Multilingual thread

bacheerios

This thread is for all who speak more than one language, are teaching/plan to teach their children more than one language, or who just aspire to learn more about bilingual households!
Share what language(s) you speak, how you came to speak more than one, and how you are or plan on teaching your children. Include any names of books and programs you’ve used and the success you’ve had with them. 

marbellie

Hey ladies! I'm a FTM, so no success stories yet but I have so many plans and ideas that we're cycling through on how to make this happen. Any tips or ideas that you'll implement?

My story:
I grew up in America, so my first language is English, my parents are from a country with a dialect of French so I'm conversational in it and I took 4 years of Mandarin Chinese and spent 2 years there so long ago. So I used to test fluent in it but now my spoken skills have decreased. To keep my own Mandarin skills up, I've bought a package of private Skype tutor lessons on Preply that I'm excited to start. 

French is my husband's first language, but we speak English at home. I'm really hoping that our future kids can at least be conversational in both French and Chinese.

bacheerios

@marbellie I took two years of Mandarin in college! Man I wish I could still speak some. All I remember how to say is "Wo shuo yidian Zhongwen" which isn't really even true anymore haha. Maybe you'll inspire me to freshen up on it haha.

I too am a FTM. My native language is English (born in ND- how many people can say that- and raised in NC). My husband is from France so his native language is French. That tends to surprise people though since he's been in the US since age 11 and speaks fluent English without an accent. It's always fun to use a colloquial American phrase and have to explain it to him afterwards though.
I was a French major for two years in college but had to drop it to pursue my first major. We don't speak it at home, but I'm hoping that will change so I can practice more! His family is all in France except his mother and two sisters so anytime we visit them, I get a lot of practice. Hoping to raise our kids with French in the home and English through daycare, school, etc.  

bacheerios

Also, for those with French backgrounds, Ovia has a setting for French bakery items to describe your baby’s size!

elle-0409

I grew up in an English speaking household in the United States, but developed an interest for learning French when I was rather young. I went to Paris, France to study the language (once in 2012, then again in 2014) at the Institut Catholique de Paris. I also received my degree in French and was accepted to UCLA to continue my education, but my husband's job transferred us to Florida so I had to decline.

I'm a FTM and my husband only speaks English. For the first few years, I plan on speaking as much French as I can to our child. I'll also play French music, read French children's books, and play French TV programs/films. Ultimately, I want to enroll our child into a French immersion school until they go into elementary school.

@bacheerios I use that setting on my Ovia app. I was so excited!

Does anyone have any recommendations for traditional French children's books? I know that I can get some English books translated into French, but I wonder what the French women are reading to their babies?

bacheerios

@elle-0409 My husband actually got a children’s book for Christmas this year through our secret Santa in France. It’s called “Lucky Luke” and apparently it’s a series he read growing up! I’m sure he will have more suggestions once we get nearer that point. 

elle-0409

@bacheerios That’s so cool! Thanks for sharing! 😃

mariadebebes

Love this thread already! I'm a hispanic woman living in the US and I speak both Spanish and English fluently, plus a little french thanks to my husband. 

We're teaching our little on to read books, blogs, TV etc..in both Spanish and English. Having that duality and ability to connect with multiple cultures has been paramount for my own personal development so we hope that she will also benefit from fluency in multiple languages as well.

alinic916

I'm American and only speak English. My husband is Serbian, moved here when he was 19. He speaks mostly Serbian to our 3 year old. She understands probably 90% of what he says, but won't respond in Serbian very often. I would love for her to speak it fluently because his family is all still there and his parents don't speak very much English, just the very basics. I'd love to be able to speak it fluently as well, but it's a tough language in my opinion. And there's not a ton of resources for learning it.