Bilingual babies?

pipeTsquared · April 2014

Anyone else planning on the baby being bi or even more lingual?

We are and as it is more than one (actually all in it 4 at a minimum) we are trying to work out how

[Deleted User] · April 2014

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AmericanInOz · April 2014

There is a number of people on the international board who are raising their kids bilingual

mcvgal · April 2014

DS is 2 and while he speaks more spanish than english right now, he does understand both and can differentiate between the two. As PP mentioned just talk to them. They pick it up so easily.

jensavicci · April 2014

I do want my kids to learn different languages. My father speaks Italian every now and then and my kids are catching on. Hopefully, they can become fluent in it.

chevronseven · April 2014

We're doing it. DH is fluent in Spanish and advanced conversational in French. I know a little of both (more Spanish) and have been trying to brush up. I'm thinking we'll just do English and Spanish to start with and maybe see about a French tutor when he gets to preschool age. We're getting second copies of our children's books in Spanish and planning on having DH speak to him primarily in Spanish and I'll speak to him in English. We may also work on American Sign Language since that can help him communicate before he is speaking, plus he'll be able to interact with deaf people.

seells · April 2014

DD understands a lot of Spanish but her actual spoken vocabulary is limited. I don't speak Spanish so we don't do it at home. One of her grandfathers and great grandmother talk to her almost strictly in Spanish and she sees them quite frequently so that is something I guess.

pipeTsquared · April 2014

@AmericanInOz - I've got my eye on the board

@e_cruiz @shanicenicolle @livelaughlove88

I think I just worry that they wont pick them all up or that they wont pick one up that they need. We speak all 4, one to each other, one each as a firstlangauge and FH has another that he speaks alot

hcsmiley417 · April 2014

My kids talk in spanish when they are getting angry or frustrated. I love it! It also indicates to catch them before they get to the edge. My DDs are 5,3&1. I think it's great for them to learn about other cultures and to communicate effectively.

mcvgal · April 2014

DH and I speak spanish at home. Mt mom watches DS during the week and speaks Spanish as well. DS has picked up English from my SIL, despicable me 2, and when I actually sit down with him to learn new words. You'll be amazed at how smart babies really are.

Ylvelill · April 2014

More than two can be a challenge but not impossible. I plan to speak danish exclusively to my babies and my husband will speak English.

Just know, in some cases it might create a small delay, but it is worth it IMO

hcsmiley417 · April 2014

Well shoot, now I'm super jealous @Ylvelill‌ that sounds way cooler than teaching spanish.

Ylvelill · April 2014

Hehe but Spanish is sooo useful

I wish I could speak it!

darkangel42 · April 2014

Speaking to them, singing to them, letting them watch shows in various languages, books...

My firstborn who's 5 speaks English fluent/first and then a pretty decent level of Spanish (Mexican-Spanish even though I speak Spain-Spanish and husband speaks minimal Mexicanl) then we throw occasional words and phrases at her in the other 3 we speak and she picks up odd bits. I sang to her in 4 languages when she was smaller and she loved it so picked up words and phrases that way.

She's started asking to watch tv in Spanish so I just let her and she seems to understand a fair bit of it. She couldn't old a conversation with a fluent adult but she can chatter away and understand kids of a similar age.

The other languages we speak are not particularly useful or relevant where we are so I never put much effort in beyond casually throwing words out now and again.

I plan on doing the same for this baby too then hopefully they can have a head-start for school.

rach1285 · April 2014

All of the linguistics classes I have taken recommend that you try to separate the languages by people so that children learn to associate languages as being separate. It works most effectively if you can exclusively speak to the baby in one language, SO ( or whoever) speak another. The earlier you start , the better! I'm jealous of your ability to do this for your child, what a gift!

