Me and my husband are both hungarian native speakers and we live in Switzerland, and everybody around us speaks german. I’ve been living here for almost 30 years, so I speak german as good as hungarian.
So… we would like to speak hungarian at home with our daughter and I don’t want to speak with her german, because I’m afraid, she then won’t speak any hungarian with me anymore, because that is the more difficult language. I also see this in two other families.
But it would be great, if I could teach her german with Little Reader. Would it be a good idea or would she get really confused? 1 week ago I begun the 12-months-curriculum with her in hungarian (I translated a part already and am still translating).
I would like her to understand (and maybe speak) german good and understand and speak hungarian at the moment at home. How can I do this??
Dear lolobride, ur child can learn upto or even more than 4 languages before 1 yr. so dont hesitate to speak both languages. i m teaching my son 3 languages to speak. only we feel german language is difficult/hungarian is not. but for ur child nothing is difficult.
Hi. I can tell about families I;ve known at one forum.
The 1st one - mom is Russian, dad is German, they live in Germany. I don’t know whether they lived in Russia too or not. But they spoke Russian at first. Then mom started to teach the children English (and her oldest doughter had fluent English), and then they started to speak German. So they’d spoken and read and written THREE languages fluently for the age 3.
Another boy is Russian as weel as his family and they live in Russia. Mother tought him English and a bit later German with a teacher. But as there is no both English and German around him his languages became passive. But he reads, understands and writes them. He can speak English but doesn’t like very much.
So, I think you shouldn’t limit your child with languages. Hungarian is your root, your origin so don’t bereave your kid of it.
Hi!
I think you should speak to her whatever she won’t be getting at school later. As far as getting a leg up in teaching her the second language you need to explore different ways to do this. Personally I am not talking about and video programs or things where you sit her in front of a screen to teach. It is important that she love the second language! If you spend time with her having fun while learning it she will associate quality time spent with mom and the language together! Set aside a time of day where the family does “Total Immersion” of the language. For example we choose mealtime to only be in Mandarin Chinese. Play games with her in that language. The possibilities are endless and after 5 years of teaching our boys I now realize there is not a magic pill out there that will zap it into their brain.
I would love for you to share your ideas and success along the way, funny stories about teaching or any frustrations your having!
You can find me here: http://mandarinkids.wordpress.com/
Your daughter doesn’t know it’s the more difficult language. It’s all the same to her. She doesn’t even know they are separate languages. She just thinks there are a few different ways to say something. And since kids are such sponges and geniuses at learning languages, she’ll absorb all of it. Don’t limit her exposure to languages. No child has ever been exposed to a language spoken in the home and not picked it up (unless their parents didn’t speak it to them). Good luck!
A Canadian friend of mine lives in England but she is married to a German. She speaks only English to her son and he speaks only German to him. They were home for Christmas and we went out to dinner together. The child (15 months old) had a good vocabulary in both languages and knew what to speak to which parent. I found it quite interesting and wished that I and my husband had a 2nd language to share with our son in this way. Just an idea…
Dear Lolobride!
I would love to teach German and Hungarian language to my daughter .I am Hungarian,I live in Italy.I wanted very much the LR in Hungarian and German to by,but it does not exist.It would by possible that you sell my a copy of it?(LR in German and Hungarian)I wold by very grateful .