Hi all,
I know I havent been much around lately, but my comp broke thus no net at home… just using whenever i visit relatives!
I have a confession to make first and foremost, my son who is 3yrs 2months old can read perfect english, Allah Willing, BUT he dont understand it! Meaning he can read the nooks, but he dont understand English, He understands action words from LR, and little sentences using those words. Our mother tongue is called Dhivehi, very similar to Arabic, and I
have been teaching Arabic words too. But when he hears me speaking in English, he starts to talk gibberish like “shiyambal nonda!” (whatever that means!!! thats the respond I got when I asked “What do you want to say in English!”)
So now my question is how do I teach him the language??? I know I was supposed to use English while talking to him when he was young, but I never got around, dont know why, I just cant seem to speak to him in English!
Any help would be much appreciated!
Hi! I went through the same thing! Well almost! We were trying to teach our boys Chinese and what ended up happening at first(when they were 2-4) is they could say Chinese words well but they just raddled them off while playing and then they would make no sense at all and would be mixed in with English and whatever other words they were making up! I eventually realized the inevetible, there is not magic way to learn any language! However, don’t give up! They are learning, it just doesn’t seem like it right now. My sons now 6 and 8 are doing really well but just recently. They knew a lot more than I had previously thought. The best way to teach in my opinion is time with your child, playing games and having fun with the language, let them develop a love of the language and don’t let them see that you are frustrated with them when they aren’t getting it because they will only associate that feeling with the language.
Lots more fun ways to learn and stay motivated for parents teaching their kids a foreign language at my site.
http://mandarinkids.wordpress.com/