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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

B/c we know our kid will never be truly bilingual by having once/twice a wk classes.  DH and I are bilingual through immersion - by living in the countries while we were children.  English is my second language while it is DH's native language.

DC will not get enough practice and would not be literate just speaking a language at home to a parent.[/quote]

Not true. I speak German to DC and wife speaks another language. We speak English amongst ourselves. Aiming for trilingual. Gotta stick to one parent, one language though. Otherwise they get too confused.

From what I am reading, success of immersion if parents don't speak the language is mixed at best. Therefore we are not considering it.

Deutsche Schule in Potomac would be nice but it is a hike for us. Maybe a charter school will offer German in the future. Slim chance of that I guess.[/quote]

My parents don't speak English and I learned it well enough.  I like immersion for small children b/c it's effortless and it'll never be that easy learning a language for them again.  I learned French starting at 10 yrs old and it was a completely different experience from learning English through immersion as a 6 yr old.  DC goes to China every other year during the summer and will be doing an exchange year (or two) away when he's older.

I know lots of people whose parents tried to make their kids bilingual in my native language by the parents speaking to them and weekend enrichment classes.  Most speak it at the level of a 8 yr old as an adult, bad accent, and could not get a job in my country, not what I would consider bilingual but my native language is not a Romance language.[/quote]

You don't need to be critical of those who learn some bits of a family native language. If you chose not to speak your native language to your child at all, that is what seems a little strange to some, but okay. Clearly you can still do immersion school with an additional home language. And again, I think your DC will need to live in China to really be proficient.

Many kids who learn uncommon native languages learn it from their family and travel frequently to that country. It is as much about the culture as the language. A sense if your heritage. So please don't lecture to an international city like DC that it is a waste of time, that is rude to be honest. [/quote]

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