How to raise a child bilingual?

[lifestyle2045]

Hi!

I'm expecting a baby soon and we would like to raise our child bilingual.

Does anyone has experience on that?
Do you start as early as it is born, for example the mother always talking one the father the other language to the child. What if the parents talk to each other?
Or do you start later when the child starts to talk?
Can you handle it loose or do you have to be very strict about it?
Are there any books or webpages on that matter?

Anybody who has experiences or tips please help

Thank you!

[batgirl_cdn]

We speak our mother tongues to our son and use those exclusively unless we have visitors and then some mixing occurs. Sometimes we also mix when we speak to each other and don't want others in public to understand, so we use my husband's language We've got books and dvd's in both languages. Our little guy is just over 2 yrs old now and he separates the languages quite well. From what I have read, the child will mix the languages for a time, and when he goes to school he may have some grammar and vocab weakness compared to mononlingual children for a while, but it evens out later as the child continues to learn. To have a successfully bilingual child you need to give a lot of language input from both languages, not just one.

[Zeenit]

My niece has a little girl whos father is french. She speaks english and so do we to the little one and the father and his family speaks french. They have done so from day one.
Sometimes they speak french to each other but mostly english and she is fine with that. Kids that speak 2 or more languages will speak later as its normal. But they dont get confused. Thats just normal for them.

[ScoobyDoes]

My boy is just over 2.5yrs and speaks Cantonese first, from my wife and her family, English second from me.......and he's now just picking up a little Mandarin from going to local school in the mornings and local TV channels.

My wife speaks to him 90% in Cantonese and i speak 100% English. When we all talk together then it's in English. My boy knows the difference and knows that i don't follow Cantonese (he's tried to play that card to his advantage a few times and failed) so actually is starting to act as our translator too

[jpatokal]

Do you start as early as it is born, for example the mother always talking one the father the other language to the child.

Very easy -- each parent always talks in their native language.

What if the parents talk to each other?

Then speak the way you speak now.

Or do you start later when the child starts to talk?

No, they'll understand your words before they talk themselves.

Can you handle it loose or do you have to be very strict about it?
Are there any books or webpages on that matter?

It's not complicated at all. If each parent speaks one language, the child will learn both. That's it, and that's pretty much all any of the many books on the topic will tell you to do.

Things get a little more complicated once your child goes to school, where they'll have to pick a "primary" language, but just ensure that they keep up in the other one as well (reading and writing as well). Or, for bonus points, enroll a child in a school where they use a third language for teaching, and they'll easily pick up that one too!

[philchlee]

My daughter just turned 2 years old and she speaks in Japanese and English. I would speak to her in English while my wife speaks to her in Japanese. Sometimes, I would speak in both Japanese and English so that my daughter could initially link 2 vocabularies together.

I think kids who learn 2 languages together, exercises to improve their memory at an early age.

I blogged about it here and in various sections of my blog documenting the bilingual process.

http://daddyparentingtips.blogspot.com/ ... uages.html


Arriving in Singapore in September and looking for playgroups in Bugis or Raffles Place or any Japanese mothers who want to meet my wife. PM me so I can introduce you to my wife. Have breakfast on us at our Service Apartment.

[sundaymorningstaple]

philchlee,

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Thanks,

moderator

[dorastimgot]

Both parent should speak in their native language. Then the child can pick both up easily. Vocabulary should be easy to learn. However, the grammar might be confusing initially but eventually as the child gets older, even that will sort itself out.

[merichan]

Mix of french and english here at home...

Hubby speaks 100% french to Little Miss, the maid speaks english of course...

I speak mostly french but given that we live in an english speaking environment I act out as liaison... feel sometimes like dora the explorer


Little Miss, 5 yo now, picked up both language... english has been here reference for 2 years as pre-school was in english and now her reference language switches to french as she's in french school...

But she keeps using and progressing in both.

[kimora]

I speak Spanish to my son, my husband speaks English, he is just over 2 yrs old, consistency and dedication will get your child to be able to pick any language and several, that's my take on it.

[hamamatsu1999]

All the international daddies and mummies out there are amazing.

I don't have kids yet as I am still in my 20s. My first language is cantonese as I was born in Hong Kong, then I learn English and Mandarin when I was 9 year old in Singapore. At 12 I started Japanese and in university I started French. I had spent half a year in France and I am now working in Japan and I have a Japanese girl friend now.

I really wish my children will also be able to be multilingual, I wonder how possible is that. So I plan to have my kid speaking Cantonese to my parents, Japanese to my wife (if I marry a Japanese), Mandarin to me and English in school.