Has Anyone Taught their Child More than One Language in the Home?

My husband speaks Thai and Spanish; I speak a bit of French. Our dd is enrolled in a tri-lingual immersion program, which will begin in the fall. She is currently speaking French, Spanish and English and can greet others in simple Thai. Between ages 3-6 is the optimum time for language expansion and comprehension; further, small children have no apprehension about formation and pronounciation that is different from their native language. The petite section French teacher is currently teaching her own dd French, (first language), Spanish, Mayan and English. We feel that such exposure can only benefit.

Hi, My 22-month-old daughter speaks English most of the time however she can say several words in Spanish and can answer several questions in Spanish. I speak both Spanish and English to her. I also started teaching her sign language at 8 months so she also knows several sign language commands. She often signs and says the words at the same time. It is my understanding that through signing she is using both sides of her brain, which really helps her development. I have her in a Daycare two days a week to help develop her social skills since she is an only child. Her teachers often comment on how bright she is. She interacts with two and three year olds and is more verbal then most of them. Maria

My son, adopted from Guatemala, goes to a daycare where they only speak Spanish to the kids, except at certain points during the day where they teach colors, body parts etc in English. At 20 months, he definitely understands both languages and, although he seems to have far more English vocabulary than Spanish right now, does say a few things in Spanish too. The younger you start exposing kids to another language, the better it is for them. Lee

Lee, I think that is awesome that you found such a program and are giving your son the opportunity to continue learning (and using) his birth language. Like most bilingual children, he obviously associates Spanish with school and English with home; most children associate a language with inside the home and outside the home or one language with one parent and another language with another parent. In an immersion program, the immersion language is used at all times and in every environment, whereas the second or third (English) language is used only in designated rooms with designated teachers. The children are never confused by this. Only adults perceive confusion with our adult minds. :D I would be willing to bet that your son knows a lot of Spanish; he just does not use it at home, because he thinks it is not the right place. Take care!

Thanks so much for your reply Redhedded. I think you're right actually. Kids definitely do associate languages with certain contexts. Although I speak almost exclusively English at home, I give him some Spanish there too through music and books (I usually read him 2-3 books in English and one in Spanish before bed). I've been doing this to give him a sense that I value Spanish and his birthculture and also, from reading about raising kids bilingually, I've learned that it can be difficult to get kids to actively use the minority language. The area where I live has a dual immersion program and I hope that he'll be able to get in there when it comes time for school; the challenge will be developing his Spanish until then! Lee

Lee, Our daughter is 2.5 years and will begin a trilingual immersion program in June (first camp then school in the fall); she will not yet be 3. The Director informed us that 50% of families speak no second language; most of the others speak several. These children, who hear only one language at home still become fluent by the 1st or 2nd grade by using the second (and third) language only at school. Another parent who speaks no French informed me that her two boys spoke NO French to her or dh for the first three years. She thought they were not learning then she took them to France; they were fluent. The boys perceived correctly that she could not communicate with them in this language, so they refused to use it. You may already have it, but I love the Baby's First Steps (they have Spanish; we use French). The CD is published by Living Language. We also love Lyric Language published by Penton Overseas. It has great catchy songs about the weather, animals, grocery shopping (all food items), going to the beach, counting, ABCs, etc; it is great! You can get both online or at your local large bookstore. Take care!

My husband speaks spanish and our son will learn and is learning both:) God Bless,Summer

I adopted my son from Japan,the country I lived in until I was 2.My parents spoke Japanese at home and I speak it fluently so I've always maintained the language from the day he came through the door.but I have to say my husband is caucasian and doesn't know a word in japanese he feels pretty left out when I start talking to Chikao in Japanese,it makes me feel guilty. any thoughts on how to make him feel more involved??!!

I adopted my son from Japan,the country I lived in until I was 2.My parents spoke Japanese at home and I speak it fluently so I've always maintained the language from the day he came through the door.but I have to say my husband is caucasian and doesn't know a word in japanese, he feels pretty left out when I start talking to Chikao in Japanese,it makes me feel guilty. any thoughts on how to make him feel more involved??!!

