My kids are learning new language, and FIL offers to help

[Anonymous]

I have 2 kids, one is a first grader and the other one is a preschooler. We are sending them to group class in person to learn a language that I can speak so so.

FIL hears about it, and he offers to help to teach them home language. He says that he will do zoom session with my 2 kids separately 20 min each kid & 5 days a week. He is excited that his grand kids to learn the language and culture. Should I take the offer? He is a language school teacher, so he knows what he is doing. We are still sending them to group class in person, and it is no change of plan. My 2 kids cannot understand or speak that language, but FIL is able to communicate to them in English.

I am thinking that I should take the offer but my kids are not doing well on zoom, and I wonder if 5 days a week is too much or not. I can speak/understand that language like 60% fluency, but I don't know how to teach them. Anyone ever has family member to do zoom to teach language?

[Anonymous]

Take it!

I can't for the life of me to get my mother to even speak to my kids in our native language. You're so lucky to have this. Tell FIL that they are young, and you'd like to start off with fewer days if you're worried about too much Zoom. But it seems fairly short.

Love it.

Can I ask which language? Purely curiousity, it's not relevant to the question.

[Anonymous]

I’d keep them in group class and see if zooming grandpa can do enrichment. Play it by ear and see how your kids are doing.

[Anonymous]

Do it, but 2 days a week.

[Anonymous]

PS. I'd take it but keep them in the group class too. My experience with the group classes is that the learning is much slower and the likelihood of fluency lower. But still worth doing.

[Anonymous]

If they're not speaking the language everyday, it's all useless and a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d keep them in group class and see if zooming grandpa can do enrichment. Play it by ear and see how your kids are doing.

This. My oldest started learning my ILs native language via Zoom sessions with my MIL. That’s what MIL does, and she’s an excellent teacher/tutor, but over time it became increasingly difficult to schedule consistent lessons due to everyone’s schedules, and DC had trouble thinking of it as real instruction rather than time with grandma. Things went much better once we dropped the lessons and pursued other avenues, but I’m glad we at least tried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 2 kids, one is a first grader and the other one is a preschooler. We are sending them to group class in person to learn a language that I can speak so so.

FIL hears about it, and he offers to help to teach them home language. He says that he will do zoom session with my 2 kids separately 20 min each kid & 5 days a week. He is excited that his grand kids to learn the language and culture. Should I take the offer? He is a language school teacher, so he knows what he is doing. We are still sending them to group class in person, and it is no change of plan. My 2 kids cannot understand or speak that language, but FIL is able to communicate to them in English.

I am thinking that I should take the offer but my kids are not doing well on zoom, and I wonder if 5 days a week is too much or not. I can speak/understand that language like 60% fluency, but I don't know how to teach them. Anyone ever has family member to do zoom to teach language?

Are you for real?! Why are you even asking?

[Anonymous]

If it’s your FIL does your spouse speak the language also? Between in person group/Zoom grandpa/spouse in person they may ramp up quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they're not speaking the language everyday, it's all useless and a waste of time.

Ha ha! So untrue. My kids both learned a second and third language through classes and camps.

[Anonymous]

What’s the possible downside to accepting your FIL’s gracious offer?

If it’s too much for the kids, they’ll let you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they're not speaking the language everyday, it's all useless and a waste of time.

Ha ha! So untrue. My kids both learned a second and third language through classes and camps.

1) people really don’t understand how variable language acquisition is. Even a child who invests a lot of time in a second language starting at a young age May walk away with a very weak skill level and another child may gain a lot of language; 2) in my experience Americans vastly overstate their ability to speak additional languages. I have no idea what you mean by “learned” and I bet you don’t know either.

[Anonymous]

Give it a try? I might have both kids on at once some days so you're done in 20 minutes. Or make a section of the lesson combined where you all play a game. So 10 min = kid 1, 10 minutes combo, 10 min =kid 2.

Regardless, you should plan to be there to participate with kids that young on Zoom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they're not speaking the language everyday, it's all useless and a waste of time.

Ha ha! So untrue. My kids both learned a second and third language through classes and camps.

1) people really don’t understand how variable language acquisition is. Even a child who invests a lot of time in a second language starting at a young age May walk away with a very weak skill level and another child may gain a lot of language; 2) in my experience Americans vastly overstate their ability to speak additional languages. I have no idea what you mean by “learned” and I bet you don’t know either.

My oldest child is living in France so I’d say her skill level was strong. She majored in the Spanish literature so her second language apparently “got learned real good” too. My younger child is in college and Minoring in French. She learned good too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they're not speaking the language everyday, it's all useless and a waste of time.

Total nonsense. You’re sparking a different part of the brain in just singing a song in a foreign language. Any language learned is enormously valuable.