Hi
My spouse and me are Iranian so persian is our native language. I have purchased LR for my baby and have started teaching her English, since she was 4 months old. I’m going to teach her our own native language and another foreign language as well. However, there are two things that worries me:
Any idea or comment is appreciated
My son is two and we are speaking English/Russian at home, but he also learns Chinese and dabbles in Japanese. So far, his English is very good for his age, his Russian is a little behind his age (being that we live in England so he gets little exposure apart from me) and he can say a few words/phrases in Chinese and sing one Japanese song.
I have always been very clear when watching something in Chinese/Japanese to say which language it is, and he doesn’t seem to have a problem with differentiating, though it is hard to tell with the amount he knows. He isn’t really at the level in either language to do more than name some objects and say hello.
With Russian and English, I have been much less clear as I speak both languages to him (being the only parent and unable to keep up a Russian conversation all day). If you speak English he will (almost) always reply in English. If you speak Russian he will understand but may reply in English or a mix of English and Russian (for example, today he told me ‘don’t’ in Russian and ‘hit’ in English) which I think is mostly down to the fact that his English vocabulary is far superior to his Russian. He does understand which language is which, though - if you ask in English, a dog says ‘woof’, but ask in Russian and it says ‘gav’.
I would go for it and not worry. Yes, he will mix languages as he learns to talk, but that is no different in terms of language development to using babbles or made-up words as he learns to talk - there are lots of previous chats on exactly this topic if you search the forum archives.
Hi,
I would like to share my experience. My son is bilingual. I started to speak Hungarian (my native language) to him when he was about 2 months old. My husband speaks only English. It wasn’t easy for me at the beginning but after a little bit of time I just got used to it. I have one strict rule: to use only Hung or English sentences, not mixing them within a sentence. I also started YBCR with him in English when he was 13 months old.
The result: he started to speak pretty early. For a long time Hungarian was stronger then English (I’m home with him so we use more of my language). His vocabulary was/still amazing. He absorbs everything. Since he started preschool (he’s 3 now), English got stronger, I would say at least equal.
It was always my goal to keep balance between these languages. Now it seems that I have to push Hungarian a little more since the English influence is stronger now. BTW he never was confused between languages. He never mixed them even though I started to introduce spanish about a year ago. He’s totally fine with them. He knows who speaks what languages. Sometimes it happens that he puts a word from the other language but I correct him right away just repeating tho correct sentence only in Hungarian or only in English.
Bottom line: I know exactly what you are concerned about but according to my experience there is nothing to worried about. Just be consistent. When my husband is around we usually use English, but I still have my little Hungarian conversations with him, making sure that I translate it to my husband.
Hope I could help.