Kids with Two Languages

[jms895]

My OH is fluent German, and the MIL is German its so interesting listeining to them speak it!

 

[butrfly]

these might help:

https://www.babyzone.com/baby/nurturing/baby_week_by_week/article/week-11-baby#bm2

amd

https://www.babyzone.com/toddler/to...munication/article/raising-bilingual-children

 

[Kimboowee]

My stepdad is spanish so we speak spanish to his non-english speaking parents, so hopefully baby will pick it up.

When they talk to him now he just stares at them like 'WTF'

 

[Faerie]

Hello Magic and all you other ladies

From my experience as an Au Pair, you're right Magic, songs are a really good way to familirise kids with languages. Also my kids used to listen to stories in both languages - so for example one night they'd here little red riding hood in French and the next night in German and I think that's a really good idea.

I'm mostly speaking English with Sofia but if we're with French speakers then I will speak French. DH is speaking Italian with her and MIL is speaking Spanish with her.. obviously she's a little young for me to be able to tell you how that's working!! Ha ha, but hopefully having the languages from a young age will help her. When she's 6 months she's going to start doing one morning per week in a local creche so she'll hear more French.

I found on amazon some cds called baby boom boom https://www.babyboomboom.com/ which are songs sung in one language and then the other - they do french, spanish, italian, polish and german and we've been playing them in the car.

 

[magicvw]

Hi Faerie! That cd sounds like a good idea! Shame they don't do them in more languages tho. x

 

[jms895]

Thanks for the links girls!!

 

[Pyrrhic]

OH and I are both fluent (well, me ish ) in French, so we've considered it but have no real need for them to be bi-lingal.

 

[ani]

Hey all!

I speak Finnish to my LO, FOB and his family Italian, and we speak English at home and with most friends (though as we are separating and I'm moving out with LO within a month, no more English at home). At the mo we live in China, so he gets a lot of Chinese spoken to him and can understand simple stuff, but we will be moving to French speaking Switzerland so Chinese will drop out and instead we add French to the mix. He'll probably have French speaking daycare.

Confusing??

 

[jms895]

Ani! Yes confusing

LO will be a clever little boy

 

[Acer]

Hi everyone!
I am Canadian(english) born with a german/dutch background. We were brought up as german speaking in Canada untill we got to kindergarden where we learned english from the teacher and other kids on the playground! And my parents and grandparents spoke Dutch with each other so we picked up that too. I reeeeeally think its never too early to start with languages as it seems the earlier they start to hear the words the better they are at pronouncing them(as someone already said!).

I used to hate having to speak german or dutch at teh dinner table when I was a teenie but later on I was soooo gratefull because it has enabled me to study, live and work in Germany on the Dutch border and can speak both languages fluently along with having a huge advantage with being one of the few that can speak english fluently here! It has helped enormously in my career and I really truley believe that people with more than one language can go just that leeeetle bit farther in life! And of course you have the added advantage of being able to communicate with relatives if they live in a different country! I did find it a bit difficult in highschool in French class, confusing french and german!lol(didn't help that I hated my french teacher!)

Our DS will be learning english and dutch from me, low-german from his dad and high-german from his grandparents here (hi and low german are dialects spoken differently in every region).

 

[jms895]

Hi Acer!! The German my son will be learning is quite strong from what I have been told. His grandparents were born in Bavaria and now are in Gutersloh so I think its quite a strong dialect?

Good luck with teaching hun!!

 

[Acer]

oi...yes! One of the stronger dialects in the German language! I am in the northern part (just over an hour south of Oldenburg) and I have to admit I have problems understanding the bavarian accent unless they talk slowly!lol Different accents on alot of words, some words are even completely different! But in the end, german is german and once the kids have learned it it'll definately be of use to them!

Also good luck and lots of fun!!(or in other words Viel Glück!! )

 

[jms895]

Thanks hun

You too!! xx

 

[Faerie]

Hey all!

I speak Finnish to my LO, FOB and his family Italian, and we speak English at home and with most friends (though as we are separating and I'm moving out with LO within a month, no more English at home). At the mo we live in China, so he gets a lot of Chinese spoken to him and can understand simple stuff, but we will be moving to French speaking Switzerland so Chinese will drop out and instead we add French to the mix. He'll probably have French speaking daycare.

Confusing??

Hi Ani, where are you moving to? I lived in Lausanne for 10 months and Geneva for 1 - now I live on the other side.

There are lots of dialects around here, I speak French but all the locals speak Alsacien which I don't understand then a couple of kms away they speak Basler Deutsch, which I find easier to understand as I guess I hear it more often.

 

[ani]

Hey all!

I speak Finnish to my LO, FOB and his family Italian, and we speak English at home and with most friends (though as we are separating and I'm moving out with LO within a month, no more English at home). At the mo we live in China, so he gets a lot of Chinese spoken to him and can understand simple stuff, but we will be moving to French speaking Switzerland so Chinese will drop out and instead we add French to the mix. He'll probably have French speaking daycare.

Confusing??

Hi Ani, where are you moving to? I lived in Lausanne for 10 months and Geneva for 1 - now I live on the other side.

There are lots of dialects around here, I speak French but all the locals speak Alsacien which I don't understand then a couple of kms away they speak Basler Deutsch, which I find easier to understand as I guess I hear it more often.

Hey, I'm moving to Geneva. When where you there? I've been looking at apartments on the French side actually, seems to be more available and slightly lower prices, too. I was there for 5 months back in 2003, too.

Seems like quite an interesting mixture around where you are!

 

[cupcake]

DH and I speak English to each other and LO but we live in Israel so he will also speak Hebrew, and LO goes to a french/hebrew daycare, so 3 languages here..

 

[morri]

oi...yes! One of the stronger dialects in the German language! I am in the northern part (just over an hour south of Oldenburg) and I have to admit I have problems understanding the bavarian accent unless they talk slowly!lol Different accents on alot of words, some words are even completely different! But in the end, german is german and once the kids have learned it it'll definately be of use to them!

Also good luck and lots of fun!!(or in other words Viel Glück!! )

thats cool- there s a cricket club in oldenburg too btw - I am as seen in Location from Hamburg ^^

lol I cant understand the bavarians either though they come from a different branch of German (nor really everything south of Hanover down to the old industrial west and a bit upper north in the east theres a language barrier xD(i think it is called hemrather linie or sth like that)

 

[Sarahkka]

We plan to put Simon in French Immersion and I speak French to him regularly. His dad's side of the family is French-Canadian, but my husband doesn't speak French. There's no way I'm letting my boy grow up with a very French last name and no language to go with it!

 

[Erised]

I'm Dutch and DH is English, so we're hoping to teach our child both languages. He/She will probably grow up in Dutch, so will hear plenty of Dutch when I'm talking to natives/most family. When talking to my DH (even though he knows basic Dutch) I talk in English, and most conversations with my parents when DH is around will be in English too. So hopefully he/she will pick up both languages naturally from hearing them both spoken regularly. If not they'll get taught English in primary school in Holland anyway.

 

[celine]

I was a bilingual child, my parents (Swiss) spoke french to me as a baby and we lived in South Africa, when they realised I couldnt communicate if I ever got lost they sent me to english playschool and I learnt english there, so my parents said I was like a radio - I would play with my barbie in english with friends then scoot her over to french with my mom.
We now live in Holland so our son will learn Dutch at a play school, speak english at home and since my mom lives with us she speaks to him in French!