addy16 · April 2014

One parent one language is just one option, there are other ways to do it! What's more important than who speaks what is that is happens consistently. One weekend a month with a grandparent is probably not enough to reach a high level of fluency, but they'll learn phrases and words and songs . . . So it's really important to define your goals first! And goals can totally evolve as baby grows and your situation changes. Fully bilingual kids take a lot of time and work (like raising kids isn't hard enough already, lol). My French husband and I will both speak English with the baby while we're in France, which will take some getting used to since we normally speak French together. But since I don't have any English-speaking friends around, we want to make sure he hears enough English. Then we'll see what kind of school he goes to in a few years, or if we'll move to the states, and we'll adapt.

gallifreygirl · April 2014

I've heard the one parent one language thing as well, my cousin had some issues with language when she was younger because her parents would switch back and forth between Spanish and English constantly and she couldn't understand that they were two separate languages.

lks18 · April 2014

Does anyone have a book recommendation for raising bilingual children?

ETA: I've heard of the one parent - one language method or, alternatively, everyone speaks one language at home and the other language outside of the home. I think both techniques set up a demarcation between the two languages. My husband speaks Spanish but will be around the kids much less than me (though still plenty). I thought maybe I'd supplement his Spanish with Spanish TV/radio. I speak Spanish too, so I won't accidentally play them a call-in sex advice show. $:\$ "> I could speak Spanish with them as well but my vocabulary is so much smaller in Spanish than English I thought they'd benefit more from hearing my English. Not sure.

darkangel42 · April 2014

I don't think there's anything wrong with one parent speaking 2 languages, so long as there is a clear divide between the 2 in some way. With me speaking both Spanish and English, I can flit between the 2 whenever I want so sometimes, now that DD is bigger, we can decide that we'll only speak Spanish in the park and at the dinner table today or make it a challenge to only use Spanish in the grocery store (which is great for her learning vocab).

She's big enough now that it's an option, I don't remember how it happened when she was smaller but she does know that English and Spanish are different and that not everyone understands both so she can figure out to use the other if she isn't understood on her first try.

A bigger challenge for us was getting her to understand that not all dark people speak Spanish and not all white people speak English! I'd welcome any tips on explaining that to a 5 year old

mcvgal · April 2014

darkangel42 said:

A bigger challenge for us was getting her to understand that not all dark people speak Spanish and not all white people speak English! I'd welcome any tips on explaining that to a 5 year old

My sister is still trying to teach this to her 15 year old. We live in an area that is highly populated with hispanics however not all actually speak spanish and my nephews do no understand how that is possible.

darkangel42 · April 2014

Ah. Maybe I'll just not worry too much about that then

)

gallifreygirl · April 2014

e_cruiz said:

darkangel42 said:

A bigger challenge for us was getting her to understand that not all dark people speak Spanish and not all white people speak English! I'd welcome any tips on explaining that to a 5 year old
My sister is still trying to teach this to her 15 year old. We live in an area that is highly populated with hispanics however not all actually speak spanish and my nephews do no understand how that is possible.

My parents couldn't manage to teach me that when I was little, though that might have been because my parents couldn't speak cebuano very well and the majority of people who I did speak cebuano to would switch to english whenever they were talking to someone who was white.

mamakiss · April 2014

You just speak it whenever. They learn the difference of the two languages and when to use them/who to use them with at a remarkably young age.

I know a heavy amount of sign language and we plan on using baby signs, but will probably work in more complex signs alongside English once she can speak.

darkangel42 · April 2014

I'd like mine to sign too but I only know (some)British sign language and (some)Macaton which are different to American sign language.

How common is signing in the US? Is it worth me taking the time to learn (working in retail) and teach the kids?

kellbell440 · April 2014

DH is Portuguese but I don't speak a word of it! We definitely want baby to grow up with two languages. Hopefully I can pick it up but by bit too! I can just see the day where the kids are conspiring in a language mom doesn't understand!

pipeTsquared · April 2014

@Ylvelill - Hallo

I understand a bit of dutch. One of FHs languages is Afrikaans and I understand a bit from him and living in SA so can undstand a bit of actual Dutch.

