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I am in full agreement that there are tremendous benefits to raising a bilingual (or more) child...we have 3 children, and would like to raise them with more than one language, but we are only fluent in English (we have smatterings of other languages, but not enough). My oldest (6) wants to learn Chinese. There is a weekend Chinese school here, so I enrolled her in that, but it's only 1 hour/week and I found on the first week, that even though it is called Chinese as a Second Language, pretty much everyone in the class has at least one Chinese speaking parent...(plus, turns out I signed up for the 2nd semester, so they were too far ahead to catch up). I've signed my 6 year old and my 4 year old up for Spanish (still an hour a week, but at least I can help somewhat with homework and read some basic kids' books to them in Spanish, which I couldn't in Chinese). I'll put them in a week long summer immersion course for Spanish, but...is it enough? Is it possible for them to pick it up quickly enough/well enough without reinforcement at home? My 6 yo wants to sign up for the 1st level Chinese when it's offered again next fall, but I wonder if she would be able to make much progress in one hour/week (and no summer immersion near us). I wonder if even the Spanish will amount to something which makes a difference... What do you think?? Anyone here raise a child bilingual (or close to it) without a FT bilingual school or bilingual parents?? Is it possible??
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I have been wondering the same thing myself. My son is only 2 and he goes to a private sitter three days a week who pretty much just speaks Spanish. He understands her completly and is saying some Spanish words. I wonder how long I ahve to keep him there until he will remember it. I plan on leaving him atleast another year until he is three but may leave him until he is four depending on how much Spanish he learns.
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I can remember learning quite a bit of French from once-a-week classes when I was in elementary school. I've forgotten most of it now, but it was definitely a different experience from trying to learn foreign languages as an adolescent and adult. It all came SO easily, and I can still remember basics like the days of the week, months of the year, and quite a few children's songs. Even if your children don't become fluent, the early exposure to a foreign language will help them in the future, whether they continue with the same language or not.
I speak English and sometimes Spanish to my daycare kids. Recently, I introduced ASL (American Sign Language). ASL is a language, the same as Spanish is. They have amazed me with how much ASL they have been able to pick up. We watch "Signing Times" DVDs and I learn right along with them. The 1 year old I watch has an English vocabulary of about 15 words but he has an ASL vocabulary of about 25 words. They pick up ASL faster than the Spanish I teach them. I really think if you want to start your little ones with a second language you should think about ASL.
Jensboys
I really think that the only way to do it is through immersion. I have a son going to French Immersion school and he will be fluent by the end of the year. Does your local school system offer immersion programs in Spanish? It might be worth a start.
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I'm in the middle of learning my seventh language. My son, who is five, is learning his second. (We're both in the Republic of Georgia and learning Georgian this year). I'd say that there's no way to learn a language on an hour a week. My son's sitter speaks only Georgian, and I speak Georgian all day, and we're making slow but steady progress with 8-9 hours per day of exposure. I don't know how we'd do it on one hour per week.What I'd suggest is finding a Spanish language daycare for the kids. They'll learn so much more from their peers than they will in a formalized class setting--kids are just sponges like that! And they'll get a steady three or four hours of language immersion per day, minimum. I think it's an incredible gift you're giving your kids. Bravo to you for being so committed to it. America needs more bilingual people!
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