do you consider nannies with bad English/bad grammar?

[Anonymous]

We preferred a bilingual nanny who could teach our kid another language. I loved the idea of the kid being exposed to and learning another language at such a young age. Our nanny’s English isn’t perfect. It’s pretty good but I don’t think she could read well in English and there are some grammar mistakes and I’m sure her vocabulary isn’t as extensive as a native speaker. But she speaks Spanish to our kid. I think he’s been slower with vocabulary in English as a result. But it’s amazing seeing him respond to all of her requests in Spanish. We also wanted someone with experience and good references.

That’s just our preference though. If you value an advanced English vocabulary at a young age, then I see why it makes sense to hire someone with very good English.

I see no reason why you can’t find a native or fluent speaker that is also is kind and nurturing. Getting someone with those qualities and lots of experience may be $$$. My friend couldn’t pay the big bucks but wanted a fluent English speaker. She had found a woman in her early 20s who is kind and wonderful. The nanny didn’t have much experience though. She goes to college parttime and is studying early child development. She’s happy with her choice.

[Anonymous]

Poor grammar not bad grammar, OP. Heh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids were taken care of by two women from abroad who spoke English with heavy accents and many, many grammatical and word choice errors. (DH had a lot of difficulty understanding them.) What they had was love. So much love. They took care of my babies as if they were their own. I can't even begin to tell you how much lucky I felt knowing these two beautiful souls and having them look after my kids. Years later I'm still friends with them. I wouldn't have traded them for the sweetest talking Harvard Ph.D.

But you can have a loving nanny who cares well for your children AND speaks fluent, correct English. I don't think that foreign or less educated nannies are bad, but it's not like you have to choose one or the other.

For OP, our nanny is a college-educated American woman who speaks well. I think it was helpful in building their vocabulary and literacy at an early age, if that's particularly important to you. That said, I think things equalize a lot in elementary.

It was useful to have someone with those skills once my oldest child started school. Our nanny was able to help him with reading books he brought home from school, or with word study, or whatever. So it didn't all have to sit until we got home from work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're currently looking for a full-time nanny to replace our (amazing) part-time nanny since I'm going back to work full-time. I don't know if it's rational, but I've been automatically rejecting 95% of profiles I see or applications I get because the person writes badly/has terrible grammar/obviously has poor English skills. I used to teach at a very expensive private school in NYC and noticed that many of my students did not have as high level vocabularies as I would have expected - another teacher told me this was because many of them were essentially raised by nannies originally from another country who didn't speak English very well. I know that many foreign-born nannies are good down to their bones, love their charges, are capable, and do all kinds of fun and enriching activities with them. But ... I've read so many studies on the impact of surrounding children with high-level vocabulary and conversation. My children are in preschool, so it seems maybe more important than if I had an infant. I know I could ask a nanny to speak Spanish to my children, but for a few reasons that doesn't work well for our situation right now. Do you think my instincts (to insist on a nanny with great English) are reasonable, or am I missing out on better candidates? Is English ability important to you?

You write badly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're currently looking for a full-time nanny to replace our (amazing) part-time nanny since I'm going back to work full-time. I don't know if it's rational, but I've been automatically rejecting 95% of profiles I see or applications I get because the person writes badly/has terrible grammar/obviously has poor English skills. I used to teach at a very expensive private school in NYC and noticed that many of my students did not have as high level vocabularies as I would have expected - another teacher told me this was because many of them were essentially raised by nannies originally from another country who didn't speak English very well. I know that many foreign-born nannies are good down to their bones, love their charges, are capable, and do all kinds of fun and enriching activities with them. But ... I've read so many studies on the impact of surrounding children with high-level vocabulary and conversation. My children are in preschool, so it seems maybe more important than if I had an infant. I know I could ask a nanny to speak Spanish to my children, but for a few reasons that doesn't work well for our situation right now. Do you think my instincts (to insist on a nanny with great English) are reasonable, or am I missing out on better candidates? Is English ability important to you?

You write badly.

No, she does not write poorly. Stop embarrassing yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're currently looking for a full-time nanny to replace our (amazing) part-time nanny since I'm going back to work full-time. I don't know if it's rational, but I've been automatically rejecting 95% of profiles I see or applications I get because the person writes badly/has terrible grammar/obviously has poor English skills. I used to teach at a very expensive private school in NYC and noticed that many of my students did not have as high level vocabularies as I would have expected - another teacher told me this was because many of them were essentially raised by nannies originally from another country who didn't speak English very well. I know that many foreign-born nannies are good down to their bones, love their charges, are capable, and do all kinds of fun and enriching activities with them. But ... I've read so many studies on the impact of surrounding children with high-level vocabulary and conversation. My children are in preschool, so it seems maybe more important than if I had an infant. I know I could ask a nanny to speak Spanish to my children, but for a few reasons that doesn't work well for our situation right now. Do you think my instincts (to insist on a nanny with great English) are reasonable, or am I missing out on better candidates? Is English ability important to you?

You write badly.

No, she does not write poorly. Stop embarrassing yourself.

