Message Board

Non-native bilingualism - when is too late?

Tosomja — Thur, 09 Sep 2010 20:54:02 GMT

I have a son who is 2 years 2 months old. I speak French fairly fluently but with lots of errors (didn't study it beyond the age of 17 but have spent time living in France and really love it). I started speaking French exclusively to him 15 days ago and I'm really not sure if I'm much too late - should have started from birth! I didn't even think about it for the first 2 years . Is there anyone else out there who started late and what were the results? Is it worth it or should I just give up and send him to French classes when he's 3? He does think it's fairly strange and is showing a strong preference for his dad at the moment (who talks English to him) but he is starting to understand and repeats words back to me. When I look at French grammar books I just feel overwhelmed by the inadequacies of my French and feel I could never teach him properly - but on the other hand I can manage the requirements of toddler communication at the moment!

Forum: Non-native Speakers

Advice for my SIL

Lessa — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:36:09 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice for my sister in law who is trying to raise her child bilingually (she is a native speaker of English and her husband is a native speaker of the second language). My SIL speaks probably no more than 30 words of her husband's language, plus a couple of nursery rhymes. Most of her words are family titles/methods of address plus basic yes, no etc. However, she is unwilling to leave the second language to her husband and instead speaks a mixture of English sprinkled with whatever words she knows from the second language in her conversation to her child. It's rather confusing to myself and my husband when we visit and we're concerned that if she carries on in this way, she's likely to miss her goal which is a fully bilingual child. She is the primary carer for the child and her husband doesn't seem to particularly speak the second language to the child either.

Is this polyglot approach likely to be problematic and is there any helpful advice we could offer her to help her get to her goal?

Many thanks in advance.

L

Forum: Your Questions -- General

how do i go on with my daughter when she doesn't want to speak english

bernice — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:37:53 GMT

i live in germany with my six year old daughter and her german dad. he speaks only german to her, i speak only english accept when addressing her and her friends - then i speak german. initially her first language was english but since being here it has swopped to german, which is an obvious development. when we first lived here i spoke no german and my daughter who was three at the time was mixing up her languages in each sentence which i thought was normal. as time went on the german content of every sentence increased, with less and less use of english until i finally noticed that my daughter wasn't really speaking much english to me anymore. which i found really disturbing as it felt like she wasn't my kid anymore. sounds silly but that was how it was. i also had problems understanding her. so i started to insist she speak english with me. whenever she said something in german i would say 'sorry?' until she said it in english. when i guessed what she wanted to say but could see she couldn't formulate it i would say it in english. the problem is that now she knows i speak german and often i have to say 'sorry?' so often - sometimes she says every sentence in german unless i remind her every five minutes to speak english - it is driving me mad. i would never stop speaking english to my daughter. that's not the topic. but i want her to have more than a passive knowledge of the language - my parents don't speak german but we don't have so much phone contact. i'm beginning to think i should just let her speak german to me. part of me feels this is better for us - we are having a lot of fights about english - but part of me knows that if given the choice she will stop speaking english and will then really struggle when we're in ireland. i know everyone says pressure is bad but all my friends bringing up bilingual kids who don't use pressure say the same - their kid talks to them in german. help! playgroups here don't work - the kids speak german to each other even when they're english or irish.

Forum: Your Questions -- General

Bilingual problems

Mignonne — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:58:07 GMT

I am not married to the father of my child.
He is Afrikaans speaking and I am English. Our daughter is now almost 22 months and doesn't yet say simple sentences. I've been trying really hard the past month to focus on her speech. I've bought basic books and she will point to a picture and I will say the word. She is slowly picking up the words and I'm terribly proud of her. The problem is that my boyfriend is fighting with me constantly saying that I'm selfish because I don't also speak Afrikaans to her. I'm not sure of where our relationship is going and would much rather send her to an English school as it would make it easier for me. I won't keep her away from Afrikaans. My dad is Afrikaans and I can speak it well. But the way my boyfriend is carrying on, he wants me to speak Afrikaans and he isn't happy that I enrolled her in Top Tots which is an English speaking class... the class has done her well and she has picked up and learned so much. He just won't stop fighting.
What can you suggest!? I'm tired of fighting and I just want the best for my daughter.

