Bilinguilism

[Victor]

Is anyone else trying to teach their kids more than one language? How is it going? My wife is fluent in Spanish (I'm not) and speaks Spanish to the kids sometimes, but often forgets. As a result, our toddler prefers English.

 

[ryan]

I've done it a little using what I learned in third grade. It's weird because I had Spanish in high school, and yet I can remember more from my classes in elementary school. That gives validity to the claims that children can learn other languages more easily when they're younger.

 

[Salazar]

We have Italian lessons on CD and my wife was saying recently that we should have our daughter listen in while we're trying to learn. Trouble is, she'll probably pick up on it quicker than us and then we won't know what she's talking about!

 

[Babar]

They say childhood is the best time to learn a language. I think as long as you are devoting some attention to educational materials (flash cards, video games, Dora the Explorer), your kids will learn the basics of a lingo. If you want them to be fluent, however, they will probably need a classroom setting.

 

[Ed35]

Nope, I don't know any language besides English. I took 4 years of French in high school and can't remember enough to say so. My kids will take Spanish or French in high school like I did.

 

[Michael]

My daughter learns some phrases, the alphabet and songs in Spanish because she has a few friends whose native language is Spanish. I think it's a great idea, and she loves chanting out songs in Spanish.

 

[LeonR]

We tried, but the only thing that really helped us get anywhere was what they were teaching in schools. Here, we had French and Spanish choices. Two daughters took enough French to get by. They are doing enough in college to meet the requirements.

 

[jason]

My wife is teaching sign language to our children. I would like them to learn Spanish also when they get a little older.

 

[Victor]

They say childhood is the best time to learn a language. I think as long as you are devoting some attention to educational materials (flash cards, video games, Dora the Explorer), your kids will learn the basics of a lingo. If you want them to be fluent, however, they will probably need a classroom setting.

This really depends on the circumstances. Since our kids have one fluent parent, and spend time with grandparents who primarily speak Spanish, a classroom is theoretically unnecessary.

 

[Timothy]

We started teaching our son sign language before he started speaking, and now that he's speaking, my wife is teaching him both Spanish and English, so we're working on 3 languages in total.

As far as how it's going, he took to sign language VERY WELL. In fact, even though he can speak now, he still signs on a daily basis, to communicate simple things like hunger. It's interesting to hear him speak though, because some English words are easier for him than the Spanish counterpart, and vice-versa, so right now he's pretty much speaking in a mixture of the two, choosing to use the easier-to-pronounce word. (He says "agua" in place of "water", for example, but chooses the English "dog" in place of "el perro".)

 

[Bobby]

The younger a child is the easier it is for them to learn a language. We try to use a few words of French and Italian with our kids as that is our background. Hopefully they'll pick up more of these languages in the coming years.

 

[Victor]

It's interesting to hear him speak though, because some English words are easier for him than the Spanish counterpart, and vice-versa, so right now he's pretty much speaking in a mixture of the two, choosing to use the easier-to-pronounce word. (He says "agua" in place of "water", for example, but chooses the English "dog" in place of "el perro".)

My daughter does this too. She prefers "mas" over "more", "agua" over "water" and "cheche" (leche) over "milk". It makes sense to me; when you have two words to pick from, why not choose the easier word?