question for you bilingual/trilingual mamas

Re: question for you bilingual/trilingual mamas

• fanofanne member

  December 2013

  hi there...i'm korean too! and dh is latino. we have the opposite situation here.  my kiddos speak mainly korean b/c my parents are their main caretakers. dh does speak to them in spanish sometimes, as does our part-time mother's helper.  though they don't speak it, they do seem to understand it some.  and i speak to them in english.  i took some classes in language acquisition so i'm definitely not an expert, but i did learn some things.  for example, when children are exposed to different languages growing up, they may at first seem confused, but will learn to compartmentalize their languages.  at least that's what our professors said, and so i'm going with it.
  keep up the korean, and your lo will learn english through socialization.  however, you will have to be consistent with it, otherwise they will be prone to mix and confuse the grammar rules.  as for the esl classes, you can check the box that says your child's "main" language (i forget what they call it) is english, if by that time your lo can speak it.  or, your lo can be tested out of it, i believe.  anyway, as pp said, i would speak to her in korean as much as possible too.  i would, if i hadn't forgotten most of it.  
  googd luck!  
  

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• ec0983 member

  December 2013

  sadly, i'm not bilingual, but i have worked many years in early childhood and have seen and worked with children growing up in bilingual homes.  i really think it is such a huge, huge gift to give your child to allow them to grow up hearing, speaking, and knowing more than one language.  my advice to you would be to speak korean to her as much as possible.  like, all the time.  like pp said, children raised in bi/trilingual homes often appear to have speech/language delays at first, but the truth is, their language development is fine, they just have more to process than children who are only learning one language.  you'll probably have to do some advocating for your daughter when she reaches preschool/kindergarten to help her teachers who are unfamiliar with multilingualism understand that her development is more than likely progressing normally for a child in her situation.  immersion in each language is the absolute best way for her to acquire them, so make sure she gets as much practical, real-life exposure to each language as possible and you'll be setting her up for success

  

  
  

  in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God, in Christ Jesus, for you

  1 thessalonians 5:18

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• ati.dharm member

  December 2013

  HI, 

  I grew up bilingual and my daughter is also growing up bilingual (not the same combo I had). I have to tell you it was initially confusing (particularly grammar) and I did not speak full sentences until age 2 - in both languages. It made learning my third language much easier (age 11) and I am proficient in all three now- I big advantage I would definitely want my children to have. I found these sites helpful- good luck! 

  https://www.multilingualchildren.org/start.html  

  https://www.babycenter.com/0_raising-a-bilingual-child-the-importance-of-reading_10340871.bc?page=2
  

  https://bilinguistics.com/
  

  
  

  
  

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• Ramirezfam11 member

  December 2013

  I would teach them your language, later in life when they are looking for a job they hire those that are about to speak more than two languages. English is everywhere, my mother taught us Spanish first & later once we got the hang of it we started learning English from music & watching the kid shows.

  

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