Raising a child bilingually

blunomore

blunomore

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Any of you done this?

If a child grows up being exposed to more than one language at the same time, do they learn the two languages simultaneously or should there be some sort of method to the madness from the side of the caregivers?
 
blunomore said:
Any of you done this?

If a child grows up being exposed to more than one language at the same time, do they learn the two languages simultaneously or should there be some sort of method to the madness from the side of the caregivers?
Click to expand...

I don't really think it matters, at such a young age they pick up languages easily. My mates kid speaks english, afrikaans & zulu, she'll be starting gr1 at a english school next year.
 
My nephew learns Spanish and English. I think it's great, I guess it's a bit like I was brought up learning English and Afrikaans.
 
blunomore said:
Any of you done this?

If a child grows up being exposed to more than one language at the same time, do they learn the two languages simultaneously or should there be some sort of method to the madness from the side of the caregivers?
Click to expand...

My daughter speaks 2,5 languages (english/dutch 1st language & german 2nd language). The advice we got at the time was to compartmentalize where each language is heard/spoken. I.e. English at home, dutch at school OR English with mum, Dutch with dad etc etc. Apparently this will help them retain the vocab and grammar differences without getting too confused.

That said, I know of families that speak a mushmash of their family languages and the kids grow up being just as linguistically flexible as the more structured approach invites.
 
We speak english to both our daughters at home, but they speak afrikaans to their friends and my family (wife's family speaks english mostly). They're aged 5 and 2
 
The best way to handle this is that each parent speaks his/her language to the child.
 
mooks said:
My daughter speaks 2,5 languages (english/dutch 1st language & german 2nd language). The advice we got at the time was to compartmentalize where each language is heard/spoken. I.e. English at home, dutch at school OR English with mum, Dutch with dad etc etc. Apparently this will help them retain the vocab and grammar differences without getting too confused.

That said, I know of families that speak a mushmash of their family languages and the kids grow up being just as linguistically flexible as the more structured approach invites.
Click to expand...

I know kids learn languages very easily when they are small, so maybe I worry too much. In my mind (as an adult) I would have thought the child would get very confused if for example her nanny calls something "le mouton" and then her dad, right after that calls the same thing "sheep".
 
Any kid's brain is a sponge.. Be very careful what you put in at a young age, they'll remember the principles :)

In other words: The human brain has no potential limit (From our reference point), so yes, you can teach your kid any number of languages, just don't maak it moeilik by communicating in meer than one languages gelyktydig.. So keep the languages seperate, by saying: "Hello Wagter, wat het jy vandag aangevang?" and then asking your wife: "Honey, has Wagter had anything to eat yet?"

Also, for some weird reason, speak English when watching english TV and other way around.. The connotation needs to be made.
 
mooks said:
The advice we got at the time was to compartmentalize where each language is heard/spoken. I.e. ...English with mum, Dutch with dad etc etc. Apparently this will help them retain the vocab and grammar differences without getting too confused.
Click to expand...

Agreed. That's what my parents did with my brothers and I - my mother spoke to us in seSotho and my father in English. Of course, our formal education was in English so our Sotho was limited to speech (I'm ashamed to say that I am illiterate in seSotho but am fixing that). I think, somehow, the child picks up that there is a difference between the two (I have no idea how I knew it...I just did). The separation is a good thing because it helps the kid discern between the two languages.
 
Apparently learning multiple languages at an early age increases brain function in a child.
 
I grew up in an extended family and learnt 7 languages. The trick my family applied was that each member spoke to me in a different language and stuck to it to this date.
 
We started out by mixing both home languages to the boys, and they were picking them up... But we struggled to be consistent (at home MrsC and I speak English, when I'm gone she speaks Afrikaans). So the oldest was beginning to fall behind on speaking. Someone advised us for the time being to switch solely to English for the time being. Ever since then he's come on by bounds. When we feel he's ready we'll go back to bilingualism. I'm quite strong that they would speak multiple languages.
 
Re83L said:
A just don't maak it moeilik by communicating in meer than one languages gelyktydig.. So keep the languages seperate, by saying: "Hello Wagter, wat het jy vandag aangevang?" and then asking your wife: "Honey, has Wagter had anything to eat yet?"
Click to expand...

That's about how I see it as well.

About confusing the two, if you think about how you communicate with different people, you actually use different languages to communicate with different people. Compare, say, speaking to a client about technical matters and to your young child. You use the same words, but the languages are entirely different. A child learns different languages for speaking with different people. The words only start to overlap later if they are in the same (formal) language. If they are not the same language, they diverge. The ability of the brain to learn new words are almost limitless, so adding more words to communicate in different circumstances only develop a child's brain more.
 
They'll learn both at the same time, many black kids grow up learning 2 or more African languages and English.

Not just English at school either. My parents spoke random languages to me while growing up, sometimes even saying a sentence in one language then abruptly switching to another language in the next sentence.
 
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A few of my friends have done this.

The best seems to be if one person only speaks english to the child and the other only afrikaans.

What I did notice is that these children on start speaking a little later than those friends children that were taught 1 language.

However they spoke both very well without an accent of another language. And they were/are comfortable speaking both.
 
Teaching your children to speak bilingually properly is a team effort.

We have family friends, the dad spoke with his girls English for a week and the mom Afrikaans. Switch next week, dad Afrikaans, mom English.
If you know African languages, the same would apply.

Those girls are beyond intellectual today.
 
Yes, do so: it can only be a good thing, and the earlier the better.

The easiest, to be honest: just talk in a different language every day, i.e. Afr. on Mondays, Eng on Tuesdays, Afr on Wed, etc, etc.
 
They can learn both languages hearing both regularly. The more important thing is getting them to use it because its the practice that matters.

It's most likely not true that children are more capable of learning additional languages, but if you can you may as well start with a second one early.
 
My wife speaks Afrikaans to the kids and I speak English and no problems. My son is 5 and even though he was a slow talker, he speaks perfect English to me, and the repeats the same sentence in perfect Afrikaans to his mother.

Important thing is to be consistent.

Also be careful who speaks to your children. I've banned the nanny from speaking English to the kids as its not her home language and my kids will not speak Cape Flats English!
 
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