Languages?

[planet]

Do any of your kids speak a second language? What age did you start?

[DCJenn]

I wish we were able to keep up with his Russian- not going to happen here in South Texas though.

There's an immersion (Spanish) elementary school in the neighborhood that we're planning to enroll him in, plus his daycare providers all speak Spanish. (they watch Sesame street in Spanish, which I think is great)

Jenn

[houseelf]

Yikes, part of me doesn't want to answer because it will make me sound like a compulsive parent and I really like to pretend that I'm not compulsive about my kids.

I started Spanish with DS when he turned 3, the same time that he started taking a Saturday morning class once a week. At first, it was odd because he was one of the only anglo kids in the class while the other children were either adopted from Latin American countries or had a native speaker parent who wanted to preserve the language and culture in the home. It was a little intimidating for both of us because everyone else spoke with more ease and fluency.

When he was younger, I used to read to him in Spanish and throw in an occasional Spanish language Disney video as well. Somehow, learning Spanish with Buzz lightyear makes it more palatable. There are a TON of resources and websites out there that offer all sorts of materials like this.

However, this past year, I backed WAY off on the Spanish, save the Saturday morning class, because he went through this incredibly intense period of learning to read in English and I didn't want to disturb the momentum.

This fall, he will start his fourth year of Spanish classes and I will try to supplement this with some practice at least once a week.

Of interest to this topic, his school offers Mandarin Chinese instruction four mornings a week before school for children in first grade and older. Although I signed him up for this, I have my doubts because: a) I don't want it to conflict with Spanish; b) I don't know Chinese so I can't support it at our home; and c) and I don't know how we can keep it up when we move to Ohio next year. Still, I thought it was a fabulous opportunity to expose him to, so we will try it and maybe he can pick it up again in the future if he shows interest. I hope that this was the right decision.

Now you can talk amongst yourselves about me. Clearly, I think foreign language instruction is important at a young age.

Kelly

[rainbabies]

Sadly no. Dh is fluent in French and never has the time or thought to speak to the kids.(in french) *sigh*

[alison]

My Japanese is near native (except for writing and reading), but I'm out of practice. My German is near native and my husband is German. I'd love for our future kids to speak German and possibly Japanese. We'll see.
We're trying to speak more German at home to get into the habit of speaking it to each other. This is a huge challenge because dh can't switch from English to German when he gets back from work... I teach German and deal with the language on a daily basis so it's not so hard to speak at home... Plus, let's face it, I'm simply more talented.

[Michele]

I have been looking into it. Russ and I are trying to learn (me- relearn) French and would like to continue that with our little one...though in my researching I've found it's best to have one person speak ONLY the other language to the child. And the other to ONLY speak english...That way the child can use association as well to learn or something like that....And that if you do it that way, they can learn both languages simultaneously without confusion between languages...children won't accidently speak french with the english parent for some reason.

Anyway, reading that in several places discouraged me...but I think we're still going to try....maybe I can convince my mom to be our french only person and me do a french mostly...if I can pick it back up... I wish she had taught us when we were kids...she was just raised in that "you are in America now, you do as Americans so we don't stick out" phase.

You'd think someone might be trying to teach my kids Gujarati (dh's native language), but no one has bothered. The only words they know, they know from me.

So - I've decided they can learn Yiddish, which I joke is my "native" tounge since my mom used Yiddish words all the time (many of which I didn't know were Yiddish until I lived in an Orthodox neighborhood).

They do know many Spanish words - but are not actively being taught any particular language.

Michele - I have friends in Cleveland who did the 'one parent always speaks' thing, and it worked. They also had an au pair who spoke Spanish.

[planet]

Thanks for your thoughts and experiences. I am trying to decide whether to do a year long language course with the kids and which language to pick.

Kelly,
I think going for it with the CHinese is a good idea. My SIL had her dd take Japanese even though nobody else in the house speaks it. They would go out to Japanese restaurants to let her practice.

Jenn,

You really want to have them speaking Yiddish? Really?

[alison]

Yiddish is great! I have reading knowledge (one of my two reading languages for the PhD). Bring your kids over and take them up to Skokie for practice!

I love the words I know! I don't claim to be able to "speak" Yiddish ... just toss the words in here and there and confuse the Bible belters I'm surrounded by. They've never heard ANYTHING.

They're just such fun to say!!!

I love the words I know! I don't claim to be able to "speak" Yiddish ... just toss the words in here and there and confuse the Bible belters I'm surrounded by. They've never heard ANYTHING.

They're just such fun to say!!!

[rainbabies]

just toss the words in here and there and confuse the Bible belters I'm surrounded by. They've never heard ANYTHING.

:> Love it!

[MissCrabette]

My fiance's dad spoke to him in English and his mom spoke to him in Spanish, so he ended up learning the two languages simultaneously. As Michele and Jenn mentioned, that's probably the best way because it doesn't create confusion. I'm a little worried about teaching our kid(s) three languages. I'm afraid we'll have to settle with two, but we'll see.

I'm a fluent Irish speaker and went to a school where I was educated through Irish I speak both to my son, He mostly communicates in English as Irish speaks are few and far between but for some things he uses Irish like when he wants a drink or is looking for something he may use the irish word for it. He won;t be an irish speaker unless he goes to an irish speaking school but I would just like him to a few basic words, learn a few things from his culture especially if we aren't going to be living in Ireland for much longer

[planet]

We've tentatively decided on mommy and me spanish classes for both kids. This seems the most practical language choice and can be reinforced by wathcing movies in spanish and reading. The kids will have to learn hebrew eventually too. Thank you MIL for footing the bill.