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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
language barrier
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Anonymous
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for a mother's helper/ occasional in house help to watch kids (while you were working from home) would you hire someone who did not speak English?
FWIW it would be 2 kids 3 and 1.5 |
Anonymous
| I'd need to communicate with the caregiver, so at the least I'd want someone who can speak minimal English. |
Anonymous
| my DC provider speaks broken english, we make due and she's great. However, if she could not speak any English, then I could not do that. |
Anonymous
| no I would not |
Anonymous
| would not leave her alone with them. |
Anonymous
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No, certainly not. How will your children communicate their needs to her? How will they communicate at all? How will your younger child learn new words and expand his/her vocabulary?
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Anonymous
| Think about it from your children's perspective. It would suck to be with a caregiver and not be able to communicate with her. |
Anonymous
| It worked for me for many years. My son managed just fine with her broken English, and at least where we live. The question to ask is if you think the woman can handle an emergency. |
Anonymous
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oops, hit send too soon. meant to say...
At least where we live, Spanish is as useful as English in an emergency. |
Anonymous
Or you could see it as an opportunity for your children to become bilingual. But, honestly, my answer depends on whether you can communicate with the caregiver. |
Anonymous
| Recently had to make this decision also. While I would welcome DC being bilingual I was worried about emergency situations - how could she call me , police, ambulance if something were wrong. |
Anonymous
| 911 has Spanish speaking operators. Does anyone really think you only get emergency services if you can communicate your emergency in English? The issue here is the OP's ability to communicate with the helper. |
Anonymous
| it's nice to have your children around other languages so they can have the cultural exposure, but I think we are only making the language barrier worse by hiring people who don't know a single word of English. If they are willing to learn, then maybe I would consider hiring. Although I prefer my nanny to speak Spanish to my children, so they can learn it, English is still a must, at least for me, so they can communicate to her, and she can communicate to everyone else involved with my children. Plus, I think people who come to this country should make an effort to learn our language if they want to stay and work. When I went to Japan, I had to learn Japanese. When I went to Italy for a year, I had to learn Italian. |
Anonymous
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911 may have spanish-speaking operators, but that's no guarantee that the responding officers will speak spanish. Twice, I've had MPD knock on my door asking if I can translate for the next-door neighbor, because she called them, but doesn't speak a word of english, and can't tell them what's going on.
So that's my answer to the OP. Even if you're comfortable using gestures to communicate the basics, such as "please unload the dishwasher", and even though I'm pretty sure the children will make do just fine, think about the non-everyday stuff. What if your child is on a course of antibiotics? Will she be able to understand the dosing? What if you're expecting a repairman? Even though you're at home, it would be nice if your helper could handle these things, and not need to pull you away from your work for every little thing. |
Anonymous
| totally agree 16:08 and 16:45. When I went to work in Chile, I didn't expect everyone there to learn English just for me. |