Bilingual Nanny Question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone hired a bilingual nanny so that their children can learn a second language? If so, has it worked? Were language skills delayed at all by trying to learn two languages? We are considering this now and would like to know the pros and cons to this approach. Thanks in advance for any information you can share!

Could you please provide some details?

1. How old will your child be when you hire the nanny?

2. How many hours a week will she work with your child? How long do you hope to employ her? Can you afford a well-educated nanny, rather than the cheaper broken-English nanny?

3. Who else will speak with your child in the second language (if anyone)?

Everyone is assuming the second language will be Spanish. Is that correct?

You understand that English will obviously be delayed, but some aren't concerned about that. Heck, lots of children are now language delayed even when there's only English. Some of these delayed children actually learned sign language first, so English has become their second language. I haven't seen any studies looking at that. I've seen a number of children who adamantly resist speaking if they can successfully communicate in sign language. People should think about possible consequences before jumping into this.

Good that OP is trying to think this through. I'd recommend speaking with adults who learned two or three languages in early childhood, and ask lots of questions and seek advice from them, rather than from adults who never had the experience.

There is actually no data at all that bilingual kids talk later or that teaching baby sign to kids delays them speaking. No data whatsoever. It is rare parents that teach their kids sign language are actually even fluent. Using it is a few signs for hungry, thirsty, tired, and various food or beverages and that is it. Definitely not a full language.

For kids to have sign language as their first language, they would have to be spoken to in full ASL by someone who is fluent in it.

IF a kid is going to have a language delay, then raising them bilingual could make that delay more apparent, but statistically kids who are bilingual do not speak later and have no higher chance of having a language delay than a monolingual kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone hired a bilingual nanny so that their children can learn a second language? If so, has it worked? Were language skills delayed at all by trying to learn two languages? We are considering this now and would like to know the pros and cons to this approach. Thanks in advance for any information you can share!

Could you please provide some details?

1. How old will your child be when you hire the nanny?

2. How many hours a week will she work with your child? How long do you hope to employ her? Can you afford a well-educated nanny, rather than the cheaper broken-English nanny?

3. Who else will speak with your child in the second language (if anyone)?

Everyone is assuming the second language will be Spanish. Is that correct?

You understand that English will obviously be delayed, but some aren't concerned about that. Heck, lots of children are now language delayed even when there's only English. Some of these delayed children actually learned sign language first, so English has become their second language. I haven't seen any studies looking at that. I've seen a number of children who adamantly resist speaking if they can successfully communicate in sign language. People should think about possible consequences before jumping into this.

Good that OP is trying to think this through. I'd recommend speaking with adults who learned two or three languages in early childhood, and ask lots of questions and seek advice from them, rather than from adults who never had the experience.

16.38 here. I would qualify by your criteria. English as first language, French and German as second/third languages (child-level fluency by school age). Introduction to ASL and Spanish in school. I'm fluent in English, mostly fluent in Spanish (too little time speaking lately to consider myself fluent), retain enough French, German and ASL to communicate on a basic level and I understand more than I speak. I also read and write English and Spanish fluently and read French and German semi-fluently; writing in French and German is haphazard. I can decode most written Portuguese, and I understand spoken Portuguese well enough to respond in English or Spanish. I can figure out some written Dutch if I have enough time, patience and interest. When I hear a language spoken, I usually can tell you which family group it's from, and if it's Indo-European, I can usually tell you which language it is. When someone speaks, I can usually tell which country (and possibly which area in that country) someone is from based on tone, vocabulary and accent, as long as the language is English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German or Dutch. However, I am only one data point, and my family values learning languages; one of my cousins spoke 9 languages fluently and worked as a translator for both writing and speech.

Watching children in my family and my charges, a second or third language doesn't seem to delay language development. Some children listen more and respond with pointing and signs longer than others, then show that have they been practicing by suddenly spouting out series of understandable words. Others speak simple words as early as 9-10 months. Most start speaking within the normal range, but they frequently bounce back and forth between languages until they realize that they are distinct. I've seen two children who had language delays who were exposed to two or more languages, but the language delay was a past of global delays, so exposure to multiple languages can't be the sole factor.

