Bilingual mamas

gcolon7988 · July 2015

FTM here, I'm wondering if there's any bilingual mamas out there that have successfully raised bilingual kids. I'm Puerto Rican and husband is American. He speaks zero Spanish, we're having our first LO and I want him or her to be bilingual like me and know about their culture. Unfortunately I would be the only one speaking spanish at home since my family lives two states away and I see them about once a year. I guess I'm wondering how I would go about it? DH says I should only speak Spanish and he'll speak English and baby will just pick it up? Does that work? Need some advice!

anitamtl · July 2015

This is my first time and I have no experience, but I am in a similar situation. I will speak spanish and my partner french (we both speak both languages though). It would be great to hear from others' experiences!
From what I've read, kids develop language at the same speed knowing words in the two languages, which makes them seem developing slower at first. But in fact they know the same amount of worlds, in two languages. They will know "spoon" and "cuchara" at the same time.

ChipMonster · July 2015

My son is only 15 months old so while I can't say that he is bilingual, I can say that I speak to him in both French and English and he is starting to understand both languages. The best way to do it would be for you to speak Spanish and your husband English. That's mostly what my parents did for us. I feel bad because I don't think that I speak enough French to DS. Because DH only speaks English, I often default to that language. I have been a little better though but since I don't always speak French, I sometimes repeat my sentences in both languages.

We are actually trying to get him to understand some words in Italian too! The very first thing he understood was "clap your hands" in all 3 languages!

It's amazing how much babies learn! Good luck!

adcc43 · July 2015

I have no experience but I just want to tell you I am so envious!!!! That is such an awesome asset you have. H and I only speak English and have often longed to learn another language. It is on our bucket list to learn a second language.

Good luck!

Grassieta · July 2015

The easiest way is to use the one parent one language strategy. You ONLY speak Spanish to your kid, no matter where you are and dad only speaks English. If you think he won't get enough input in Spanish just make sure all the tv he watches is in Spanish (youtube and dvds are great), find music in Spanish, books in Spanish, playdates with other Spanish speaking kids... Children always develop a preference, usually the language they hear the most, but don't give up. Just keep at it. He'll understand everything you say and will eventually start answering back in Spanish even if the first years he doesn't or he refuses. Remember, this is a gift you are giving your kid. Just persevere.

DianaL92 · July 2015

I have been thinking about this because I speak Haitian Creole and my FI's first language is Czech. I decided that I will speak only English, my FI will speak only Czech, and my parents will only speak Haitian Creole. Poor baby is going to be so confused lol, but eventually he or she will catch on.

nanamp · July 2015

I think the one parent strategy is the best, from what I've read. Sometimes it results in language speaking delays (though shouldn't delay conprehension). Sometimes kids don't say anything until the age of three and then suddenly just skip to speaking full sentences in both languages.

nataliep777 · July 2015

So glad you brought this up! I'm in the same situation as you. I'm Romanian and my husband is American, but I want to bring our baby up speaking both languages. My family is also 2 states away and some of the older generation we still communicate exclusively in Romanian with, so I would love to be able to pass this part of our heritage on to my child. My parents immigrated here from Romania before having that 6 of us kids, and I am so grateful they brought us all up speaking Romanian!

Has anyone found any good books/articles on this subject?

stlmomof2 · July 2015

I would like to start by saying that DH is half Thai but doesn't know how to speak it so speaking 2 languages in the household wasn't an option lol.

My personal experience learning a language:
I started learning Japanese at the age of 11. I picked it up quickly through books. I got a PayPal and started writing to her. The more I wrote the more I recognized kanji and the meanings of them. kanji is the Chinese letters...but Japanese also have Katakana for foreign words and hiragana for everything else. It was an everyday thing. Everyday writing and talking. My ex who I met years ago and dated for 8 years was Japanese. We only spoke Japanese in his house and that was the way I picked up listening to Japanese. Speaking took a little bit of time because I would have to th I k about it at first.

I believe if you did what your DH said baby will pick up Spanish and English. Tell your parents to only speak Spanish to your child if they ever come over to visit.

This is great I think it's so cool to have a bilingual child.

stlmomof2 · July 2015

*Penpal

..not PayPal lol autocorrect on my phone sucks.

cyanope · July 2015

DH and I are also in this boat. He is American (German/English descent) but speaks Spanish fluently (he lived in Peru for two years and majored in Spanish in college). So, the Spanish language is not a part of our heritage, but DH is in LOVE with it. Also, we live in San Diego, where it's hard to go even a day without hearing someone speak Spanish. DH plans on speaking Spanish to LO from the beginning. Also, we have "immersion" programs at several of our schools here. It is a new trend that is gaining popularity in the field of education. The research on it is pretty phenomenal, and as an educator myself, I'm excited to have my kids experience it. OP, I don't know how you feel about an immersion school, or if they have them in your area, but that is also an option to make sure your LO becomes fluent in Spanish. I have SEVERAL nieces and nephews who are in Spanish immersion, and it is SO COOL to see these little ones fluent in two languages. It is the route we are planning on taking, and I thought I would throw it out there as an option.

