Reading in foreign languages

Early Learning Teaching Your Child - Signing, Speaking, Languages
1

Hello,

We speak hungarian at home and my daughter speaks good now, that she turned 2 years old. I can speak also german very well, but didn’t want to speak german to her, until she speaks good her mother tongue. We live in Germany, so she will be speaking better german with time then hungarian. So it was very important to us, that she speaks hungarian well, before introducing the second language.

But now, I have the idea, to read to her german books, one or two per day. And when reading in german, I will also explain the pictures in german, so she will get an idea of the language after a few months I suppose. I still don’t want so speak german to her at home, exept when reading.

My question: Do you think, that this is a good idea or will she be confused? At first, she will not understand so much…

My second question: Should I also introduce english (with reading a book per day) at the same time or just wait?

Thank you very much for your help!!

2

Young children are very different. They an learn as much as you teach to them. Its not uncommon for a child to learn multiple languages at the same time. So go ahead and go with your plan :>)
Wish it were that easy for adults. lol

3

Hi Tracy,

Thank you very much for your answer. Now after reading a few days in the internet, I have made up a language learning-plan for my daughter. Please share your thoughts, could this plan work / is it not too much?

Starting today I will speak at least 40 minutes a day german with my daugther + read to her at least 15 minutes a few books (the rest of time hungarian speaking + reading). Besides I will translate the curriculum 1+2 in german, so I can do this with her too.

Starting in 4-5 months (depending, how it works out with german) I will also introduce reading at least 15 minutes a day in english and french (I speak both languages).

So, do you think it will be too much for her? Will she be confused or is it ok? Can she learn english and french just from reading a quarter of an hour every day or is this naiv thinking?

Please share your thoughts!

Best regards

4

Will she be fluent? No, probably not.
Will she benefit? Yes, definitely. You can easily look up how language exposure is good for kids and such, but I wont bother to quote that stuff here just now.
Can it work? Absolutely! Bravo to you mama for putting in the time and effort now. I really think that putting in the time early on will reap huge rewards and benefits for your childs language development.
Is It Too Much? No, I don’t think so. If its a part of your days routine etc and just a nice activity you all do together, there is no reason not too,

I say you just need to be consistent. Explain to her some vocabulary before each story, point out the vocabulary from books in real life and be regular with your exposure. If you do something like calendar time with her, just add a short discussion about the days story time language to the routine, just to help her see the boundaries of each language.

(“Today is monday, what langauge is our morning story time on monday? German! Good job, today we’re going to read our books in German…”)

As you get used to the language rotation and her comprehension grows and such, you might start doing a regular craft project, simple things, but during that time you speak language. This will let you speak about colors, shapes, actions (cutting, pasting, coloring, etc) and give sentence structure.

As she grows, you can do more and more advanced things to help her build her speaking, listening, etc

You might set up a special toy basket that calls for role play (plastic food, dress up) and during that time with that specific toy, you speak ____ with her.

Play restaurant in German, speak English when you’re cooking together.

I recommend the Opal Dunn book, Help Your Child with a Foreign Language.

I’m really enjoying it :slight_smile:

5

Mom2Bee,

Thank you for these wonderful ideas. I like very much the thought to make everyday a new language day.