In my experience, exposing children to multiple languages is helpful. However, I do know that twin cousins refused to speak for a while. Their mother married into the family and only speaks English, has never had a desire to speak anything other than English. When the children were learning to speak, they jumped back and forth between 3 languages, and she tolerated it grudgingly. Once she divorced their father, she got custody for 12 out of every 14 days, and she wouldn't allow them to speak anything other than English, and she washed their mouths out with soap anytime she heard anything she didn't understand (including twinspeak). The twins were 3, not in preschool and didn't understand what was happening, so they simply stopped talking for about a year. She was given a choice by the judge to either allow the children to speak in any language they chose or to lose all custody. Once custody was switched to one week on, one week off, they started speaking to their father and the rest of the family, but they were quiet around their mother and anyone they didn't know. They're 12 now, they each speak 4 languages, but I'm not sure what the fluency is for the latest, and they spend one weekend per month with their mother. The last time I talked to them, their mother still doesn't allow English in her home, and they resent having to see her even once per month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone hired a bilingual nanny so that their children can learn a second language? If so, has it worked? Were language skills delayed at all by trying to learn two languages? We are considering this now and would like to know the pros and cons to this approach. Thanks in advance for any information you can share!

Could you please provide some details?

1. How old will your child be when you hire the nanny?

2. How many hours a week will she work with your child? How long do you hope to employ her? Can you afford a well-educated nanny, rather than the cheaper broken-English nanny?

3. Who else will speak with your child in the second language (if anyone)?

Everyone is assuming the second language will be Spanish. Is that correct?

You understand that English will obviously be delayed, but some aren't concerned about that. Heck, lots of children are now language delayed even when there's only English. Some of these delayed children actually learned sign language first, so English has become their second language. I haven't seen any studies looking at that. I've seen a number of children who adamantly resist speaking if they can successfully communicate in sign language. People should think about possible consequences before jumping into this.

Good that OP is trying to think this through. I'd recommend speaking with adults who learned two or three languages in early childhood, and ask lots of questions and seek advice from them, rather than from adults who never had the experience.

Will be interested in OP's response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am an English speaking nanny to a 2,5yo in Germany. I've been with them for just over a year. I speak exclusively English to her, the parents do German. She understands me perfectly though replies to me in German, and is now beginning to say things in English to me.

I wish we could afford that when the baby is born.
We have a huge circle of English-only friends (outside Germany) and both work in international office environments. It would be great to have the baby at least understand English early.
As we are both not native English speakers and are currently not in an English speaking country we have decided it isn't worth to parent in a language that is not our mother tongue. We will have to see if we can get into a bilingual daycare, even if that means having to drive to the other side of town.

[Anonymous]

OP here. These are the details:

*Children will be about 4 months old (twins)
*Nanny will work at least 40 hrs / week and will likely be employed full time until the kids start pre-k or some other kind of day car (haven't figured all that out yet)
*No one else in the house speaks a second language

Thanks again for all the info!

[Anonymous]

This may be helpful:

http://www.learninglandscapes.ca/images/documents/ll-no13/byers-heinlein.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. These are the details:

*Children will be about 4 months old (twins)
*Nanny will work at least 40 hrs / week and will likely be employed full time until the kids start pre-k or some other kind of day car (haven't figured all that out yet)
*No one else in the house speaks a second language

Thanks again for all the info!

In that case, it can be worth it if the nanny never speaks anything other than English and the children have several years of exposure through her, playdates, preferably a play group or fun class conducted in that language (music, art, content doesn't matter, language of instruction does). Whatever you do, do *not* punish the child for speaking in the other language to you, just ask them to tell you again. The same thing applies to the nanny, she needs to ask them to tell her again, even if she understands what they say to her in English. The children won't retain the language if they aren't in an immersion school and they don't have a nanny who speaks the language, but it's still worth it, they have a better chance of being able to develop an ear for learning languages, and they will probably retain enough phrases to communicate in that language (though it might just be where is the bathroom? and I don't speak X).

[Anonymous]

It is wonderful but also humbling to have a child speak better than you in your second language. My older son corrects me (with my blessing) when I make a mistake. Dh and I sometimes say things wrong on purpose so the kids find it hilarious "put on your carrots so we can outside!" Then they "teach" us the right thing to say.

You can do this but you need to support the target language with books too.
4 mo is early enough for the nanny to go whole hog.tell her to absolutely not repeat herself in English.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the nanny's qualification. I would like to advice you to visit this place where you will be read more information on this issue http://skywritingservice.com/blog/bilingualism-pros-and-cons

[Anonymous]

Teaching a foeigb language is an additional duty and you should pay considerably more, e.g., just has you would pay a seperate tutor. Would you also expect a Nanny to teach piano for the same pay as you would pay for nannying? Stupid question, of course you would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teaching a foeigb language is an additional duty and you should pay considerably more, e.g., just has you would pay a seperate tutor. Would you also expect a Nanny to teach piano for the same pay as you would pay for nannying? Stupid question, of course you would.

Exactly why it makes sense to find a native Spanish speaker and then dock their pay rate because of the bad English fluency. It's a win win. Child gets exposure to Spanish, you get 40 hours of tutoring a week for $10 an hour.