Anyone else teaching/taught LO a second language?

sbagandov · August 2012

My DH and all his family is from Russia. His mom and him are the only ones that speak both English and Russian. We are definitely planning on teaching our LO both English and Russian from the beginning so that he can communicate with both my family and his.

If anyone has done this before, any tips on an easy way to do this? Should I just associate an item every time with both the English and Russian word? example: do you want some milk? and then ask it in russian right after that? I don't want to overload LO, but I do want him to learn them both. TIA!

Sharon&Paul · August 2012

My DH's first language is Italian. We also have a Spanish speaking Au Pair in our home. I would recommend if you want your children to speak another language to have your DH only speak to them in Russian and you speak to them in English. You will be surprised how much they pick up.

However, I did find that when my kids started school they did not want to be different, so they stopped talking in Italian. They can understand when it is spoken to them, but choose to speak back in English. We just let them do what they are comfortable with at this time. Sometimes a sentence in half in each language.

lady dixneuf · August 2012

I will teach words but my SD is bilingual. Her mother only speaks Portuguese to her. As far as I know, she has had no issues at all. If anything she's remarkably articulate in English.

(I do notice she speaks English to her mom when she's mad at her- it becomes a power struggle)

Dana327 · August 2012

Me and my DH are both from Serbia originally infact DH has only been here about 9 months so his English is minimal. Our plan is to teach our son Serbian first because English he can learn at school if he doesn't catch it sooner. The way we will do it is by only speaking in Serbian with him, reading him Serbian books and taking him to Sunday classes at our local Serbian church.

Sillygirl85 · August 2012

I am a Spanish teacher and will be teaching my little one Spanish. Like others have said the best way to do that is have one parent speak to the child in each language. This will give them the ability to code switch, which means they will be able to speak both languages without the need to translate from one to the other. As long as the child hears both languages during the day they should be able to pick up both languages.

JoNi2010 · August 2012

Sharon&Paul:
However, I did find that when my kids started school they did not want to be different, so they stopped talking in Italian. They can understand when it is spoken to them, but choose to speak back in English.

This is exactly what happened to my brother. My brother was born in America and since we mainly still spoke Mandarin at that time, he spoke Mandarin with some understanding of English. Then he went to school and wanted nothing to do with Mandarin. But he can still speak it if he needs to and he can definitely understand Mandarin.

I am no longer myself that fluent any more in Mandarin but will try to speak some Mandarin to the LO. But we live in an area that has a very high Asian population so will be sending him to Mandarin school when he is older.

msmcdermott2008 · August 2012

My mom's side of the family is Cuban and my Dad is American so when I was growing up, mom's family would only speak to me in Spanish. My parents would speak to my English, with my mom throwing in some Spanish here and there so that's how I learned my second language. I plan on doing the same thing with my little girl, having my mom and her family speak to her in Spanish and she can pick up English from my husband. I would probably alternate speaking English and Spanish to her.

beege17 · August 2012

Like PPs have stated its best if you spoke in one language and your DH the other. otherwise its like trying to learn spanish once you are in college, not as easy because you have to associate words and it's a lot harder to catch on and comprehend. It's amazing how quickly children learn and how smart they really are.

I think I may try to teach our LO some spanish but DH doesnt speak any and neither do our families. But I definitely think its a valuble thing to learn.

milkandhoney77 · August 2012

My grandparents watched me when I was little up until I started school. They only spoke Italian and I grew up speaking both languages. Sadly I've lost almost all my Italian now (we moved when I was 8.) My good friend is cuban and speaks spanish to all three of her young boys. Her husband mostly speaks english but throws in some spanish now and then. I will say when they were first learning to speak I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but now the two older ones are totally bilingual and speak both languages beautifully (the youngest doesn't talk yet.) I wish I could do this with my daughter (esp since my husband is mexican and all of his family speak spanish) but neither my spanish nor my husband's is good enough to do this. Immersion schools are really popular around here so maybe we'll send her to spanish immersion school and she can teach us.