My children went to a sitter across the street from 3 weeks on and are both fluent in Spanish and English and have huge vocabulary in both languages. We intensionally placed them in Spanish as a second language classes at school and they interpret for thier non English speaking friends. Our DD was in the office once and she is AA/cauc, she startled the secretary who spoke to her friend in Spanish and my DD answered her. LOL :cheer: Love RM

My DH is a native Spanish speaker. I studied Spanish for 7+ years and consider myself proficient (we use it with each other when we travel mostly). I was born in Poland and my native language is Polish. DH has been trying to pick up Polish here and there, and has a few key words and phrases under his belt. Our niece and her mom lived with us for a year when my niece was 2.5-3.5. Her mom, a native Spanish speaker, only spoke Spanish to her, as did her uncle, my DH. I spoke only Polish to her, and actually DH used this opportunity to practice a lot of what he knew and also learned a lot just from hearing me talk to her bc he wanted to know what was being said. So I think your DH will start to pick up key words and phrases as he hears you talking to your child. I find music to be a wonderful language learning tool, so if you can get some music in Japanese, especially if you can provide him with the transliterated lyrics so he can start to sing along, it'd be a great activity for the two of them to do together as he's picking up the language. If nothing else, using Japanese with your kids should encourage your DH to learn it himself. That's what I was hoping for with mine, and I saw a glimpse of it when we had our niece with us. When my niece and her mom moved out, she sent her to a Spanish-speaking babysitter. Still, on our visits, I continue to use Polish with her, and she understands me just fine. She doesn't speak much Polish, but there are a few key words she knows and understands the context of. She's now 4.5 and we can ask her "how do you say X in Polish/Spanish/English" and she understand that we want her to translate, and if it's a word she knows, she'll say it in the right language! Apparently, she has picked up English mainly from Seseame Street and neighborhood kids! I always told my sister-in-law not to worry about English, bc she'll learn that in school. I didn't start learning English until I was 8 years old, and I'm native-fluent in it now. Also, the immersion of English in school will make it easier for her to learn it. I know this not only from first-hand experience, but also from my linguistics background. And even if a child doesn't seem to be learning the language, being exposed to the unique sounds of different languages at a very early age will help them learn foreign languages later in life.

We are looking at adopting a child up to age 4 from the US foster care system. Obviously, most are monolingual English speakers. We intend to teach our children our native languages, which are Spanish and Polish. My linguistic experience tells me to start using the languages asap. On the other hand, I'm concerned about adding yet another change to their already stressful transition into a new home and family. I know that internationally adopting parents usually don't have a choice in the matter, and learning English becomes a must for the newly arrived child. But since we have a choice, I'm wondering what the best strategy may be. Any suggestions?

Iam not a parent yet, but I am an adoptee who was raised with two languages. I speak Italian, which is my mother's native language, and English which is my father's. I learned Italian first, as I was living in New York City at the time, and generally from what I've been told it is better to begin speaking the language that is NOT the one of the country you are living in. As a child, I had hundreds of opportunities to speak English, but only a few to speak Italian. By 1st grade I was caught up and speaking both. I spoke English with my father, Italian with my mother- and we continue this tradition to this day. Now at 23 I am fluent in both equally. Just some insight- it can be done!

Hi, it looks like this thread might be a little older but I love talking about language, so I'll try anyway. We live in the Czech Republic. I'm American and my husband is Czech. We adopted a Romani child when she was 11 weeks old. She had been in a Czech orphanage since birth, so she probably had only heard Romani in utero, if that. DH and I speak Czech together at home because my Czech is very fluent and his English isn't great. So, it was natural that I speak English to DD and Czech to DH. I got a little confused in the first few weeks and slipped up a few times, but it cleared up surprisingly fast and now it feels very natural to me and is automatic. DH speaks Czech to DD. She is now a few days shy of 2 and she understands fairly complex instructions in both languages, responds accordingly even to past tense actively. She says a word either in Engish or in Czech. Oddly, most of her nouns are English and most of her grammatical words are in Czech. So, "my" is in Czech, while "book" is in Engish. :) But, according to my education in linguistics, that should clear up within the next year. She doesn't say real sentences yet, and given the level of her vocabulary, I would bet she would be saying sentences at this point if she wasn't bilingual, but that too will catch up, I'm told. Kids are supposed to have about 50 active words at age 2 and she probably has at least twice that many, maybe three times, so I'm not concerned.

We are currantly all learning conversational Romanian as part of our home school. It's challenging, but the boys like it. The oldest feels like he's getting something back that he lost. [url=http://www.afformula.com/]AF Formula™ – Asian Flush Cure. Treatment for Alcohol Flush Reaction[/url]