Anyone raising/planning to raise kids bilingual?

FrauElyse · April 2011

I know it's a bit early for me to be planning probably (I'm 12.5 weeks), but I've always had a dream of raising my kids bilingual in English and French. I'm conversationally fluent in French, but I was wondering if anyone else was or is planning to do the same thing (maybe with another language?).

I guess I'm looking for any advice or tips I could soak up before it's crunchtime. I'd also like to get some French things for the nursery when the time comes and didn't know if anyone knew of a good place for that.

qtsreign · April 2011

Someone once had a raging debate on here about speaking Spanish only in the house with the children and letting them learn English at school.

A speech therapist chimed in and basically said that the best way to ensure a child is bilingual is to take the time to teach them to read, write, AND speak in the foreign language. Otherwise, it becomes difficult for them to retain the language. I wish I could find the post, but it was from months ago.

I am fluent (can read, write, and speak) in Polish as a first language, so I will speak to LO in Polish and teach her reading/writing skills. DH will do the same for English. I also plan to add a bit of Spanish and French, depending on how she handles it. I want a little polyglot powerhouse, just like her mommy Smile .

FrauElyse · April 2011

Thanks! I was planning to do all the educational stuff in French and for my DH to do it in English...giving the little both at the same time. Good luck with the Polish!

jessiimae22 · April 2011

DH and I are planning on raising LO bilingual in Italian and English .

ivanafox · April 2011

We would love to raise our kids bilingual in French and English, as well. I am conversationally proficient in French, as is DH. His mother is French and visits France frequently and is hoping to retire there. I would love to send our kids to visit Grandma each summer growing up. I'm sure their grandmother would love to have them, we would get a week or two of time off, and the kids would be sure to learn the language.

I don't know where to buy them at a reasonable price, but I am thinking of doing a Sophie la giraffe themed nursery.

lauti · April 2011

I wasn't raised in a bilingual household, but was in a French immersion school program beginning in first grade.

Not to be snarky, but if French isn't your native language, I think it is going to be difficult for you to maintain a level of being truly "bilingual" at home.

Sure, exposing them to different languages through books etc... is great, but most kids I know who grew up knowing a second language had a native speaker in the house, not someone who was just fluent.

What are you planning on for childcare? Maybe you could get a French speaking nanny?

Mika82 · April 2011

We are planning to raise our child bilingual in Spanish and English

sweetpealee · April 2011

Yes- Chinese and English. DH is Chinese, entire family speaks Chinese.

catch2010 · April 2011

I'd like to teach him/her Russian and English, but my husband doesn't speak Russian so he's a little against Mom and baby talking about him in a secret language.

My family speaks English now and only uses the native language for cultural things like family names, so it isn't that big of a deal, but I think it would give our kid an advantage when learning a more useful language later on.

LadyMadrid08 · April 2011

I will speak English with our LO and DH will speak Spanish. Outside the home LO will almost exclusively be speaking Spanish so it's important to me that I instill English from a young age (yes, that includes reading and writing!).

I have to agree with what someone else mentioned about speaking French full time if it's not your native language. I think it could be pretty difficult. Even though I'm fluent in Spanish if I didn't have a Spanish DH I wouldn't be trying to do immersion with my LO just because I know I still make some mistakes.

LCass · April 2011

What I've read and seen as a teacher (who worked at a bilingual international school in South America) is that it's super important to start early but also to be consistent. The best strategy I've heard of (and seen in practice with one family) is for each parent to use one language with the child. So if you know French and your partner doesn't, you speak to the child in only French and your partner only in English right from the start. Having books and other things around in both languages is also a great idea (you can even get kids books in both - we have some Dr. Seuss books with both Spanish and English on each page). I'm guessing you could find good French things for the nursery just by googling, but you could also check out Canadian (and especially Quebec) websites since we're a bilingual country. Good luck! I'm a total advocate for kids being multilingual; I think you're making a great choice!

FrauElyse · April 2011

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I know it will be tough since French isn't my first language, but I've been studying it since I was 9y/o myself. The plan is for me to do only French, DH to do only English, and then to get LO involved in some sort of French program once it begins school. I think it would be helpful to be a native speaker, but being fluent should be sufficient to get us through the earliest years.

Best of luck to the rest of you trying to go bilingual! Even if it's not perfect, I think giving a kid a leg up on education in a fun and sort of non-educational way (i.e. everyday use) is great. Plus, we live in a world today when speaking more than one language is becoming increasingly important.

neya28 · May 2011

We are raising DS bilingual. DH and I are both fluent in Russian and speak only Russian to DS. We speak English b/w us though as we came here pretty young and it's easier. So he hears English in the background, watches cartoons in English and some of the kids at his dc speak only English (it's a Russian daycare). I figure he'll pick up English in kindergarten. My bff is a speach therapist and she told me that if one parent only speaks a second language then that parent should only speak that language to the child, while the other parent speaks English to them. That way they learn both right away.

MrsFreezy · July 2011

I'm so glad to see I'm not the only person out there who has the same lofty goal! Even though I am not fluent in Spanish, I know enough to get by and I'm hoping to do my best to teach my child two languages. Especially here in Texas (or anywhere in the south for that matter), it has become increasingly important to learn Spanish to have a leg up in the work force. I've thought about hiring a Spanish-speaking nanny when the time comes and I'm currently stock-piling children's books. I've also heard from a lot of friends that it is very helpful to switch your children's movies to Spanish when they are watching them (English subtitles optional).

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