How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

DH is from Argentina and is fluent in Spanish. So we (really DH) are trying to speak to Alex in both Spanish and English. I can understand Spanish better than I can speak it. I took some courses but I am more embarrassed to try it out with DH and MIL more than anything else. I guess its just a fear of making mistakes. Stupid, I know but I am trying. So are there any other bi-lingual parents out there doing the same? I really hope he picks up both.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

I'm going to try for three...

My dh speaks fluent Spanish, and I speak fluent Greek. Greek is the hardest of the three to learn. I will try to speak mostly in Greek to him, my husband will probably speak English and I figure when he gets to 2nd or third grade we could do Spanish. I grew up bilingual and had no problem. I learned Greek first and English I learned from sesame street and school. Speaking more than one language is such a great thing. I had read if you want to introduce two each parent should speak one of the two only. There are DVD for every language so you can learn along too..with subtitles for adults to learn with the child. I forgot the website...I'll look for it.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

http://www.babyclassroom.com/bilingual-baby-spanish-vhs.html

found it

Message edited 12/2/2005 12:38:20 PM.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

I'm not trying to teach my daughter another language. but she watches Dora and know she will say thing in Spanish. Sometimes I don't know what she is saying because I don't know a lot of Spanish.
Christine

Message edited 12/2/2005 12:50:46 PM.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Also Muzzy is pretty cute - I had the Italian version for a trial offer but than switched to Spanish since I think it's more useful.http://www.early-advantage.com/

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

I'm going to try for three too. My family is from Uruguay and we are fluent in Spanish. Dh's family is from Greece and they are fluent in Greek. Now I just need to learn Greek

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Marcella try www.speakgreeknow.com it's a little corny but it works. Anyway the transition from spanish to greek is easy. I wish I hadn't fooled around in my Spanish class in hs. For three years I gossiped with my friend. I only understand the minimum

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Well I'm torturing my son sometimes b/c I try to teach him words in English (of course) and then their French and Italian equivalents! (I was a language major in undergrad....)

He also watches Dora and hears her little bits of Spanish!

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

We are!! DH is from Israel so he speaks and sings hebrew to Alex all the time. We specifically chose the daycare program that we did because they have a hebrew immersion program so she'll start learning it there as well... they play lots of Isreali folk music and talk to the babies in hebrew

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

We are trying to teach Claire 2 langauges as well. My DH is Indian so his parents only speak to her in Malayalam, which is South Indian language, hopefully thats enough for her to pick up some of it!

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Although DH was raised in a bi-lingal home, English was his first language. We both speak ok spanish and we want our son to be bi-lingual. I asked his Grandma and Papa to talk to him in Spanish as much as possible.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Im not pregnant, but I would definately want my kids to speak my language.

I learned in psycology classes that there are studies indicating that the best way to teach kids two languages is to have one parent speak to them in one (English) and the other parent to ONLY speak to them in the other.
That way the kids begin to associate language with parents - I talk to Mommie this way and Daddy the other way. Eventually when they get older they'll understand the two languages and be able to speak them.

Also, another note, kids of bilingual households learn to speak a little later, but they can learn both languages.

Message edited 12/2/2005 6:58:17 PM.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

My family is from Haiti, so I plan to teach Nate Creole and French.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

I was always spoken to in Italian from my father and english from my mother as a child. Since my dad passed when I was 13 my italian has gotten pretty weak but I understand everything (just not confident to speak it) and am so happy that I was taught it at a young age

Message edited 12/2/2005 11:10:21 PM.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Posted by Mrs

Im not pregnant, but I would definately want my kids to speak my language.

I learned in psycology classes that there are studies indicating that the best way to teach kids two languages is to have one parent speak to them in one (English) and the other parent to ONLY speak to them in the other.
That way the kids begin to associate language with parents - I talk to Mommie this way and Daddy the other way. Eventually when they get older they'll understand the two languages and be able to speak them.

Also, another note, kids of bilingual households learn to speak a little later, but they can learn both languages.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

When our son arrives we plan to teach him Croatian. I am not as fluent as my DH but my parents and grantparents can help out in that department. Growing up my grandmother watched me and she doesnt speak any english so that is how I learned it and my parents spoke english to me. DH went to Croatia every summer from the age of i think 8 to 17. So I think it is possible for a child to pick up on a language just from the grandparents.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

My Dh is 1/2 Puerto Rican, but he doesn't speak to Jared in Spanish....his mother does though. At first it bothered me, because everything my MIL does bothers me, but then I decided not to be bothered because it's helpful. I also know Spanish pretty well too.

My father is Italian but doesn't know any good words for Jared...if you know what I mean. My mother knows a little Polish and we've been speaking it to Jared as well. My father knows more Polish that Italian.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

Not so he's fluent, but I will be teaching Christopher a bit of Spanish. DH's grandparents live in Puerto Rico and while they can speak both English and Spanish, I know they would love it if Christopher could say a few things in Spanish.

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

I actually took a course in college on this. What we learned was that if you are going to teach the baby two languages at the same time, then one parent must speak one language to the child all of the time, and the other parent must speak the other language all of the time to prevent confusion. Also, if not consistent, it's been proven that children CAN BE (not definitely) delayed in school up until 2nd grade. But it's been shown that if the above approach is used, there's no significant educational delay in children. I don't know if it actually works, but from all the studies I read, it does. HTH!

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

we're teaching our baby croatian. my parents & grandparents are teaching him as well by speaking to him in croatian. i think it's great that he will know a second language growing up & when we go to croatia next summer he will understand my relatives when they speak to him!

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

my mother in law babysits full time and speaks to Angela only in French. She is 16 months old and defintely understands, responds, and speaks more french than english at this point. I know the basic words like I love you and things like that. I am so glad to be able to give her that gift!

Re: How many moms/dads are teaching their baby a 2nd language?

I read an article that said that a baby absorbs most of his/her information about how to use his tongue and mouth to form words before he is 6 months old, so the earlier you start, the better.