Forum: Your Questions -- General

Chinese, English, and Maybe Spanish

Juan — Thur, 12 Aug 2010 16:36:55 GMT

I'm a father raising a child with my wife in Taiwan. He's bilingual in both Chinese and English. I usually talk to him in English and stories through books. I also speak Spanish, so I'm introducing it to him playfully.
He's lucky to know that knowing languages is not abstract and difficult. Every kid is a sponge, you have to water it and soak it. I don't know if that makes sense. It's challenging, frustrating, and fun.
I've been working on my blog about it. It's short and simple.
http://jfran.wordpress.com/

Since I don't have access to a lot of Spanish books, I use the net for ideas..

Forum: Your Stories

fourth language?

jessica — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:58:13 GMT

Hi -- We have a 4.5 year old son who is trilingual. I speak to him in German exclusively, my husband speaks to him in Spanish exclusively and we live in the US. I am thrilled with how well he is doing, as I did have some concern that we were overloading him when we were just starting out. We now have an opportunity to send him to chinese classes after school. I am not sure how many days a week but I think at least 3 days a week for 90 minutes each time. I worry that this might be too much for him, and end up doing more harm than good. I am not sure when he would begin, but it might not be til next year when he is almost 6. Any thoughts? Neither my husband nor I speak and Chinese, so we would not really be able to reinforce it. Thanks, Jessica

Forum: Your Questions -- General

Non-Native French Speaker

Angelina — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 15:34:51 GMT

Hi there. I've got a 10 month infant girl who I'm trying to raise trilingually. My husband and I both speak English & Spanish fluently. I also teach her French although I am not a native speaker. I'm a language teacher by profession but am now a stay-at-home mother. I've tried to come up with a 'language schedule' so that she has somewhat equal exposure to all 3 languages. Wake-up til lunch is French; post-lunch to bed-time is Spanish; English is minimally spoken intermittenly throughout the day. My concern is that since I'm a non-native speaker of French & therefore don't speak as profusely with her in the mornings in French, is she still going to speak this language adequately? Don't get me wrong, I'm still talking quite a bit, but it's not as nearly fluent & varied as in the other languages. I do all 'daily' activities with her (i.e., read aloud, sing, narrate actions) with slow & simple French. I supplement my French with audio books, CDs, & videos. At this point there aren't any playgroups & French language classes in my area for such a young child--that will come in the future. Since she's babbling but not yet 'talking talking', I'm not sure if she's truly learning French. Is anybody in a similar situation? I suppose I may just need encouragement but some advice &/or ancedotes would be appreciated! Thanks in advance, Angelina

Forum: Non-native Speakers

English, Korean, Russian, and a Baby

Joan Makarova — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:02:23 GMT

Hello there. I am due to have a baby in 8 weeks. My husband and I live in Los Angeles, California. I am Korean-American and my husband is Russian. I speak English and Korean fluently, while my husband speaks English with an accent, and Russian fluently. We have a dog who we trained in Russian. The reason I mention this is because I have noticed, when I am not giving her commands in Russian, I am having a conversation with her in Korean. With babies, I tend to express myself in Korean too, perhaps because it is my first language. I am most fluent in English but find myself thinking in Korean quite frequently. Despite being born and raised in America, I still feel a strong connection with my native roots. My husband, on the other hand, came to the states when he was 17 years old. He thinks in Russian most of the time and in English some of the time. I want my baby to learn all 3 languages together. We are thinking to use this strategy: I will speak to her in Korean and English only, while my husband will speak to her in Russian and English only. I have been picking up Russian for the past 3 years. I can understand some of it and say basic things, but I still need more practice. I am hoping to learn together with my daughter as she grows up. Can anyone comment on this? I want to know if this would be the best way to incorporate our three cultures...THANKS!

Forum: Your Questions -- General

I need parents' help for my project.

Eriko — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:17:22 GMT

Hello,

I'm a university student from Japan and doing Graduation Project about bilingual child rearing.

Currently I'm making a questionnaire and want some parents (who are doing bilingual child rearing) to fill out it.

Please tell me if you can help and then I will send you one, or I'll post the questions to this thread.

Thank you.

