Baby in a bilingual family question

[i.love]

As many of you might remember, I'm Russian and my husband is English. I speak English (hope that is obvious lol), but OH speaks only basic Russian. I want G to speak both languages.

I understand that both I and OH should speak to G in our native languages, but I'm worried that then G will not pick up that much English - I spend more time and speak so much more to him! Now I start teaching him names of different objects, do you think maybe I should do that in both languages? Like say "this is a ball" in Russian and then in English straight away? Or do one language one day and another the other day? Or just stick to Russian all together? But then my husband will soon have no clue what his son is babbling about

Really confused about this!

 

[Titch85]

Young children pick up languages pretty quickly, especially if they hear it from birth.

A little girl I used to look after came from an Italian family. Her parents spoke English to her but her grandparents only spoke to her in Italian. She is nearly 2 now, and uses both English and Italian words. I would probably use Russian one day and English the next, but just in general conversation. I wouldn't make a point of 'teaching' him as such.

 

[Susanne]

I'm from Austria (i.e. German speaking) and my husband is British, and I've always spoken to my children in German and nothing else, and my husband in English. My oldest one initially spoke slightly more German than English but understood both equally well, and that quickly changed when she went to pre-school and now I would say that English is her first language and German her second, although she is pretty much fluent in both. With my son it was like this from the beginning because my daughter was constantly babbling away at him in English, so he was more exposed to that than to my German from the start. Doing it the same way with Samira as well. So I don't think for the children it's any problem at all picking up both languages!

Husband-wise our situation was different from yours because my husband is fluent in German himself. But maybe this would be an incentive for your OH to learn Russian?

 

[i.love]

Susanne he is trying to learn Russian, but it's taking long time.... Maybe the process will speed up when G will start talking

 

[Susanne]

Susanne he is trying to learn Russian, but it's taking long time.... Maybe the process will speed up when G will start talking

I'm sure it will, he'll want to know what the naughty little imp is giggling about!

I feel for him, though - I did Russian at school and found it much harder than the other languages I was doing, never actually got very far with it and by now have forgotten nearly everything (although I could still tell you the days of the week, what my name is and that I don't speak any Russian in Russian, but that just about sums it up ). It's such a hard language to learn, I think - your children are lucky that they'll be growing up with it and learning it without any effort at all!

 

[Mrs. KM]

I think as you are obviously fluent in both, you can alternate. Your husband should only speak english though. It's when a parent speeks a language they don't know that well to their children that the child gets messed up.

 

[Amy_J]

Im english and my oh italian... We both only speak our native language to lo, even tho i speak fluent italian and he speaks fluemt english. At almost 19months my lo understands more or less everything we say in both languages, he points to body parts in both languages, responds to basic demands etc etc, he has a vocab of about 15 words, mixed, such as hiya, ta, baby, window, ciao,nonna,nonno,mamma mia, etc etc. i was concerned thatbhe doesnt speak as much as other toddlers, butnhis understanfding of both languages is amazing, i agree with what mrs km said, u should only speak russian and oh english. Dont worry they are like sponges its amazing! If u have any questions feel free to pm me!

 

[Karate Kid]

Hope you don't mind me popping in here but Hubby and I were wondering about this too.... Both of us speak Singhalese and really want our LOs to speak it too but were worried they wouldn't pick up English. My parents didn't teach me Singhalese, I learnt it as an adult so I am not as well spoken as hubby is. Thank you for this thread.... I guess if I speak English to LO when s/he arrives and hubby speaks Singhalese to LO then we should muddle through in the end? x

 

[jojo_2012]

This is very interesting as OH is Albanian but also fluent in Italian from living there for many years. I'd love LO to learn another language but I'm not sure if I'd like him speaking with daddy in a language I don't understand.

 

[ISH]

I'm Romanian and intend to speak to him in Romanian when we're alone together and English for the rest of the time. I'd like to teach him another language as well (not sure which would be more useful, will have to reflect on that one), but that'll be later, don't want to overwhelm a poor baby!

 

[TashaWink]

I can't speak any other languages. But would love LO to learn another...how would I go about this? Anyone know?

 

[Amy_J]

Karate kid, your lo will pick english up from nursey and school. My friend and her oh are italian so until three years old they only heard and spoke italian at home, going to school here in london they now at almost 4 and 6 are completely bilingual!