hilsy85 · August 2012

My husband and his family are also Russian and fluent in it (DH mainly speaks Russian to his parents). He'd like to teach LO Russian...but am I the only one who feels kind of weird about their LO knowing a language that I don't/communicating with DH and ILs in a way that I won't understand? I guess I'm worried that I'll feel isolated (already happens that I feel this way when DH and his parents get together because the convo is mainly in Russian). At the same time, I know learning a second language from birth is very beneficial. So we're undecided at this point.

sbagandov · August 2012

Thanks for everyones input! I do have a friend who taught their child both languages by the mom speaking English and the dad Russian, like you guys were saying. The kid is around 5 at this point and only speaks Russian to any man they see and English to any woman. I was worried about this happening, but I guess he will get old enough to grow out of that and learn that it is not a man/woman language thing, but a culture thing. Ha.

Dana327 · August 2012

piffle42:
Dana327:
Me and my DH are both from Serbia originally infact DH has only been here about 9 months so his English is minimal. Our plan is to teach our son Serbian first because English he can learn at school if he doesn't catch it sooner. The way we will do it is by only speaking in Serbian with him, reading him Serbian books and taking him to Sunday classes at our local Serbian church.
I would work on both if you plan to send your LO to English-speaking schools. We live in an area where far too many people don't teach their kids English before school starts (some parents don't speak English) and the kids really struggle. It would be helpful that you speak English though. Children are like sponges when they're very young when it comes to languages and you LO should have no problem speaking both. It's just really been hard for me to see so many kids that struggle so much because they didn't have much exposure to English before school. I think it makes it worse that some of them have parents that just don't care to learn English and help them. The ones that do get additional help outside of school seem to do better. Obviously this is your choice to make, but it's just something to think about!
For me, I plan to teach LO sign language. I took sign language classes all through high school and part of college. I tried with DS but he lost interest after a while. I'd love to try again.

I came to the US at 11 years old and learned English without difficulty in less than a year. I don't think I struggled that much so I don't think my son will when it comes to pre-K. As I said he will probably pick up some English from my cousins (who prefer to speak in English), my siblings who aren't as fluent as I am in Serbian, and from the park which he will be taken to on a daily basis.

Cynthia1207 · August 2012

We're planning on teaching LO 4 languages. We've decided also that certain people will speak only in one of the four languages. H in Spanish, Me in Italian, my mom in English and my stepdad in French. That's the way I learned growing up and by the age of three I spoke 3 languages fluently. I learned Spanish much later in university.

Rochell · August 2012

If you both speak Russian, then only speak Russian at home. If only one parent speaks Russian, then that parent should only speak in Russian to LO. The child will pick up English when s/he is in school/surroundings/enrichment coures.

I speak Spanish to my LO and my DH speaks English - so far he only says words in Spanish (my parents take care of him during the day, and they only speak to him in Spanish as well) and once he starts day care in the winter, i'm sure he'll pick up on some English words. IMO, they will learn English eventually, so don't stress so much them learning English - stress the foreign language

266psyche · August 2012

I'm half Serbian and my husband is Israeli. We plan to teach Ari Serbian, Hebrew and Spanish. I was brought up bi-lingual and aside from some "broken English" phrases I have picked up from my parents I didn't have a problem mastering both langueses. I'm sure he'll be fine.

AbuDhabiMommy · August 2012

My brother's children are fully bilingual (Japanese and English) because their mother is more comfortable in Japanese and they visit Japan for several months out of every year. My brother has also had them learn some Hawaiian words.

My daughter learned some French at home, and then starting in Kindergarten she began taking Mandarin (studying both the spoken and written texts). Now we are living in the Middle East and she has learned some Arabic and started studying French more formally. We plan on continuing her Arabic instruction in the coming year (still looking for a French instructor), and this little one will have the exposure to Arabic, Hindi & English (with occasional French phrases thrown in) because of where we live.

carlinlp · August 2012

We homeschool. My middle child speaks English and is learning Latin. She will also learn mandarin. My oldest is learning German. It's amazing how fast little ones pick it up.

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