stuck on what to do..

[ella170]

i'm really not sure what to do about this..
baby's daddy is from Kenya and speaks Swahili (his family speaks mixture of english and swahili at home), but basically the whole of Kenya speaks Swahili AND English, so if the baby ever went to Kenya to visit family, it's not like he would need to learn the native language to communicate with anyone.
If my OH spoke a main language such as Spanish or French, I would definetly want my baby to be fluent in it, but I'm not sure if I want him to bother to learn a language that's only spoken in a few African countries and won't be of any real use to him, or whether I should encourage him to speak it because it represents his roots..any thoughts on this?

 

[nikky0907]

well,if your boyfriend speaks Swahili to the baby since birth it can easily learn it fluently.

I mean,some 3 year old can speak 4 languages fluently...It's not a problem for them if you speak to them from the very start.You boy can learn English,Swahili,French,Spanish...

I mean my mom spoke Croatian to me and my sister and we speak it fluently even though we can rarely use it with anybody.It's just nice to be in touch with my roots and know this.Plus it can never do any harm.

I know I will want Lola-Rose to learn French and Croatian from the early stages cause I speak it fluently too and I believe it is always good to start when they are young...

xxx

 

[elm]

If it was me I'd definatley want my LO to speak both languages, your LO will just pick up on the different languages anyway if your OH speaks in Swahili to him/her.

I think that speaking two languages will help later with learning other languages as they probably have different grammar rules etc which LO will pick up on automatically (I think!!!)

 

[Shri]

If your OH talks to your baby in Swahili from the start - your baby will learn it easily. And although it may only be used in a few countries, it could be a very valuable think for your child when they are older, not only for travel for themselves, but they may be able to get all kinds of work such as translation etc - which pay VERY well for rare languages.

I think it is a wonderful thing to have. I was raised bilingual, but because my parents divorced when I was young, I didn't maintain the practice and forgot most of the other language, which I now really regret.

 

[Mervs Mum]

I think its wonderful for kids to speak different languages at an early age - they soak them up so easily - its so effortless.

My hubby's friend teaches french at Eton and his wife is also a languages teacher. From the time their daughter was born Dad only spoke to her in french and Mum only spoke to her in English. Dad would talk to Mum in french and Mum would respond in English. Their daughter was fluently bi-lingual from the time she could first speak. I wish I could do that for my children.

x

 

[doumauk]

Im facing this too. My husband speaks arabic and im english. My husband does speak fluent english but his family have very limited english so its a must for our baby to speak arabic. I also want him to learn arabic because I dont want him to forget that he is half moroccan not just english.
I think how we will do it is we talk to him in arabic at home and when we are outdoors talk to him in english, purely so its easier for him to pick up the difference as he gets older.

 

[ani]

You are in a great position to give your child the gift of an extra language with little effort. I'd say definitely go for it, it will just make his life richer and will cost you nothing.


Our baby will grow up with 4 languages! We will both speak our native languages to him, plus we use English to communicate between us. In addition, the society around us (and probably baby-sitters/nannies etc.) speak Chinese. I was a little concerned about the baby being able to differentiatate between the languages and contacted a panel of professional linguists and got reaffirmed that babies have an amazing ability to cope with multiple languages.

If you do choose to raise him bilingual, just know in advance that he might start speaking slightly later than a monolingual child. This is completely normal and will not affect his development in any way. They just need a little more time to get all those words arranged in their head Some multiligual kids take a long time to start talking but when they finally do, they come up with complete sentences in different languages!

 

[Gabi]

Why not?? Go for it!
It's a wonderful opportunity. Small childrens brains are like sponges. They'll absorb anything and everything. You're child will be able to learn more than 2 languages.
I know of someone who can speak 11 languages fluently.

I would've killed for the opportunity to learn another language when I was a baby/toddler.

 

[Scrumptious]

My husband is Moroccan so our baby should grow up to be bilingual English/Arabic, which I think is great.

We also have French as a common language so will try to use that too.

I think it's really good for a child to be open to different languages. Think about the communication skills they can acquire as well as the language skills! It's a real privilege.

 

[brownhairedmom]

I'm actually re-taking French in September so I can have a brush up on at least basic French to speak to my baby. I don't know if it is going to help much, but the baby is going straight into French pre-school and French Immersion when he/she gets old enough so it can't really do much harm.

I'm teaching him/her signing too. I'd do it. I did linguisitics my first year of university (I had every intention of becoming a speech pathologist) and kids are AMAZING. Their brains can soak up so much. Learning a second language starts to become difficult after the age of 7, so by all means, start speaking both languages. Plus, once the baby knows two languages, they can pick up other languages easier.

 

[Rachiebaby24]

I would go for it....he can also commuinicate well with his father's family...