OP is no troll. She simply speaks the bitter truth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bilingualism is great. Speaking a language poorly is not and it is really hard to unlearn the way you talk.

I think the point is, that these kids aren't really bilingual. Most nannies work around 10 hours per day. That leaves an hour or two with the parents in the morning and evening, mostly spent getting ready for the day or for bed. So during the majority of their waking hours they're exposed to either bad Spanish or bad English. Do you honestly believe this gives them an "advantage"? Or at the very least, does no harm? I think OP is our usual bored troll, but I honestly think hiring a nanny to speak a language you don't speak to your child (you have no idea how articulate or proper her language skills are) and whose English is basically unintelligible. Even if you speak perfect English with your kids on the weekend, they will learn bad habits, and if nothing else, you're missing out on so many hours that they could be hours that could be actually enriching to their language skills.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Bilingualism is great. Speaking a language poorly is not and it is really hard to unlearn the way you talk.

I think the point is, that these kids aren't really bilingual. Most nannies work around 10 hours per day. That leaves an hour or two with the parents in the morning and evening, mostly spent getting ready for the day or for bed. So during the majority of their waking hours they're exposed to either bad Spanish or bad English. Do you honestly believe this gives them an "advantage"? Or at the very least, does no harm? I think OP is our usual bored troll, but I honestly think hiring a nanny to speak a language you don't speak to your child (you have no idea how articulate or proper her language skills are) and whose English is basically unintelligible. Even if you speak perfect English with your kids on the weekend, they will learn bad habits, and if nothing else, you're missing out on so many hours that they could be hours that could be actually enriching to their language skills.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I don't believe parents should hire someone who does not speak English, more for safety reasons than anything else, I don't think this is as big of an issue as she would like to have you believe it is.
A bad nanny is a bad nanny, no matter what language they speak. And any nanny who isn't teaching a child verbal language is a bad nanny. But this is also saying that parents aren't speaking to their children at all? That is very hard to believe that these children aren't learning appropriate English skills for their age. But just because a child has a nanny who isn't an English speaker does not mean they will end up in an ESL class. And even less likely, a speech therapy class.
But when a child starts school, you know who they will be learning most of their speech mannerisms from? Their peers. I think a lot of these issues will work themselves out without automatically throwing these kids into an ESL class.

Twenty years ago few children needed speech therapy. Now we all know children who need it. Why?

It's called progress when we can identify the need for early intervention.....it has nothing to do with bilingualism which really doesn't create the need for speech therapy per credible research.

Anonymous wrote:While I don't believe parents should hire someone who does not speak English, more for safety reasons than anything else, I don't think this is as big of an issue as she would like to have you believe it is.
A bad nanny is a bad nanny, no matter what language they speak. And any nanny who isn't teaching a child verbal language is a bad nanny. But this is also saying that parents aren't speaking to their children at all? That is very hard to believe that these children aren't learning appropriate English skills for their age. But just because a child has a nanny who isn't an English speaker does not mean they will end up in an ESL class. And even less likely, a speech therapy class.
But when a child starts school, you know who they will be learning most of their speech mannerisms from? Their peers. I think a lot of these issues will work themselves out without automatically throwing these kids into an ESL class.

Twenty years ago few children needed speech therapy. Now we all know children who need it. Why?

While I don't believe parents should hire someone who does not speak English, more for safety reasons than anything else, I don't think this is as big of an issue as she would like to have you believe it is.
A bad nanny is a bad nanny, no matter what language they speak. And any nanny who isn't teaching a child verbal language is a bad nanny. But this is also saying that parents aren't speaking to their children at all? That is very hard to believe that these children aren't learning appropriate English skills for their age. But just because a child has a nanny who isn't an English speaker does not mean they will end up in an ESL class. And even less likely, a speech therapy class.
But when a child starts school, you know who they will be learning most of their speech mannerisms from? Their peers. I think a lot of these issues will work themselves out without automatically throwing these kids into an ESL class.

Bilingualism is great. Speaking a language poorly is not and it is really hard to unlearn the way you talk.

Ate you against bilingualism or just jealous? Research has shown bilinguals are at an advantage.

Anonymous wrote:OP's post does not sound credible. That said, I don't see why you would hire someone to be aruond your kid for 8+ hours a day that spoke awful English unless they spoke great Spanish or whatever else you wanted your kid to learn and you knew enough of that other language to: a) communicate with the nanny in that language and b) tell if her grammar was good or bad in the other language. There are many native English speakers with horrible grammar and I wouldn't want to employ them either.

This. Most parents would be horrified at the quality of the Spanish their children are learning from these bargain nannies that people employ "for the language exposure". Ha! It'd be the equivalent of Spanish families hiring a backwoods, hick town, uneducated, "native speaker" American to teach their kids English. Have'em talkin real good quicker'in you can say "yee haw". Darn skippy.

OP's post does not sound credible. That said, I don't see why you would hire someone to be aruond your kid for 8+ hours a day that spoke awful English unless they spoke great Spanish or whatever else you wanted your kid to learn and you knew enough of that other language to: a) communicate with the nanny in that language and b) tell if her grammar was good or bad in the other language. There are many native English speakers with horrible grammar and I wouldn't want to employ them either.

Anonymous wrote:This is such bullshit. OP, are you seriously claiming that these high SES, advantaged, American born children are needing ESL because of their nanny not speaking English? Do you know anything about speech and language acquisition? Do you understand what ESL is? Good grief.

You're the one with no education or professional experience on this topic. Lol.

This is such bullshit. OP, are you seriously claiming that these high SES, advantaged, American born children are needing ESL because of their nanny not speaking English? Do you know anything about speech and language acquisition? Do you understand what ESL is? Good grief.

Hence the explosion of required "speech therapy".

Good substitute childcare will never be cheap, unless it's a relative or friend helping you out.

Thank you for shedding some light on this issue which is indeed touchy, to say the least.

I know this is a touchy subject to say the least, but in case this helps anyone I'll put it out there. When our DS was born we had a neighbor who ran the ESL program at the local elementary school. I asked if it was a big program since we lived in an affluent county, and she replied it was growing every year. I was surprised and then she mentioned that the growth was the result of children of professionals (mostly lawyers) who are native English speakers that hire non or low level English speaking nannies. The result is that the child does not speak either the nanny's native language, or English, at the appropriate fluency for his/her age. The recommendation was to find a nanny that either is: 1) truly fluent, or; 2) Shares the same non-English language and you and your spouse and have her use it exclusively. She mentioned that the issue with having a child learn English during the early years of language acquisition from someone with a low English ability is that the school then has to spend most of the ESL time "unteaching" incorrect English before they can improve. The issue becomes that the child will likely have delayed reading ability, as it will take years to undo the damage, so they now engage in early intervention rather than wait until they learn to read.

Again, not claiming I'm an expert in this, just relying the information. Although, it has motivated us to pay above market rates for nannies who are fluent in English. I have also noticed that when the parents don't speak Spanish and claim that their child has learned it from the nanny it is usually a matter of survival - "I need water", etc. There is never a conversational ability. So I would be suspicious if someone claims the nanny "taught" them a language.