JandJ62914 · July 2015

I'm not bilingual (although I wish I was), but I wanted to chime in on this! My family is American, but my sister's husband is from Colombia. They also wanted to raise their children to be bilingual.

Since day one, my sister spoke to their daughters only in English, and my brother-in-law speaks to them only in Spanish. They are now 3 and 5 years old and both 100% fluent in both languages. Since they live in America where they are primarily using their English language, they also went to a Spanish immersion preschool. This helped support their Spanish as well.

People used to worry that exposing kids to two languages would delay their oral language skills, but more recent studies have proven this to be false. They actually found cognitive benefits to being bilingual! (Between my nieces and being a teacher in a school with many bilingual children I am fascinated and a total dork about all of this! lol)

You are going to be doing such an awesome thing for your baby!

AshleighhSue · July 2015

I'm in the same situation...but different language. My parents are both Deaf. My husband knows the basics of American Sign Language, but he's not fluent. This is something I definitely want my children to learn so that way they can communicate with their grandparents.. but I guess I'm lacking confidence in myself, and wondering if I can teach them everything I know. Fingers crossed!! I hope we can stay in touch and see how much our children can pick up!

gcolon7988 · July 2015

Thanks for all the input! I've heard of immersion schools, I'm not sure we have any where we live. I'm in western North Carolina, the heart of Appalachia. It is very rare to see anyone speaking any other language besides English. I will have to look into it. Although, my church does have a small Spanish ministry, maybe I can find other Spanish speaking kids and parents!

CaraBoonie · July 2015

My little cousins have a Russian mama and American dad, and he doesn't speak ANY Russian. She speaks almost exclusively to them in Russian, and made sure to hire a babysitter/nanny who speaks Russian as well, and he speaks exclusively in English (because he only can, haha) plus they get English from the outside world around them, and they are eloquently fluent in both languages now at 10ish and 5ish. I know other people who had their kids only speak Spanish in the home until Pre-school and they learned English through immersion at that age (3ish), but that's when both parents speak Spanish also. My husband speaks Spanish, and while I mostly understand it, I am horrible at piecing together sentences, and our plan is to basically be a lazily bilingual household, lol. We'd love for them to speak Spanish, if only for the possible career benefits later in life (my best friend is Cuban and has gotten several good jobs because they needed someone bilingual, and I'm a teacher and know of some positions in bilingual classrooms that I couldn't obtain, for instance), but admittedly likely won't put too much effort into it...some Spanish cartoons and children's books, he'll speak some Spanish to them, we'll ask friends/family who speak Spanish to try to speak it around them...My feeling is that it maybe isn't necessary for them to be 100% fluent, but even knowing some and speaking at a lower level will be more helpful than knowing nothing. If it were a bigger part of either of our cultures I'm sure we'd care more and put more effort into it. I actually helped on a research project as a graduate assistant interviewing parents and children in bilingual households and the biggest thing that seemed to make a difference was just consistency. If they are constantly surrounded by both languages since birth they will naturally learn both, essentially.

ChipMonster · July 2015

AshleighhSue said:
I'm in the same situation...but different language. My parents are both Deaf. My husband knows the basics of American Sign Language, but he's not fluent. This is something I definitely want my children to learn so that way they can communicate with their grandparents.. but I guess I'm lacking confidence in myself, and wondering if I can teach them everything I know. Fingers crossed!! I hope we can stay in touch and see how much our children can pick up!

I took a class in ASL and can do some very basic signs. I taught my son some basic words like "all done", "more" and "milk". He picked it up fairly easy and once he was able to sign back to me and see that I understood what he was trying to say, he looked so relieved! Like "hey, I don't need to yell and whine between bites, I can ask for more!" I think that babies can catch on fairly quickly to sign language. Their signing won't be perfect and it will be modified to what their motor skills allow them to do (ex: DS learned all done first and although I showed him the proper sign, he signed it like milk. As he got older and I showed him the sign for milk, he finally has the skills to turn his hands over for "all done")

You can do it mama!!

CanDGrrl · July 2015

I spoke Spanish to our kiddos all day long and then they'd hear me and DH speak English in the evenings and on weekends. Kids are like sponges, they pick up on everything! DH even picked up some Spanish

Have fun and enjoy it!

~Candie~ with an IE

peppercorn16 · July 2015

I'm also fluent in American sign language and we will be teaching both! Definitely the usual "baby signs" but also hopefully a lot more than that as early as possible. It's very exciting to see all these future bilingual babies, I'd love to know another spoken language to teach but I definitely don't and neither does my husband haha. Oh well

Bilingual mamas

Re: Bilingual mamas

Choose Another Board

Search Boards