How to raise a quadrilingual child in a predominantly English environment?
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Anonymous
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On the other hand, what an opportunity
Plenty of people speak several languages |
Anonymous
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too much for child
bring it down like alot |
Anonymous
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Sometimes one parent converses in one language while the other converses in the second language. In addition the parents may communicate together in both languages so children hear both. Reading and singing to children in both languages adds to their vocabulary and their understanding. Also, when children realize they are bilingual and that most children don't have their language skills that can actually be a confidence booster. You can see there's no one answer for the direction to take, so it's more about deciding about your own values on this matter. |
Anonymous
| Children under age 6 learn languages faster than at a later age |
Anonymous
Love it. Poor thing. That is not a life for a 4 year old. |
Anonymous
Better to separate languages by speaker or topic. English is a given, so I'd teach geometry in Spanish, history in Mandarin, and foreign affairs in French 
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Anonymous
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Reminds me of a story I read once about a boy (who grew up to be a linguist) who had a mom who spoke to him in one language, a dad in another, a nanny in a third language, and lived in a country that spoke yet another langauge.
When the kid was 3 or 4 he thought EVERYBODY spoke a different language and he had to figure them all out. |
Anonymous
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You aren't raising a quadrilingual child. You are raising an English speaker who is over-scheduled.
Back away and let the kid be a kid. |
Anonymous
| Do I sense a Tiger mom? |
Anonymous
+1. Prioritize one of those other languages so that DC truly becomes bilingual. Random exposure for a while bilingual (or quatrilingual) kid does not make. |
Anonymous
and maybe, OP, you should start learning one of these languages, too. |
Anonymous
| No one so far has asked about the child! Does she LOVE her language classes? If she does and you honestly feel this is her choice and not your pushing then why not indulge her if you can? As the parent of children at a 50/50 Spanish immersion ES who speaks perfect non-native Spanish but whose husband does not, true fluency is a real challenge. You can hear see and feel the difference between my kids and their friends with two native speaking parents who always speak Spanish at home. Nothing but FULL immersion school plus at least one native speaker at home will lead your child to a true biliterate fluency level but every little bit helps. Cultural awareness, a limited ear training and an awareness of the relativity of language are, however, all achievable with the language lesson approach from an early age. |
Anonymous
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two years old, folks
By now, OP's kids is a cinquilingual speaker |
Anonymous
| In a DOD school in Germany, I taught a 6 year old who spoke Spanish at home, English at school, and German with her German playmates in her German village. She was fluent in all three. She was not a brilliant child--but she was very social. |
Anonymous
I might add that this was years ago--she did not receive language classes. She just had a strong desire to communicate and interact with others. |