Bilingual kids

[Hollowmama]

Hi!
I was wondering if there’s anyone with bilingual kids? I am originally from Spain and my family all speak Spanish. My husband is british. I do find speaking in English easier than speaking Spanish but I want my little girl (still inside me right now) to be able to speak both fluently.
I have read that I should speak to her in Spanish all the time and my husband should speak to her in English. My main worry is that I don’t want her to then get confused or not recognise my voice when I’m speaking to other people in English!

If there’s any bilingual mums here I would appreciate your comments and tips! Thank you!

 

[Cati]

I speak Welsh and English and grew up speaking both.

My parents spoke to me in Welsh as it’s the natural thing to do for us, and English I picked up on in books and on television. By the time I got to school age I was fluent in both languages. It was the same for my sisters. One even has severe learning difficulties, but as she was around both languages growing up she’s now fluent in both, which I find amazing.
My son will be bought up in the same way.

I think you should speak Spanish with your child, and occaisionally read English books with her. She’ll probably pick up English along the way.

It’s amazing how quickly and easily they pick up on languages. Being fluent in more than one language might help them learn new languages more easily in the future too!

 

[JustTrying]

Hi!
I was wondering if there’s anyone with bilingual kids? I am originally from Spain and my family all speak Spanish. My husband is british. I do find speaking in English easier than speaking Spanish but I want my little girl (still inside me right now) to be able to speak both fluently.
I have read that I should speak to her in Spanish all the time and my husband should speak to her in English. My main worry is that I don’t want her to then get confused or not recognise my voice when I’m speaking to other people in English!

If there’s any bilingual mums here I would appreciate your comments and tips! Thank you!

You should speak to your children in Spanish as they will pick up English very very quickly in school. This is a crucial time for you to teach them Spanish otherwise it becomes difficult as they get older.

I was bought up speaking two languages.

 

[Kimi89]

I’m English and my husband is Hungarian. Our son is 18 weeks old but he mainly speaks to him in Hungarian. We would like our son to grow up knowing both languages, we might even move to Hungary in the future. Once he’s old enough to watch kids tv we’ll find Hungarian children shows on YouTube as well.

 

[Ammonite]

Hi!
I was wondering if there’s anyone with bilingual kids? I am originally from Spain and my family all speak Spanish. My husband is british. I do find speaking in English easier than speaking Spanish but I want my little girl (still inside me right now) to be able to speak both fluently.
I have read that I should speak to her in Spanish all the time and my husband should speak to her in English. My main worry is that I don’t want her to then get confused or not recognise my voice when I’m speaking to other people in English!

If there’s any bilingual mums here I would appreciate your comments and tips! Thank you!

I think it's a very good idea! I had a great example of this with my sister who lives in Poland, she's a native American and English is her mother tongue, and it's the same with Polish in case of her husband. Their daughter is good in both languages and it was really easy for her with English later in school
In my opinion learning two languages from early years in such way is a perfect amount, I heard about even bigger number of them but I think that it's too difficult for a child and can bring more harm than benefit. However even in your case you should be careful with methods you use for teaching her and don't push too much. It's truth that kids learn foreign languages fast and very well but sometimes they aren't good in both of them later instead of speaking fluently.
You should start with Spanish, make it a basic one for her and only later after some time you can add English too. In such way it'll be more effective and safe for her in improving language skills. Speak in both languages when you're near her, also teach her a bit every day (regular studies are very important in this case), learn words and phrases, especially the second ones because in such way she'll be able to practise with separate words more effectively. Reading books, poems, singing songs, commenting various daily activities are very helpful too. Also children adore various games and you can use them for learning both languages too, for example there are special ones with alphabet cards and apps like Zebrainy ABCs https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1165324239?mt=8 for teaching a child to read
Cartoons, movies and books will be very helpful later too. Good luck!

 

[EllieH]

I wouldn’t worry about her not recognising your voice when talking in English, she’ll know it’s you.

I look after a girl at nursery (changing languages for confidentiality reasons) who’s mum is Indian and dad is German and they speak to her in their own mother tongues and then we, at nursery, talk to her in English. She is about 18 months and can understand what is said to her in each language.

Bilingual children just get words mixed up at the start and can sometimes seem to take longer with talking because they’re mixing languages together and it sounds like babble hehe but they always seem very clever bilingual children (when spoken to in both languages from a baby)

So from a nursery practitioners point of view, start from when she’s born and as much as you want, she’ll get the English off dad and preschool onwards (if you don’t send her to nursery before hand)

Hope this helps, all the best x

 

[anaphil]

My daughter is 8 and speaks italian (her dad) greek (me!) And english (born in the UK and spent years in the US). I spoke to her in both english abd greek (im bilingual) and her dad in italian. I did mix them up a lot which i was advised not to do but it worked out fine. The only issue that ever caused concern was that she spoke relatively late (over 2 years) but she understood everything before that. Its a HUGE advantage for a child and it will make any new language way easier to learn! I definitely recommend it!