Raising a bilingual child

[Anonymous]

Anybody like me trying to raise a bilingual child here in DC area? In our situation - English is a second language for both me and DH and we share the same first language.
Since we are confident that our 2 year old DD will have English as her first language anyway, we would like her very much to be fluent in both languages.
Any recommendations from people with a similar experience would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

If I were you, I'd be speaking your native tongue to her exclusively. She can't help but pick up English on the "outside."

Awesome gift.

[Anonymous]

We are teaching three languages. English is second language for both me and DH. Spanish is my native, German my DH's. So I speak to DD in Spanish and DH in German, and she is spoken to in English at day care. She is only 7 months old now, but we hope this works, I cannot wait to hear her speak in three languages .

[Anonymous]

They pick up English sooooo fast and start losing the ability (or the want) to speak your native language equally fast so I'd say, keep at it! My DC has perfect comprehension in my native language, but doesn't speak it back to me anymore. I'm happy with comprehension and think that it will still help him learn other languages in the future.

[Anonymous]

Have to agree with the input about using your native language.

BTW, if your native language is Spanish or Mandarin, you might want to check out the bilingual immersion programs at Oyster and Yu Ying, respectively. That way you can reinforce bilingualism across the board. I think that there are also some French immersion programs in town. The DCPS website has lists, and the office of bilingual education will also know of resources.

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for all the input. Very encouraging.

[Anonymous]

I speak exclusively to my children in my native language (Danish) and my DH speaks to them in English. We used to have Danish au pairs, but now just switched to a nanny who speaks English to the children. I am hoping that speaking to the children in Danish as well as reading Danish books, listening to Danish music and eventually having them watch Danish children's shows/movies will help them become fluent in both languages. My 18 month old understands both languages perfectly but currently speaks most of her words in Danish (probably because I have been home on maternity leave for the past 3 months).

[Anonymous]

We are doing the bilingual thing--both of us speak Portuguese (my husband's native language) to her most of the time. I do speak some English to her because I can't help it sometimes and because we have a lot of books in English. Her nanny speaks Portuguese only. She's only 6 months old now, so I'll be interested to see what happens. We also spend a lot of time speaking Spanish around many of our friends. Our goal is for her to be bilingual in English and Portuguese, and I'm sure she will be able to learn Spanish very easily later on, as it's quite similar to Portuguese and she will have had some exposure to it. My impression from watching friends' kids is that it's pretty common for them to understand the parent's native language but to prefer responding in English. I think it's important to keep speaking the native language and try to get the kids to speak it as much as possible.

[Anonymous]

We have 3 kids {13yo, 7yo, 6mo}.

We mostly speak our native language at home (Hebrew).
The 13 yo and the 7 yo speak Hebrew to each other most of the time.

We were always told that it is fairly easy with the first kid but impossible once there
are two kids because they'll just talk English among themselves. Well, not always.
It was not easy, but turned out to be possible. But we had to insist...
They can speak Hebrew almost as native Hebrew speakers.

I think it is a great gift to speak multiple languages because each language comes with
a different way of thinking. Having two native languages is like having two eyes - lets you
see in 3 dimensions. Many times at home, when I want to explain a concept better,
I just add a word or two from the other language (both directions apply).

The only slight down side is that bilingual kids learn to talk later than usual. In our
case both older kids started to talk about 3 months after the norm if I am not mistaken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are doing the bilingual thing--both of us speak Portuguese (my husband's native language) to her most of the time. I do speak some English to her because I can't help it sometimes and because we have a lot of books in English. Her nanny speaks Portuguese only. She's only 6 months old now, so I'll be interested to see what happens. We also spend a lot of time speaking Spanish around many of our friends. Our goal is for her to be bilingual in English and Portuguese, and I'm sure she will be able to learn Spanish very easily later on, as it's quite similar to Portuguese and she will have had some exposure to it. My impression from watching friends' kids is that it's pretty common for them to understand the parent's native language but to prefer responding in English. I think it's important to keep speaking the native language and try to get the kids to speak it as much as possible.

Agreed. That was my experience with my bilingual friends growing up. And if/when they made the effort to truly start speaking their parents' native language, it came very easily.

[Anonymous]

My husband's first language is Spanish, I only speak English. I told my husband to always speak in Spanish with our children from the time they were born because they will hear English from me. I want my children to be bilingual and our 3 year old understands Spanish perfectly but speaks mostly in English. We'll see what our 9 month old does.

I used to work in Montgomery County Public Schools and came across many children who were ashamed to admit they spoke a language other than English. I find that sad and want my children to grow up being proud of who they are, where they come from and what languages they speak. All parents who know languages other than English should definitely teach their children those other languages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband's first language is Spanish, I only speak English. I told my husband to always speak in Spanish with our children from the time they were born because they will hear English from me. I want my children to be bilingual and our 3 year old understands Spanish perfectly but speaks mostly in English. We'll see what our 9 month old does.

I used to work in Montgomery County Public Schools and came across many children who were ashamed to admit they spoke a language other than English. I find that sad and want my children to grow up being proud of who they are, where they come from and what languages they speak. All parents who know languages other than English should definitely teach their children those other languages.

that's really sad, and a horrible product of our xenophobic culture.

What do you call someone who can speak three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call someone who can speak two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who can speak one language? American.

[Anonymous]

a different prespective:

my oldest is almost five and in the first three years of his life there was very little no native english-speaking people around him, even after 1.5 years in an english-speaking preschool he's english is still very behind and has picked accents from us and broken grammar and structure, poor word-use and limited vocabulary, etc. which really worries me. his teacher said don't be but i'm not sure he can lose all that and speak at native-level. he may be bi-lingual but end up being not 'native' in either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:a different prespective:

my oldest is almost five and in the first three years of his life there was very little no native english-speaking people around him, even after 1.5 years in an english-speaking preschool he's english is still very behind and has picked accents from us and broken grammar and structure, poor word-use and limited vocabulary, etc. which really worries me. his teacher said don't be but i'm not sure he can lose all that and speak at native-level. he may be bi-lingual but end up being not 'native' in either.

i'm the 08:40 PP. meant to say little native

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 kids {13yo, 7yo, 6mo}.

We mostly speak our native language at home (Hebrew).
The 13 yo and the 7 yo speak Hebrew to each other most of the time.

We were always told that it is fairly easy with the first kid but impossible once there
are two kids because they'll just talk English among themselves. Well, not always.
It was not easy, but turned out to be possible. But we had to insist...
They can speak Hebrew almost as native Hebrew speakers.

I think it is a great gift to speak multiple languages because each language comes with
a different way of thinking. Having two native languages is like having two eyes - lets you
see in 3 dimensions. Many times at home, when I want to explain a concept better,
I just add a word or two from the other language (both directions apply).

The only slight down side is that bilingual kids learn to talk later than usual. In our
case both older kids started to talk about 3 months after the norm if I am not mistaken.

OP here: can you please share any techniques on how "to insist" on your child speaking only minority language at home? Our DD is quite a stubborn creature already, so it is very difficult sometimes to even get her to wash hands if she is not feeling like it.
And I am with you 100% that having two native languages gives so much advantage in life, that is why we are trying for her not to loose that opportunity.
You are also right on the speach delay: she started forming sentences later than other kids her age.
And it is still a mistery to me how she communicates at her English-only preschool since I only hear her speak Russian (our native language).
BTW, everybody, thank you very much for your input.