Jojo, i know what u mean about not being able to understand, but me personally i would prefer for my lo to be bilingual when he has the opportunity rather than not just because i cant understand iykwim...just think in the long run how amazing it would be for him. Also, if ur oh spoke italian u too will pick it up, its actually quite easy to learn!

Auntie2mummy, in london there are a few french and italian nurseries etc but i think they are very expensive. Without an actual family member to talk to your lo i dont know how u would go about it tbh!?

Xx

Ps..forgot to mention about home language, me and oh speak only italian to each other, so he hears us speaking italian.

 

[AugustMum]

My sister is currently going through the process of gaining guardianship of a LO and he speaks a different language but they've said they will speak English when they're together, my sister will speak English to the LO when they're alone and her partner will speak French with the LO. Im pretty are it'll be confusing as hell for them all at first but hopefully LO will be bilingual eventually. (he's a toddler now so it will take him a while to pick it all up)

 

[jojo_2012]

Jojo, i know what u mean about not being able to understand, but me personally i would prefer for my lo to be bilingual when he has the opportunity rather than not just because i cant understand iykwim...just think in the long run how amazing it would be for him. .

You're right Amy I won't be denying him the opportunity I'll just have to try and learn at the same time although I'd much rather learn Italian than Albanian

 

[i.love]

I'm sure it will, he'll want to know what the naughty little imp is giggling about!

I feel for him, though - I did Russian at school and found it much harder than the other languages I was doing, never actually got very far with it and by now have forgotten nearly everything (although I could still tell you the days of the week, what my name is and that I don't speak any Russian in Russian, but that just about sums it up ). It's such a hard language to learn, I think - your children are lucky that they'll be growing up with it and learning it without any effort at all!

Days of the week! That's actually quite advanced

yeah I can see how hard it is for OH. Russian has nothing in common with English or any of the
Latin based languages. Our alphabet must be so confusing!

I guess it is good for children to know another language, though I sometimes wonder if Russian will be useful to my lo. I don't find it useful at all now that I live in England. Can I ask why you wanted to learn it?

 

[i.love]

I'm Romanian and intend to speak to him in Romanian when we're alone together and English for the rest of the time. I'd like to teach him another language as well (not sure which would be more useful, will have to reflect on that one), but that'll be later, don't want to overwhelm a poor baby!

I like this approach! Sounds logical and simple.

Do you want to teach lo some other language that you speak? I also speak Latvian, but I don't think that wold be useful to G in the slightest I also know some Spanish, maybe I could teach him that one day. Or should I say we can learn it together - I don't really know that much myself!

 

[ISH]

I'm Romanian and intend to speak to him in Romanian when we're alone together and English for the rest of the time. I'd like to teach him another language as well (not sure which would be more useful, will have to reflect on that one), but that'll be later, don't want to overwhelm a poor baby!

I like this approach! Sounds logical and simple.

Do you want to teach lo some other language that you speak? I also speak Latvian, but I don't think that wold be useful to G in the slightest I also know some Spanish, maybe I could teach him that one day. Or should I say we can learn it together - I don't really know that much myself!

Spanish and French are the only ones I speak well enough to teach him - I'd love him to learn Italian most of all, and myself alongside him! I can speak some but I'd love to perfect it.

 

[l_maclean]

Just to throw this in - I went to baby signing the other day, and the other new mummy at the class is raising her some bilingual (didn't get much chance to find out what) but the girl running the class said that using sign language can be very useful in bridging the gap between languages - like always using the sign for a word no matter which language you are speaking. Xxx

 

[niknaks]

I love that this topics come up and actually gonna get my Oh to read this. I'm goan(well my parents were from there and i was born and raised over here) but my parents never taught me my mother tongue and i hated it. Now my Oh is Portuguese and speaks to all his family in Portuguese. Now me and all his family and my family too are like he needs to teach Leandro Portuguese but he's all like Hell get confused he'll pick it up when he's older. But i don't want it to be that way. I would love Leandro to be bilingual xxx

 

[i.love]

Just to throw this in - I went to baby signing the other day, and the other new mummy at the class is raising her some bilingual (didn't get much chance to find out what) but the girl running the class said that using sign language can be very useful in bridging the gap between languages - like always using the sign for a word no matter which language you are speaking. Xxx

Oh that's interesting, thanks for the idea! Xx