005 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have just finished reading the article about children and language learning, however it didnīt quite give me the answers I was hoping for.
I speak English as my mother language and have near native fluency in French and Russian. I also speak a relatively high standard of Spanish, German and Swedish. I am expecting my first child soon and would dearly like for him/her to grow up with exposure to many languages. In our home we only speak English as my husband has no other knowledge of languages. However I am interested to know how other people feel I should approach introducing French and Russian to my child. Should I speak with him/her in each of these languages from birth? And would a young child have the ability to differentiate between the three different languages, knowing which words belong to each etc. I had considered that a possible idea would be to speak to my child only in french in the morning, Russian in the afternoon and then in English in the evenings when my husband is home. I am very interested to hear of other peoples experiences and opinions on this subject and will be greatfull for any help. Thankyou kindly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7190 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 2 of 32 27 December 2005 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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There is a useful book online which you may find helpful.
Trends in Bilingual Acquisition 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victor Tetraglot Moderator United States Joined 7320 days ago 1098 posts - 1056 votes 6 sounds Speaks: Cantonese*, English, FrenchC1, Mandarin Studies: Spanish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 32 27 December 2005 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the forum glorawish!
I have read up about this before and I believe there is a general consensus that speaking more languages to your children can only do good. I grew up with exposure to Mandarin from my parents and our regular visits to mainland China even though we never spoke the dialect at home and I never formally studied it. Some links for your reference: http://www.byu.edu/~bilingua/ http://www.bklein.info/buc_home.html http://www.nethelp.no/cindy/biling-fam.html Search on the web for more resources as well! Also check out your library for books on the subject as I have seen quite a few good ones. There are more than one way of doing this. For example, there is speaking French to your child, while your husband speaks English. Or you can choose to speak both English and Russian to your child. You can find one way that is the most comfortable for you. I also want to add that support from your husband will be very important in doing whatever you eventually decide to do. But congratulations for thinking/deciding to raise a bilingual family! I'm a bit envious of your child! He or she would grow up in multiple languages and cultures. How lucky! Edited by victor on 27 December 2005 at 5:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 32 27 December 2005 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||
That sounds like a good idea. I remember hearing that children growing up in a bilingual household are more intelligent and learn other "skills" quicker, but I don't know how true that is. You might also want to check this thread, especially the second post. Edited by patuco on 27 December 2005 at 5:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7106 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 5 of 32 27 December 2005 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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By all means, do whatever to teach your kids other languages. As I understand, young ones learning to speak may mix up words from other language, but a simple correction when they do seems to fix it.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7207 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 32 27 December 2005 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read about a well known gifted person who grew up in
an extended family where the child was spoken to in a different language by each member. I.E. Mom and Dad spoke 2 different languages to the child, and the grandparents each spoke to the child in a language they knew particularly well. Apparently this helped the mental acuity of the child. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7017 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 32 27 December 2005 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Just out of curiosity, who was he/she and how many languages did they end up speaking? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| samcanarias Tetraglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6917 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Punjabi, Hindi Studies: Portuguese | Message 8 of 32 28 December 2005 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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A friend of mine used to be spoken to by her parents in German, italian and Spanish when she was young. By the age of 3 her parents were very worried because the little girl was still not speaking, so they took her down to their doctor. After doing some tests and not knowing what else to do the doctor asked her parents what language they spoke, with their daughter. When they told him 3 (German, Italian and Spanish) the doctor just looked back at them and told them the reason why the little girl was not speaking was because she didnt know what language to reply in. Anyway today that little girl has grown up and speaks 6 languages fluently.
So i guess the point i am trying to make here is that know your child like you know your own body. When you need to go to the toilet your body tells you. When you need to eat your body tells you. Listen and you will know what your child needs. Anyway a happy child will learn most things a lot quicker than a unhappy one. Concentrate on making it fun for him/her and i think you will be satisfied with the results you achieve. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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