Is any one here raising their kids to be bilingual by speaking a non-native language to them?
For example, I’m from the US, my first language is English and I study Spanish in school and I’m pretty good. I always wanted to learn Spanish as a child from the time I was like 4 or 5 years old, so I have always wanted to raise my children to speak Spanish.
I’m hoping that if I get good enough in Spanish and maintain Spanish then one day, when I have kids I can speak Spanish to them so that they learn it naturally. (I have a HUGE family, I’m not worried about the baby learning English so long as I live in an English Speaking country or with my family)
What I’m looking for are other parents experiences and opinions on doing this. Did you try using a non-native language with your kids from early on? How did it work out, was it strange speaking to your baby in a different langauge?
Hi, I am speaking to my baby in non native language. Slovak -native and english.I started to speak to her in english when she was 8 months old and before it was more like english songs and so. First it was strange to speak to her in english but now it feels very natural. I speak to her in slovak when outside with other people but sometime happens that I have to repeat the same thing in english as she doesn’t understands. She wants me to speak to her in english So I am going to use english 5 days during the week and slovak at weekends.
Hello! When my boy was born, I decided we would only speak Spanish around the house (we live in Orlando, FL). This way he would only be exposed to Spanish. While I still think that’s a great plan. It turned out to be much easier said than done. We still speak as much Spanish as possible(about 40% of the time) and the fact that we started early made it so that it’s second nature for him to communicate in multiple languages. My Bi-lingual friends who have waited longer to start with the non-native language have met much more resistance from their kids than I have. Kind of funny actually, when someone doesn’t understand him he assumes he’s speaking the wrong language for his audience and he automatically assumes a language “switcheroo” is required.
Hello,
I’m Hungarian, and I do speak English as well.
When I was pregnant I was singing English songs during the way to work. He remembers those songs later
When my son was a little baby I was reading or telling fairy tales to him, sing songs, and say rhymes.
Since his age of one, we watch the power points you can find on this site, we “play” songs, and rhymes. Evening tales can be Englisg or Hungarian.
The idea to teach him English is easier, than do it. When we go somewhere, I don’t speak English to him, just at home. My mom speaks English very well - better than I do - she also speaks sometimes English to him.
Maybe he won’t be a real bilingual child, but English is not a foreing language for him. My son do understands both languages, if he wants and non of them, if he doesn’t want, so I don’t know yet how succesfull I am
I ofter hear at the playgurond, that moms speak both languages to their children: the native and the non native as well.
Russian is my second language, but I am hoping it will be more like a second native language for my son. His father speaks only Russian, but they only talk about an hour a week and rarely see each other as he lives in Russia and we are in England. I am trying very hard to make my home Russian-only, but that is much easier said than done. It is soo easy to simply forget and switch back to English!
I am probably at about 30-40% Russian now, and am hoping over the next few months to get that more like 80-90%. Until he was 12m or so, I was only reading one or two stories a day and maybe saying the odd sentence. Now, he has Russian audiobooks during his naps, we read as many books as he will sit still for (usually still only one or two!) and I make an effort to speak as much as possible. Like I said, for me remembering to speak Russian is the biggest problem!
It is just a matter of conditioning yourself! If I were you, I’d start speaking Spanish to the baby when you are pregnant, then you will be in the right mindset to continue from birth. :biggrin:
My daughter and i had a lot of plans for raising her child multi-lingual.
She was going to expose her from birth to 5 languages: spanish (native), french, english, quechua, chinese.
As others mention, it is easy to say but difficult to do.
Here is what she has been exposed to:
Since birth, she has been listening to french music and singing from my daughter. Also sometimes we talk and sing in english.
At 3 months she start with Little Pim french and is doing it regularly combining with music. My daughter (she took some french classes before) watches with her so she is leaning and talking to her with the same phrases in everyday life. For example while breastfeeding, she drinks a lot of water and tells her what she is doing (in french).
Almost when she was 4 month old, they start YBCR in english every other day. So for now she is doing mostly french and english when they are alone. The rest of the family speaks to her in spanish (our language).
The plans are to keep up with this 3 languages (also reading in english with YBCR and LR)
Later on, maybe by 9 month old they will start with quechua. I recomend to start as soon as possible since his father, grandparents from his dad and a maid that helps her speak quechua.
I am learning Chinese with rosetta and LR Chinese. Maybe i will also start classes. Hopefully before her first birthday we will start with LR Chinese. If i, a grandmather starting now with Chinese am learning to recognize many words and simplified symbols, imagine what a baby can learn¡
I recommend you try to get spanish songs for children and DVD. Also you can use LR with spanish downloads, Little Pim Spanish and other mentioned in this forum.
Good luck and keep us posted.
So I am going to use english 5 days during the week and slovak at weekends.