Any of you raising your kids by speaking to them in a foreign language?

[Jas12]

Canada has two official languages and all kids are required to learn some french in school and have the option of going to all-french, all-english, or mixed language public schools in this province. The city i live in is primarily english, but 15 outside our community (in any direction) is mainly french, so i think it is important for my kids to be bilingual. It is a huge asset if you want a government job and it think it is just a nice skill to have in general. I''ll enroll my son in french starting in kindergarden. I think that''s a little late so hopefully i can find daycare or some activity in french prior to this.

My grandparents are italian immigrants and speak the language fluently. i get my grandma to speak to my son in italian and hopefully he picks up a few words just for fun (he only uses ''nona'' right now)

 

[anchor31]

Date: 7/15/2009 10:02:45 AM
Author: Jas12
Canada has two official languages and all kids are required to learn some french in school and have the option of going to all-french, all-english, or mixed language public schools in this province. The city i live in is primarily english, but 15 outside our community (in any direction) is mainly french, so i think it is important for my kids to be bilingual. It is a huge asset if you want a government job and it think it is just a nice skill to have in general. I''ll enroll my son in french starting in kindergarden. I think that''s a little late so hopefully i can find daycare or some activity in french prior to this.

My grandparents are italian immigrants and speak the language fluently. i get my grandma to speak to my son in italian and hopefully he picks up a few words just for fun (he only uses ''nona'' right now)

In what province are you Jas? I think it''s great that you want your children to learn French.

 

[lulu]

I think it''s a great gift to give your children. My parents didn''t do it and I regret it.

 

[swimmer]

DH and I share Hebrew as our first language, but we mostly use it now to chat about people or inappropriate things in public (though we really should be more careful) so that will probably continue if we manage to reproduce. I don''t know if it is particularly useful to know other languages that are not very widely used and whose speakers generally also speak English. Like Dutch, a fun language and I enjoy the phrases I know, but not economically important and the Dutch people tend to have fantastic English. Now Mandarin would be valuable for a baby to learn. I have taken Mandarin lessons off and on for 6 years and still flounder terribly, the tones are just too much for me. To have learned Mandarin at a younger age would have been wonderful. I speak 5 languages well, 3 poorly, and am not certain how useful any of them have been to me, even in our increasingly interconnected world. Is that awful?

 

[Jas12]

Anchor--I am in northern ontario. I am teaching today (summer program) and 1/2 my class is speaking french on break right now. I can understand a little basic conversation french, but i am not confident enough to speak much of it. I took french until grade 11 but i struggled. I am hoping my kids fare better than I.

 

[drk]

I''m a kid of 2 British parents. Started French in Grade 6 (had one year of it, and could conjugate the present tense of etre and avoid and ask someone to turn on the lights). Then we went to France for a year on sabbatical. I was nearly 11 at the time, my brother nearly 10. We both chose to go to French schools, and my mother got the teachers to write some things down for her to translate when I got home, some teachers spoke a little English to me at first, and Mum helped with translating my homework. By November I was getting along just fine in all my classes. I still miserably failed dictees, which the French teacher was extremely harsh about marking. By the end of the year, I was doing reasonably well on some of the dictees anyhow. I continued french first language studies (basically French each year + geography + history) through high school, but got really rusty when I went off to a very WASPy university and only spoke English.

I picked up German starting in Grade 10, because the teacher was very fun. Went on exchange for 3 months to Germany at age 15, 1.5 years after I started learning German. It was very rough, since I was on my own, but I think I still managed to pick things up quickly. I took 2 years of German at university, as well as 2 years of Spanish. My Spanish remains rather basic, though I can certainly get by while on vacation.

After university, I ended up working in Germany for almost 5 years. Worked for Nortel, but managed to speak German most of the time at work, even though all the Germans wanted extra English practice with me. I''ve always found it very hard to switch which language I speak with a person after I''ve been consistently speaking one with them for a while, so I just kept on insisting on responding in German to them, and eventually they gave up on the English. Which is why I now speak German at home with DH, who was one of the Germans working there at the time.

English is obviously my best language still, but I''m fluent in German, and people always compliment me on my accent, even though I started learning it at age 14. I know that there are a few give-away words that I don''t always get quite right, but now that DH has been living in Canada for 4 years, there are times when I have to remind him what the German word is for something. We probably really speak Genglish with each other.

