Part-Time Bilingual Nanny Question

[Anonymous]

For those who have/have had a part-time bilingual nanny that spoke to your child in a different language, how much of the language did your child pick up/retain?

We are in the process of interviewing nannies - some American, others not. We only need part-time help at this point, and while I would love for my child to be exposed to and learn a second language, I am not sure if only hearing the second language just 20 hours/week will make a huge difference.

Just curious what others' experiences have been.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Our nanny (who speaks a second language) is full time, but we did not go into things with the plan that our kids would become bilingual. We wanted to expose their brains to hearing another language regularly. So when they get to school their brains are more open to hearing nuances in language/accents and they can pick it up faster.

[Anonymous]

I was a second language (English) nanny to a girl of 15 months. I was with her 3 days a week for 4 hours. She started understanding me within two or three months, but she only started replying to me in English literally two or three weeks ago, and she's just turned three - but I think it's got to do with fact that I always understood what she was saying so she never had a necessity to try and speak English to me. I and some Peppa Pig on YouTube were her only sources of English, so I think what you're proposing is very doable and beneficial, but your nanny has to only ever speak the second language so that your child learns to associate the nanny with a different language environment.

[Anonymous]

It helps but still it's part time. We hired a spanish speaking nanny when my oldest was in kindergarten but my little one was home. Now the little one speaks way more spanish. The other got exposure but really not the same as the one home all the time. Still, better than nothing, right?

[Anonymous]

Unless the child has someone else to practice with after The nanny is no longer in the picture, she will not retain the language. 20 hours per week won't offer that much exposure anyway. Why not learn the language of the family? I speak 3 languages BTW. I'm a native English speaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Unless the child has someone else to practice with after The nanny is no longer in the picture, she will not retain the language. 20 hours per week won't offer that much exposure anyway. Why not learn the language of the family? I speak 3 languages BTW. I'm a native English speaker.

That should be "as a family."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Unless the child has someone else to practice with after The nanny is no longer in the picture, she will not retain the language. 20 hours per week won't offer that much exposure anyway. Why not learn the language of the family? I speak 3 languages BTW. I'm a native English speaker.

That should be "as a family."

Because while that certainly is a way to do it, it's much harder to meaningfully engage small children in a study like this. Young kids need a foreign language environment, clearly defined and constant, so a 2nd language nanny, even if part-time, is ideal. The child then has a clear divide between the languages because they associate different languages with different people and can learn naturally through play.