Forum: Your Questions -- General

Rainbow Cultural Gardens

Laura Matthews — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:24:06 GMT

Hi

I was just wondering if anyone had any involvement with the Rainbow Cultural Gardens project, or knew anything about their multi-lingual kids program?

Thanks

Laura

Forum: Your Questions -- General

Kick my butt - latish start...

swedishchick — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 07:32:46 GMT

Hi I'm Swedish raising my two children, 2 1/2 and 15 months, in Australia with an Australian husband.

For various dumb reasons I did not start speaking Swedish to my daughter from birth - and of course the longer you leave it the harder it becomes. My main hurdle is the fact that I've not actually lived in Sweden myself for 12 years and now days I think / dream / talk in English so I have to make a conscious effort to stick to it.

On the plus side my daughter has at least been exposed to the sound of Swedish from an early age: weekly Swedish mothers group and meeting Swedish friends, phoning my mum in Swedish, visiting there and listening to Swedish music.

I really want to start now... just hoping to hear from anyone who started around this age and how it went? Just need a kick up my back really to just do it!

Forum: Your Questions -- General

Do I need a "system" for this to work?

Sherry — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:13:59 GMT

Hello,

1. We live in the U.S.
2. My husband and I speak native English, I speak non-native Chinese and non-native French (both fluently), and my husband speaks native Hebrew
3. Our child is 13 months old
4. No language system!

Since my husband and I only share one common language, mL@H is out of the question. I knew from before our child was born that we wouldn't be regimented enough to do OPOL -- I knew we wouldn't speak to each other in English and then to our child in our respective languages. Plus, I'd only be able to read to her in English. So we ended up just speaking English to her 99% of the time.

I only now heard from a friend that it wouldn't confuse the child if one parent switches randomly between languages. Is this true? I would really love for our child to learn Chinese and Hebrew. I also know we wouldn't be regimented to choose specific days to speak the languages. And like I said, I can only read to her in English and not in Chinese. Would it be beneficial if we did decide to randomly speak to her in Chinese and Hebrew? Or would it be useless or too confusing?

Forum: Family Language Systems

conflict between minority and majority languageFor trilingual language system

Priscilla Taoufik — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:55:58 GMT

Hi all,

I am expecting my first child and am having a difficult time deciding on a language system.

Here is my situation:

*We live in the United States.

*My husband speaks Arabic, Spanish, and English

*I speak English, Spanish, and conversational Arabic

What I know for sure:

1)My husband and mother in law will speak to my son in Arabic

2)My husband and I will continue to communicate in Spanish

3) I will speak to my son in Spanish

4) As a family we will speak Spanish

5)My son will be exposed to English outside of the home through other relatives and later on when he goes to school

My doubt:

*While I know that my son will eventually pick up English at school, I have a desire to still provide him with significant learning experiences in English early on. For example, I am a first grade teacher and I want to be able to read to him in English from the beginning, especially since there is more variety of literature available in English. However, since Spanish is a minority language, I worry that bringing in the English will diminish the Spanish.

Any advice on what I should do? Should I just make it my priority to speak to him in Spanish since he will eventually get the English? If I decide to read to him in English will that confuse him?

Forum: Family Language Systems

OPOL: One of the parents doesn't understand the other language

Radboud — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:41:54 GMT

We are planning use the OPOL method at home. We live in Spain (Barcelona), my wife is Spanish and I'm from Holland.
I plan to talk Dutch to my child and my wife in catalan (and Spanish will be the language at school).

The problem is that my wife doesn't understand Dutch.

We went to see a child psychologist and she said that my wife would learn Dutch (along with the child) without any problem. However we have our doubts...

Will this be that easy for her? Will we be able to have a fluent communication at home? Someone had a similar experience, how did this work out?

Txs!

Forum: Your Questions -- General

References about the FAQ topic - critical period

Angie — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:57:11 GMT

Hi, my question is for the moderator (i think) I was reading about the FAQ the one about critical period to learn languages. There are many interesting facts in the answer, so I wonder if I could get a link and/or reference about the ages and language acquisition. I would like to do more in deep reading aobut this.
Main reason my D (5 yr old) is trilingual so far and she'll start her 4 language when she starts kindergarden. She'll attend an immersion school. So I wonder how to make a successfull acquisition of her 4 language. Thank you!

Forum: Your Questions -- General