I imagine we''ll end up raising the children we hope to have to be bilingual in German and English. Though I''d love to speak to them in French and leave them to learn English at school, I don''t think my French is quite up to par. I understand a lot more than I can speak, but my accent really leaves a lot to be desired (I think).

Very interesting discussion! It''s interesting how many PSers are multilingual.

 

[vip0802]

great thread Lanie!

it''s hard to say what my first language was. my parents are Vietnamese however, i had an english-speaking nanny when i was 3 months old until i was 5. growing up, my parents would speak both Vietnamese and English to me, and my grandmother (who lived with us) would only speak Vietnamese to me. nowadays, i can understand Vietnamese fluently and can speak it fairly well. i have a good accent while speaking, but sometimes vocabulary escapes me. my dad''s side of the family also speaks Cantonese fluently, but i can only understand a few phrases and only if they''re the ones speaking it.

i don''t have kids yet, and BF is Caucasian, but i would love it if my kids learned Vietnamese. i''m hoping my vocabulary picks up by then, but mom is adamant that she''ll speak Vietnamese when she babysits.

btw, i think it''s awesome to see so many multi-ligual PS''ers!

 

[SparklyLibra]

My son has been in French Immersion since SK. He''s only 8 and for the most part fluent.

 

[icekid]

I hope to be able to do this with my children, someday! Languages are so much more easily learned as a child. It only makes sense to get them started early.

Ltl- From another nerd

very interesting!!

 

[sba771]

Date: 7/14/2009 11:47:13 AM
Author: Haven
I think it''s great to raise bilingual children, and we hope to become fluent in Hebrew and Spanish before we have our own kids so we can do the same.

This is us- although I am fluent in Hebrew and FI is fluent in Spanish. Even though Spanish is more useful IMO chances are that are child will become fluent in Hebrew since I will be at home with them and plan on giving them the same Jewish education I had as much as possible.

 

[Haven]

Date: 7/18/2009 10:52:21 AM
Author: sba771

Date: 7/14/2009 11:47:13 AM
Author: Haven

I think it''s great to raise bilingual children, and we hope to become fluent in Hebrew and Spanish before we have our own kids so we can do the same.

This is us- although I am fluent in Hebrew and FI is fluent in Spanish. Even though Spanish is more useful IMO chances are that are child will become fluent in Hebrew since I will be at home with them and plan on giving them the same Jewish education I had as much as possible.

That''s wonderful. I''ve lost much of my Hebrew over the years because I don''t really have many opportunities to speak it. My sister is spending this year in Israel, so I''m going to take classes to brush up for when we go to visit her in June. It''s funny because I know hundreds of Hebrew songs, so sometimes I just look up the translation and figure out a lot of vocabulary that way!

I took Spanish classes from 7th grade through college, and I''ve lost some of that, too.

I really hope we can do this, I think it''s very important.

 

[VegasAngel]

Well, my MIL tries to speak French when she is with my daughter. Besides French she is exposed to Arabic & Armenian & has picked up only a few words here & there. It is important to me for her to learn a second language so at age 4 or 5 we will start French language classes.

 

[zhuzhu]

Date: 7/18/2009 1:22:21 PM
Author: VegasAngel
Well, my MIL tries to speak French when she is with my daughter. Besides French she is exposed to Arabic & Armenian & has picked up only a few words here & there. It is important to me for her to learn a second language so at age 4 or 5 we will start French language classes.

Angel, that is interesting your family has language background of French, Arabic, and Armenian. From your avatar I thought you may be a Chinese!

 

[VegasAngel]

Date: 7/18/2009 5:28:24 PM
Author: zhuzhu

Date: 7/18/2009 1:22:21 PM
Author: VegasAngel
Well, my MIL tries to speak French when she is with my daughter. Besides French she is exposed to Arabic & Armenian & has picked up only a few words here & there. It is important to me for her to learn a second language so at age 4 or 5 we will start French language classes.

Angel, that is interesting your family has language background of French, Arabic, and Armenian. From your avatar I thought you may be a Chinese!

No, I''m not I just like the meaning

 

[zhuzhu]

Date: 7/18/2009 6:53:47 PM
Author: VegasAngel

Date: 7/18/2009 5:28:24 PM

Author: zhuzhu

Date: 7/18/2009 1:22:21 PM

Author: VegasAngel

Well, my MIL tries to speak French when she is with my daughter. Besides French she is exposed to Arabic & Armenian & has picked up only a few words here & there. It is important to me for her to learn a second language so at age 4 or 5 we will start French language classes.