@rach1285. I think I just worry that with 4 different languages OLOP just will not work

Ylvelill · April 2014

@pipeTsquared‌
Hej

Myanswer true · April 2014

I'm wanting to teach Spencer ASL before he's able to communicate verbally, since I've read that improves their communication skills as a whole, and once he's verbal, I'd like to try and teach him French, as that's my second language. I was told in one of my child development classes in college that a child learning any second language before puberty makes it easier for them to learn another as an adolescent/adult, so I'd like to offer him that advantage.

darkangel42 · April 2014

pipeTsquared said:

@Ylvelill - Hallo I understand a bit of dutch. One of FHs languages is Afrikaans and I understand a bit from him and living in SA so can undstand a bit of actual Dutch.

@rach1285. I think I just worry that with 4 different languages OLOP just will not work

I speak 4 languages now but would have had no chance as a kid!

2, yes. Then introducing another later on once the child understood they were separate unless both parents were extremely good speakers and teachers.

It's actually easier (to an extent) with multiple languages as knowledge of how the first 2 work can help to figure out and use a third or fourth or even beyond but you need to be old enough to understand how the first ones work for them to be able to help do that.

kmawb · April 2014

Yes, we are raising our DD bilingual in English & French with a smattering of German (I am fluent in French, DH is conversational in German) and we will be doing the same with DS.

In fact when my DD starts school in September (eeek!) she will be in the Early French Immersion program and by 1st grade take the majority (90%) of her schooling in French until grade 8 when the English-to-French instruction ratio drops to ~50%.

Myanswer true said:

I'm wanting to teach Spencer ASL before he's able to communicate verbally, since I've read that improves their communication skills as a whole, and once he's verbal, I'd like to try and teach him French, as that's my second language. I was told in one of my child development classes in college that a child learning any second language before puberty makes it easier for them to learn another as an adolescent/adult, so I'd like to offer him that advantage.

We used ASL/baby signing with DD well before she was verbal and it worked really well for us and I plan to use it with DS as well. DD was signing a few signs (milk, more, sleep/tired, eat, water) when she was around 9-10 months old and by the time she started talking she was correctly using over 30 signs.

pipeTsquared · April 2014

darkangel42 said:

pipeTsquared said:

@Ylvelill - Hallo I understand a bit of dutch. One of FHs languages is Afrikaans and I understand a bit from him and living in SA so can undstand a bit of actual Dutch.

@rach1285. I think I just worry that with 4 different languages OLOP just will not work

I speak 4 languages now but would have had no chance as a kid!
2, yes. Then introducing another later on once the child understood they were separate unless both parents were extremely good speakers and teachers.

It's actually easier (to an extent) with multiple languages as knowledge of how the first 2 work can help to figure out and use a third or fourth or even beyond but you need to be old enough to understand how the first ones work for them to be able to help do that.

@darkangel42. "both parents were extremely good speakers and teachers" Yes all 4 are 'native languages' to me and FH. We have english in common but both of us grew up in completely bi and tri lingual countries so the languages we speak come naturally (and can think in them)

Amores0121 · April 2014

We are a bilingual family. I have spoke English and Spanish to DD since she was a baby. Primarily English obviously, but she also takes weekly Spanish classes and we try to do daily Spanish practice. Her father did not speak Spanish but I wanted her to learn, so I started teaching her. She is not fluent, but I have no doubt she will be by middle school or so.

DH and I speak both English and Spanish to each other. I would like us to speak more Spanish as I need the practice, and even though he doesn't think he will speak Spanish to DS when he is born, I have a feeling he will. Hopefully this will help DD to pick up more of it as well.

argonne · April 2014

My friend's children are trilingual (English, Russian, Bulgarian). They do OPOL (one person, one language). My friend and her mother speak to them in Bulgarian, the dad speaks to them in Russian and they get the English from their daily interactions outside of the family and school.

darkangel42 · April 2014

@pipeTsquared you'd be fine teaching the kids from being a native speaker though. I just mean that, such as with my (not native) French being a little rusty, I wouldn't attempt to teach my child that along with native English and second Spanish since the gaps in knowledge would make it harder for me to teach and harder for them to learn

I came from a family where everyone spoke English so never had the benefit of a parent who spoke anything else and that made it harder in some ways to learn

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