It’s all a waste if your child doesn’t maintain it. You can maintain Spanish, so that’s the wisest language for your family. Kid might miss out on a few Mandarin phrases, unless you are sending DC to Chinese school on every Saturday from K to 12.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are not Chinese there is no point in selecting a nanny for Mandarin. If you have no cultural links to another language, Spanish will be the most useful. Many people in the US speak it.

Lot of Manhattanites are paying through the nose for Mandarin speaking nannies.

Why?

Business in China is conducted in English. You don’t have any sort of edge in terms of getting a job by speaking mandarin.

Spanish helps you in your daily life in the US, and it helps with business domestically and abroad (far less bilingual businessmen in Spanish speaking countries).

I got my job in DC since I’m proficient in Spanish.

But if you don't speak mandarin yourself, how will you keep this up once your child starts school. The only reason my kid remembers any Spanish from his child care providers is because I speak Spanish.

French. The Africa is the last untapped market and predominantly French speaking.

Speaking Spanish is nothing unusual and Mandarin, while a great, is going to be tapped out.

Spanish for us too - more likely to be in common use for them, both parents speak a bit, easy to take in high school.

One of my kids is a pretty good spanish student - in AP Spanish now. Other didn't take spanish in school but can get by with simple phrases.

Both use it regularly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are not Chinese there is no point in selecting a nanny for Mandarin. If you have no cultural links to another language, Spanish will be the most useful. Many people in the US speak it.

Lot of Manhattanites are paying through the nose for Mandarin speaking nannies.

Why?

Business in China is conducted in English. You don’t have any sort of edge in terms of getting a job by speaking mandarin.

Spanish helps you in your daily life in the US, and it helps with business domestically and abroad (far less bilingual businessmen in Spanish speaking countries).

I got my job in DC since I’m proficient in Spanish.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are not Chinese there is no point in selecting a nanny for Mandarin. If you have no cultural links to another language, Spanish will be the most useful. Many people in the US speak it.

Lot of Manhattanites are paying through the nose for Mandarin speaking nannies.

I’d like to hear one person articulate why this would be a useful thing to learn.

The language of business is not going to switch from English to Mandarin even when China takes the US's place as the sole superpower. English will be the language of business for a long time. You might as well teach your child a language that has meaning to you.

Anonymous wrote:If you are not Chinese there is no point in selecting a nanny for Mandarin. If you have no cultural links to another language, Spanish will be the most useful. Many people in the US speak it.

Lot of Manhattanites are paying through the nose for Mandarin speaking nannies.

If you are not Chinese there is no point in selecting a nanny for Mandarin. If you have no cultural links to another language, Spanish will be the most useful. Many people in the US speak it.

Anonymous wrote:You actually don’t need to support a language long term. Even if a kid forgets a language they learned while young, their brains don’t forget those neural pathways. Better for future language learning.

There are benefits even if they don't remember the language, yes. However, there are benefits to being bilingual that are lost and it would take a significant amount of work and time to get it back. So much better to not lose it in the first place.

You choose the nanny who will provide your child with the best care possible.

You actually don’t need to support a language long term. Even if a kid forgets a language they learned while young, their brains don’t forget those neural pathways. Better for future language learning.

You really have to consider how you will be able to support the language. I am not a native speaker of spanish but am fluent. We chose spanish because we could support it all the way through with immersion preschool and dual language elementary. I read to my kids in spanish, I spoke spanish with them, and dh spoke english.

My kids were raised in bicultural environment and are fluent, without accents in either language, and very comfortable with both cultures.

There are many levels of fluency and comfort with other cultures, and there is no one right answer for all families.

I know people who only used a nanny for immersion but did not embrace the culture or require their kid to speak in the language. I know kids who had childcare provided by their grandparent (in the target language) who also did not learn to speak and only learned to understand.

Don't worry about the benefits of various languages, but go all in on the one you chose. That is the important part. Being able to understand but not express yourself is a real risk if you don't invest in it.

Go all in on Spanish and don't second guess yourself. With kids, languages are easy come/easy go. Your child WILL forget the language if you aren't committed. The neural flexibility that makes kids learn a language fast is also what makes them forget it too.

Good luck!

Mandarin

which language did you choose and why?

We chose Spanish because I speak Spanish (not native but close to fluently) and I figured I could help support that in the home more.

We live in NYC though and it seems that most people are choosing nannies who speak Mandarin. Wondering if we will regret that one day when China owns the US as seems inevitable.

Thoughts?