Tips For Bilingual Babies Just Learning To Speak?

[germano]

And they never mix the languages in one sentence?

 

[glasgowjohn]

Gs dirtboy has said something very relevant . It has to be something that works for you as a couple .

Dont do anything that doesn't feel natural or puts a strain on yr relationship as a couple

 

[Kika]

[font=Helvetica Neue'][background=rgb(255, 255, 255)]If English is your native language, then only speak English to your kid at home -- at least during their early formative years. If you're out & about in the city or at a friend's house, go ahead & speak Spanish if that's what you would normally do. No need to make it awkward for you or the kid.

I grew up in a household where both of my parents were native Spanish speakers, but fluent in English as well. Some stories my mom likes to tell:

+ My mother sent my oldest brother off to school knowing only 5 phrases in English - things like "I need to go to the bathroom." She says in 2 weeks he was speaking only English & never spoke Spanish again at home. Two weeks sounds pretty quick to me, but that's what she says

+ My other brother spoke Spanish at home until he was 5 or so, but only with my dad. He spoke English with my mom & brother. One day my mother asked him why he did this & he said "Because Dad doesn't understand English!". He came to this conclusion because we usually only ever saw our dad after he came home from a long day of work & he spoke Spanish at home. Whereas we were always out & about with our mom & listened to her speak English with our teachers, neighbors, friends, grocery clerks, etc.

All 3 of us learned & spoke Spanish first, but as soon as we started preschool we quickly became English speakers. Our parents spoke Spanish at home (unless we had friends over), but later on they began speaking both languages - with us & each other. The thing I wish my parents had done, was insist that we respond to them in Spanish. While we understand just about everything someone might say in a normal conversation, there were years where we painfully struggled to speak the language. The words just wouldn't come out. My cousins who grew up the same way also had this issue. I still conjugate verbs incorrectly, mix up masculine/feminine nouns, & there are SO many words that I don't even know! Because how often did my parents use legal or medical jargon at home? Now I'm attempting to read & write in Spanish, which I've never done before & it feels like a whole new ball game.

Basically if you want your daughter to one day be really & truly fluent in English, then she needs to not only hear you speak it, she needs to speak it herself. Watching shows/movies in English should be easy & she'll pick up a lot of the words that aren't typically used on a daily basis at home. Then make sure she reads & writes in English! Her vocabulary will increase even more & she won't be illiterate![/background][/font]

 

[tapi_2]

I don't understand why some people are saying that if you are not a native speaker then you shouldn't speak that language to your child. Is that the advice professionals are giving? I can only speak from experience. I learned Spanish and English at home as a kid. My father has a noticeable accent when speaking English and he doesn't have perfect grammar. I don't have an accent and my grammar is decent, not any different than other native English speakers. So, for me, out goes that theory.

Similarly, I knew lots of kids growing up whose parents spoke to them in English with strong foreign accents (mostly Asians, South Asians, and Latinos). Some picked up a funny way of talking and some didn't, but I found the way of speaking has a lot more to do with your peer group and who you surround yourself with then the accent of you parents. The Asian kids who only hung out with Asians would have a slight Asian accents, similarly with the Latino kids and so on.

In hindsight I wish my father had spoken to me in Spanish at home. He actually speaks very good Spanish (like well spoken) so I would have learned to language better if he had spoken to me in Spanish. English was easy to learn in school, from television, from friends, from my siblings, and basically from everyone as I lived in a country that spoke English!

I think your kids will benefit most from hearing you speak your native tongue, but I really wouldn't worry too much about corrupting their Spanish skills if you don't speak it perfectly. 90% of my friends grew up hearing corrupted English and most of them ended up going to good Universities. Not me though, I preferred the school of life...but that's another story...

 

[Kika]

You're right, I don't think a kid would be "corrupted" by hearing a parent speak a language that is not the parent's native tongue.

It's just that, how much time does one actually speak to their kid during a day? It's not like most parents take the time to sit their kids down for an hour of "English conversation" practice. Maybe people do that over dinner, but otherwise how much does a parent really talk to their kid aside from saying things like "dinner's ready", "did you do your homework?", "go brush your teeth", etc. If you add up everything that you say to a young kid over a day, how much English are they actually being exposed to? Again, unless you're the type of family who thoroughly converses over a long meal, you probably don't say a whole lot to your child over the course of a day.

If they grow up in Argentina they'll be hearing Spanish all day - at school, with friends, on the street, & on TV. So why not just make a habit of only speaking English at home, so that they can be as exposed to it as possible? It really comes down to that - making it routine so that one doesn't even have to think about it.

We are creatures of habit & once a habit has been formed (like allowing your child to speak his/her native tongue at home instead of your native tongue), it's extremely difficult & frustrating to reverse.

One of my cousins in the States has made many attempts at teaching her kids Spanish by speaking it at home. But she's so used to speaking to her kids in English, that she just forgets to speak Spanish - despite the numerous post-its she has around the house that say "Speak Spanish!" lol. She just moved to Chile for 6 months in hopes that her kids will pick up the language, but no matter how much her kids learn while they are there, I can almost guarantee that unless they make a conscious daily effort, they'll probably go right back to speaking only English at home. Why wouldn't they? They always spoke English in that house.

Plus most kids (at least in the States) don't see the benefit of knowing another language. And seeing as they lack the motivation to learn/practice, the parent should really not make it optional for them.

I knew a lot of kids growing up who spoke Chinese, Japanese, or Farsi perfectly (along with English) because their families had strict rules that the parents' native tongue would be the only language spoken at home. Like I said before, I wish my parents had also instilled that rule because my Spanish is nowhere near perfect. And oh wouldn't it be nice to be practicing my French instead of continuing to work out the kinks I have with Spanish!