Anonymous
Post 05/09/2016 14:01     Subject: How important is English speaking skills in a nanny?
Anonymous wrote:For me it matters from 24-28months old.


I say this because 28 months is around when my now 40 months child really absorbed every word I spoke. She retained new vocabulary and tried to learn to speak properly (in sentences not chopped up phrases).

You can push it till 34 months if you like the nanny.

Anonymous
Post 05/09/2016 13:55     Subject: How important is English speaking skills in a nanny?
For me it matters from 24-28months old.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2016 17:43     Subject: How important is English speaking skills in a nanny?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

You've made up your mind, so why are you second-guessing yourself? There are plenty of nannies who speak English fluently, perhaps as their only language.


The people I know with FT nannies are all pretty well-off, educated etc. and want the best for their child yet are okay with non-fluent English being spoken to their child. It doesn't make sense to me and I came on here in hopes of having some light shed on this. I have met fluent English speaking nannies but they are the minority and it is hard enough as it is to find a good fit. I have not made up my mind about whether we MUST have a fluent English speaking nanny.


OP, you have to decide what you want. The general rule is that to develop good language habits, the child must be exposed to well-structured, grammatically correct, rich and diverse vocabulary, NO MATTER IN WHAT LANGUAGE.

If you want your child to learn another language, then it doesn't matter how well your nanny speaks English, AS LONG AS her native language skills are excellent and she only speaks that language to your child.

If you want your child to emphasize learning English, then hire a nanny who speaks English in the way I described above.

If you are having trouble finding a good fit with the English language requirement, then drop that requirement, find the nanny you like, and ask her to speak to your child only in her own language.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2016 17:04     Subject: How important is English speaking skills in a nanny?
Anonymous wrote:

You've made up your mind, so why are you second-guessing yourself? There are plenty of nannies who speak English fluently, perhaps as their only language.


The people I know with FT nannies are all pretty well-off, educated etc. and want the best for their child yet are okay with non-fluent English being spoken to their child. It doesn't make sense to me and I came on here in hopes of having some light shed on this. I have met fluent English speaking nannies but they are the minority and it is hard enough as it is to find a good fit. I have not made up my mind about whether we MUST have a fluent English speaking nanny.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2016 15:57     Subject: How important is English speaking skills in a nanny?
I think there are two things to be concerned about. The first is whether or not you can successfully communicate complex ideas to your nanny. For that, you and nanny need a shared fluent language. The second concern is whether the nanny can successfully communicate with others outside of your family, especially in a stressful emergency situation. If she had to call 911, would her already limited English be so jumbled under stress that she was unintelligible? For that, you do not need fluency in English, but you do need a basic level of competence. Given that those two considerations exist, I would advise you to look for a nanny who either shares a language that you speak and has passable English, or is fluent in English. You may have to pay more for this, but in my opinion, it is a safety concern.
Anonymous
Post 04/21/2016 15:53     Subject: How important is English speaking skills in a nanny?
Anonymous wrote:My OP is not about the pros and cons of learning a second language. Our baby is exposed to two languages at home already, later a third (my or my husband's third language) when old enough to attend toddler classes. But we don't expect to find a nanny who speaks one of our other languages and as I find most nannies are not native English speakers, I am concerned about the nanny speaking their non-fluent English to our child. The plurality of nannies I've met speak Spanish, which is not among our family's languages, and I think it might be too much to have our baby hear a fourth language...


Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Anyone wondering why so many children are speech delayed?

Think about it.


We are working in Eastern Europe and have a live-in Russian nanny; she has very, very limited English, and took me seriously when I told her at the start that she should "force" everyone to speak Russian. Now we ALL speak Russian, thanks to her. She reads to my toddler in Russian, and interestingly, the toddler (who is NOT speech delayed) understands that we speak to Valentina in Russian and Mommy and Daddy in English: the toddler seems to have equivalent English and Russian vocabularies, and she switches from one language to the other depending on whether she is speaking to the nanny of her parents. I love this. We inherited the nanny from another American couple, who had her for 7 years: she taught their twins fluent Russian, and also had them reading and writing in Russian with some old schoolbooks she got from her grandkids' school. I feel it is such a gift to have this experience, and I don't care AT ALL that she can't really speak English. The gift of a second language can only truly be given to a very young child (if you desire fluency), and if/when we go home, I am already plotting ways to keep up the kids' Russian.


You've made up your mind, so why are you second-guessing yourself? There are plenty of nannies who speak English fluently, perhaps as their only language.