I guess majority of DCUM posters couldn't nanny for OP, then. Good luck OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're currently looking for a full-time nanny to replace our (amazing) part-time nanny since I'm going back to work full-time. I don't know if it's rational, but I've been automatically rejecting 95% of profiles I see or applications I get because the person writes badly/has terrible grammar/obviously has poor English skills. I used to teach at a very expensive private school in NYC and noticed that many of my students did not have as high level vocabularies as I would have expected - another teacher told me this was because many of them were essentially raised by nannies originally from another country who didn't speak English very well. I know that many foreign-born nannies are good down to their bones, love their charges, are capable, and do all kinds of fun and enriching activities with them. But ... I've read so many studies on the impact of surrounding children with high-level vocabulary and conversation. My children are in preschool, so it seems maybe more important than if I had an infant. I know I could ask a nanny to speak Spanish to my children, but for a few reasons that doesn't work well for our situation right now. Do you think my instincts (to insist on a nanny with great English) are reasonable, or am I missing out on better candidates? Is English ability important to you?

You write badly.

No, she does not write poorly. Stop embarrassing yourself.

DP, but she does make poor arguments. The problem with children with poorly developed vocabularies is that their parents - who are probably educated - do not engage with them, not because of their nannies. That's what the studies on vocabulary size attest. OP is conflating that with the nannies without basis other than some off-hand comment from an old colleague.

[Anonymous]

I did not have patience to sort through emails from potential sitters who couldn’t put together a sentence. I can’t imagine frequent texting with someone with poor grammar skills. It would drive me crazy. It doesn’t bother some people, and that’s great. I wish I could ignore it.

- nanny/grammar nut

[Anonymous]

The number of words a child hears, and the quality of language that a child hears absolutely correlate with their language development. It's not the only factor, not by a long shot, but it's a big one.

I used daycare, rather than a nanny, but when I was looking for childcare the most important thing to me was how the adults talked to the kids. I actually have a job where I spend a fair amount of time in preschools and to me the number one indicator of a high quality preschool is the language that you hear, both from the kids and from the teachers. Things like ratios and and science experiments, and art activities are important, because they support those conversations.

So, yes, if I was looking for a nanny, I'd want that person's language to be very strong. Now, if they were speaking a different language than English, and it was one I could support over the course of their early years (e.g. I wouldn't want a different language every year, so a language like Spanish where I knew I could probably find other sources of the language if that nanny left), then that would be fine as long as that language was fluent. I'd want someone who was fluent to help me interview.

However, it's much less important to me, unless my kid was old enough to need homework help, that they write fluently. I know many people who speak beautiful English, and write like crap. I'd want enough literacy that they can read a storybook and talk about it with my kid (in whatever language they're talking to my kid), follow written directions or a written schedule from me, and write me a text that tells me something that happened, but perfect grammar in writing wouldn't be a concern.

[Anonymous]

I'm a nanny and there's a family I do occasional date night and overnight work for who recently looked for someone to fill some gaps while a parent was out of town. The dad was screening the applicants and discounted the ones with poor grammar and error filled profiles. One asked why he didn't respond to her application and he told her it was due to her poor grammar on her profile and in her application and that he wants someone who speaks properly and can present themself seriously. (Or words to that effect.) The applicant became very belligerent and combative about it. She asked! He thought he was doing her a favor by telling her why so she can clean up the spelling and grammar and improve her chances in the future. Her response guaranteed she wasn't going to get this job, or even an interview.

I think it's fine to have a preference, but I also think if a person is a native English speaker and still can't string together a few sentences about themselves, a topic they should know well, then there's probably a reason for it and it's not good.

[Anonymous]

My nanny speaks very limited English. My kids are 2 and 3.5 and speak very very well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're currently looking for a full-time nanny to replace our (amazing) part-time nanny since I'm going back to work full-time. I don't know if it's rational, but I've been automatically rejecting 95% of profiles I see or applications I get because the person writes badly/has terrible grammar/obviously has poor English skills. I used to teach at a very expensive private school in NYC and noticed that many of my students did not have as high level vocabularies as I would have expected - another teacher told me this was because many of them were essentially raised by nannies originally from another country who didn't speak English very well. I know that many foreign-born nannies are good down to their bones, love their charges, are capable, and do all kinds of fun and enriching activities with them. But ... I've read so many studies on the impact of surrounding children with high-level vocabulary and conversation. My children are in preschool, so it seems maybe more important than if I had an infant. I know I could ask a nanny to speak Spanish to my children, but for a few reasons that doesn't work well for our situation right now. Do you think my instincts (to insist on a nanny with great English) are reasonable, or am I missing out on better candidates? Is English ability important to you?

You write badly.

No, she does not write poorly. Stop embarrassing yourself.

I guess majority of DCUM posters couldn't nanny for OP, then. Good luck OP.

Nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Would you send your children to a school where the teacher spoke broken or poor English?

Your child’s nanny, birth to 3, is their first and most important teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My nanny speaks very limited English. My kids are 2 and 3.5 and speak very very well.

Does your nanny speak to your kids in English?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would you send your children to a school where the teacher spoke broken or poor English?

Your child’s nanny, birth to 3, is their first and most important teacher.

This is so true. Not just a nanny with proper grammar but an extensive vocabulary is extremely important... but very expensive.