Angel, that is interesting your family has language background of French, Arabic, and Armenian. From your avatar I thought you may be a Chinese!

No, I''m not I just like the meaning

It is a very wonderful state to be "calm and steady". Are you Chaldean by any chance?

 

[VegasAngel]

Date: 7/18/2009 7:14:02 PM
Author: zhuzhu

Date: 7/18/2009 6:53:47 PM
Author: VegasAngel

Date: 7/18/2009 5:28:24 PM

Author: zhuzhu

Date: 7/18/2009 1:22:21 PM

Author: VegasAngel

Well, my MIL tries to speak French when she is with my daughter. Besides French she is exposed to Arabic & Armenian & has picked up only a few words here & there. It is important to me for her to learn a second language so at age 4 or 5 we will start French language classes.

Angel, that is interesting your family has language background of French, Arabic, and Armenian. From your avatar I thought you may be a Chinese!

No, I''m not I just like the meaning

It is a very wonderful state to be ''calm and steady''. Are you Chaldean by any chance?

I have no idea what that is to be honest but if it has to do with the Arabic/Armenian those come from my husband''s side of the family specifically his mother. My husbands family is massive & spread over several countries.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 7/14/2009 2:22:47 PM
Author: puffy
i am chinese, well cantonese to be exact, and i speak it pretty frequently to DS, who understands and can say some words, but his vocabulary is mostly in english.

our daughters only spoke cantonese (b/c grandparents don''t speak english) till they started school, now they don''t understand much cantonese

wish they were bilingual.

 

[Lanie]

Dancing Fire...did you speak to them in Cantonese as well? Why do you think the language slipped away from them?

I don''t want to be saying this same thing when my kids are school age.

 

[Lanie]

Article...not anything earth shattering, but a good, easy read.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_med_healthbeat_bilingual_tots

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 7/20/2009 9:24:55 AM
Author: Lanie
Dancing Fire...did you speak to them in Cantonese as well? Why do you think the language slipped away from them?

I don''t want to be saying this same thing when my kids are school age.

yes, before they started school. our biggest mistake was when we started to speak english to them at home.

my advise...always speak to them in your native language at home. if the child speaks english to you at home then answer them in Spanish.

 

[choyoyo]

Date: 7/21/2009 10:14:13 PM
Author: Dancing Fire

Date: 7/20/2009 9:24:55 AM

Author: Lanie

Dancing Fire...did you speak to them in Cantonese as well? Why do you think the language slipped away from them?


I don''t want to be saying this same thing when my kids are school age.

yes, before they started school. our biggest mistake was when we started to speak english to them at home.


my advise...always speak to them in your native language at home. if the child speaks english to you at home then answer them in Spanish.

I''d have to second this. While our parents could speak english, they never spoke english to us. And my grandparents can''t speak english. As a result, my siblings and I are much more fluent in chinese than any of our cousins. I guess it helped that they got us hooked on certain non subtitled martial arts drama series at a young age as well.

 

[livinginsg]

Great thread, Lanie!

I am bilingual (English & Mandarin) and Hubby is trilingual too (Italian & French & English). We agreed that it will be ideal if our children can at least speak English & Italian & Mandarin. And a major plus if they can learn French at some point! They are going to be busy kids!

 

[VegasAngel]

Date: 7/22/2009 12:12:35 AM
Author: choyoyo

Date: 7/21/2009 10:14:13 PM
Author: Dancing Fire

Date: 7/20/2009 9:24:55 AM

Author: Lanie

Dancing Fire...did you speak to them in Cantonese as well? Why do you think the language slipped away from them?


I don''t want to be saying this same thing when my kids are school age.

yes, before they started school. our biggest mistake was when we started to speak english to them at home.


my advise...always speak to them in your native language at home. if the child speaks english to you at home then answer them in Spanish.

I''d have to second this. While our parents could speak english, they never spoke english to us. And my grandparents can''t speak english. As a result, my siblings and I are much more fluent in chinese than any of our cousins. I guess it helped that they got us hooked on certain non subtitled martial arts drama series at a young age as well.

Some friends of ours only speak Chinese to their son, no English at all. They figure he will learn it in school.

My husband could speak French as a kid but has lost most of it since he doesn''t use it. He can understand it but he cannot speak it & he definitely cannot write it. How can you understand it but not be able to speak it? I don''t get it.