Introducing a second language

[Minxy]

I've bought Stanley a book of 1000 Spanish words for Christmas, and OH was a bit

I'm not being a pushy mum but he really loves learning new words and picks things up so fast. I've heard the earlier the better!

What's your opinion? Will it confuse him?

 

[daftscotslass]

Not sure how it works if you're not a native speaker... my OH dutch so we're raising Becky speaking both languages.

There are a lot of playgroups etc around now in different languages, might be worthwhile looking one of those out? It is definitely a case of the earlier the better, though, as they don't have to overcome the hurdle of translating words in their head as often happens as an adult learner of a language.

 

[Hazel]

I've been doing Spanish classes for a few years and will be teaching Connie some basics. I need to look into it a bit as I don't want her getting confused. Will probably just do little conversations between us like numbers and foods for a bit of fun. We holiday in Spanish countries normally so it's nice to know how to say please and thankyou.

 

[tuck]

Not sure how it works if you're not a native speaker... my OH dutch so we're raising Becky speaking both languages..

Ditto to above though Matilda is being raised with english and Greek. I think it would need to be more than just a book, they would need to also hear it being spoken on a regular basis. How about some childrens cd's/DVD'S in spanish that little one could also watch/listen too every day. With Matilda I have some simple books with numbers/colours etc, I will read them in english and when DH reads them he does it in greek so she associates both words as the same thing.
However there's no harm in trying and see how littlun gets on

 

[Squiglet]

It would be a matter of him hearing how it was spoken... its impossible to learn how a language is spoken from a book alone..

One of my favourite classics (and for Spaniards too) is new year where the common have a happy new year... or Feliz Año Nuevo... The Año is mispronounced by a lot of ex pats as ano as the sound Ñ doesn't appear in the English language.. but ano is bum hole... so they say happy new bum hole

Best thing to do is get some cartoon DVD's which have Spanish on them..and just run them in Spanish... or if you do go a lot to Spain...teach a few basic words and go somewhere Spanish...place him with a group of Spanish kids for a few days and he'll chattering away in Spanish... kids are quick and don't actually require language to communicate with other kids till around tthe age of 5