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June 2011 Moms
ladybug122
member
Anyone else raising LO to be bilingual?
ladybug122
member
My SO is from El Salvador so his first language is Spanish. I know a very small amount of spanish, but he speaks English perfectly so that is what we speak to each other. We both agree that we want DD to be bilingual, since it is a great skill to have in society and because she'll be able to communicate with her dad's side of the family who speak very little English.
She is picking up on English faster so far (10 english words and 1 spanish word), and her dad just left for half a year to go to grad school (we're joining him when I'm done with school). So I need to help her learn Spanish while he isn't here to teach her...but I barely know any. I think it must be confusing to her when I've always told her "cat" and then now I'm telling her "gato" too.
Is anyone else teaching 2 languages at once? Any tips or product suggestions? TIA!
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Re: Anyone else raising LO to be bilingual?
We are from IA, but currently live in Argentina where DD was born. DH and I speak a decent amount of Spanish now, but speak English at home unless the nanny is here (she doesnt speak English). Since DD was born here I really want her to learn Spanish as well, but we move back to IA in 5 weeks. Somehow we have to keep up enough Spanish with her, but I'm not sure how. I'm hoping to read other comments as well to see if others have any good tips.
We thought about a bilingual daycare, but they dont have one in our area, so it will mostly be up to DH and I. I am also hoping to find a Spanish speaking group in IA so that I can practice a bit as well, and maybe I'll find other moms/kids through that?
We are! I am completely fluent in Spanish, although I do find myself able to express myself better in English. My husband can speak Spanish in the sense that he learned it in school, but by no means can hold a full conversation. Since i stay home with LO, I speak to her mostly in Spanish all day, my husband speaks to her in English. We also see my parents at least once a week and they only speak to her in Spanish as well, since she is getting more English at home (DH and I speak to each other in English).
My LO doesn't really have tons of words yet, which I believe is a delay caused by attempting to be bilingual, but I am sticking with it because I know it will be a HUGE benefit to her later in life to speak Spanish (we live in Southern California).
A great website for tips is Spanglish Baby.
Good luck!
My tips so far have been look for a meetup in your area for bilingual kids. A local church in my area has a play group for kids that are Spanish speaking and are trying to
Learn English but it does work both ways. I also let dd watch plaza sesamo in the mornings as well as other kids shows in Spanish while we have breakfast and I clean up. I also installed the free google translator in my iPhone. I use it all the time. Especially at the zoo when pointing out animals. It's even tells u how to pronounce words or sentences by speaking them for u.
Hopefully all of these things will work out and dd will speak both languages.
I feel like I should be trying harder. I was raised bilingual- we spoke Polish in the house, as that is my parents' first language (we moved to the US when I was a baby and my mom spoke no English and my dad very little). Even as they learned English we still spoke mostly Polish, so I am fluent but my pronunciation is way off (like how my mom has such a heavy accent when speaking English). I also express myself much better in English so that's definitely my go-to language. DH speaks no Polish so it's all on me. My sister and I spoke almost no English until we were preschool/ toddler age and started picking it up from other kids.
I feel like it would be easier if I lived close to my mom/ siblings so I'd have more opportunity to speak it and Maya would have more exposure. Hopefully if we get to move back east next summer that will happen. In the meantime, I'd like to try harder- maybe speak Polish until DH gets home and then switch to English in the evenings- that would be good practice for me too since now I only speak it when I talk to my mom on the phone.
We also speak mainly English at home, but MH is fluent in Spanish and his family mainly speaks Spanish & some still live in Mexico, so M will more than likely be bilingual. We don't really do anything different as far as keeping the languages seperate, in fact, I've heard part of the learning process is figuring out which words are English and which are Spanish. Since I am not fluent, I bought some books that are in both languages and some easy vocab types that are in just Spanish. I try to tell him something in Spanish & then repeat it in English too, for example, I'll tell him, "en espanol, tu mano. In Eglish, your hand," hoping he'll eventually differenciate (sp?) between the 2.
Not sure if that makes sense, but so far it seems to be working okay for us.
Thank you! I will definitely check that website out
I think that trying to continue her exposure to Spanish is great, but in 6 months, your DD will still be very young and can still become completely bilingual, even if English is her stronger language at that point. Are there any Spanish-speaking play groups in your area? Does she go to daycare? Maybe you can find a spanish-speaking daycare or nanny?
Usually, I think that it's best if one parent speaks 1 language to the child and the other parent speak the other language. But, if you are comfortable enough in Spanish to speak to her, I would suggest picking a time of day that you will speak to her only in Spanish (say, mealtime), rather than speaking English and then translating into Spanish, since that is not a very natural way of speaking. Consistency is key!
DH and I are raising DS to be bilingual in French and English. I speak to him in French and DH speaks to him in English. It's not always easy to be consistent when we're together since DH and I speak English to each other, but when it's just DS and I, I try to speak to him only in French. For now, he seems to understand French better than English.
Good luck with this! I cannot imagine being away from DH that long, so good luck with that too!!
My food & craft blog: Fraises et Tartines
BFP #2: 9/29/12; EDD 6/8/2013; m/c 10/5/2012
BFP#3: 1/29/13; EDD 10/5/2013 - Baby Claire arrived 10/6/2013
We are raising PJ to be bilingual too. I am American, husband is Germany, we live in Germany.
Frankly, the vast majority of the world is bi- or tri-lingual and I think we in the primarily monolinguist countries put too much thought and angst into being bi- or tri-. It is natural for people to want to communicate in languages to reach their goals. There are many, many different ways to make that possible within families or societies. If your child is motivated to speak in the second or third language to get what she/he wants - he/she will speak that language. I mean, geesh, I'm an adult and if I really need coffee, I am POSITIVE I will figure out the chinese word for it in an emergency.
Yes, coffee emergencies happen for me. Almost every day
I would suggest: relax. enjoy. have fun with the different language options and possibilites. Make friends who speak the second or third language. Play some games and enjoy the ride.