Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

Spanish is Leo's first language. I asked him to speak to Josh is spanish once he turned 6 months.

I go to the library and get Josh spanish books...bring them home and Leo tells me he can't read spanish. Can't read it? I read it to Josh. Leo writes in Spanish all the time.

I tell Leo I think he is selfish and takes it for granted. All I am asking is that he speaks to the baby in his native tongue Inlaws insist on speaking spanish, whatever I am over it, but they aren't my family. I don't want Josh to feel left out when around them.

Yesterday sealed the deal with me. Leo tells his father that Josh is the first blue eyed baby...FIL replies that it doesn't count since Josh is white.

So all day long, everytime leo spoke to josh I said in espanol...and he would switch it. Is this just happening to us?

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

I haven't tried to teach Nate Creole/French (my family is Haitian). My parents were here last week and it dawned on me that part of my heritage will stop with me if I don't make the effort.

My family is pretty good about speaking english when DH is around, so the boys won't feel left out when they are around them.

Message edited 7/17/2007 11:53:14 PM.

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

My DH's 1st language is Spanish as well. It was really hard for DH to talk to Alex in Spanish at first. He said it felt uncomfortable. He also speaks only Spanish with his family and his Spanish friends. Eventually, he started to feel more comfortable with it and now he only speaks Spanish to Alex. Alex is now almost 2.5 and he understands both perfectly and is now starting to separate the 2 languages as well. For example he asks me for milk, but DH for leche. Give your DH some time to become comfortable with it. I think learning a 2nd language is so beneficial to the child. I really hope it stays with Alex.

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

DH is from Israel and speaks hebrew - his family still lives in Israel, and I have family there as well, so I think it's so important for Alex to learn hebrew so she can talk to her family and spend time there alone, when she's older. But DH just simply will not speak to her in Hebrew. I think part of the problem is that I don't speak any, so I guess it's hard for him to make an effort when he's the only one.

The good thing - Alex is in daycare at a synogogue - when she turns 2 she can enter the hebrew immersion program at daycare - they take a bunch of the kids out of their regular class, and put them in a hebrew speaking only class for about 4 hours, three times a week.

I'm hoping once she starts, DH will start speaking to her in hebrew.

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

My husband knows some Irish (Gaelic) & has been saying things to Patrick since he was small. Unfortunately, he's not fluent so it's just a word here & there. Also Irish is an almost forgotten language. But, I would love to learn it as well. I was learning by what my husband was teaching him. And the few phrases that my parents taught me.

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

thanks!

christian, sounds like my situation. I really hope to incorporate it in our lifestyle. Hopefully Leo will get better at doing it each day.

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

I felt the same way when my 2 sons were babies-
my DH & his family speak italian and I thought it would be so great for my kids to carry that on....
I had to keep reminding DH to "say it in italian" ,,,,,
well now DH & older son will have conversations in italian when they dont want mommy to know what theyre talking about!!! (mind you my older son is 2 1/2!!!)
Its like the "boys club" in my house-they all talk in code and think its hysterical that "mommy doesnt understand us"-lol

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

My mom speaks fluent spanish but neglected to teach me or my brother. It's hard because my grandparents only speak spanish so I can barely communicate with them. It would have been so nice to have learned another language as a child once you get older it gets so much harder.

Re: Anyone bilingual and not interested in passing it on to kid?

i am bilingual and hope to teach my baby italian since that's all my parents speak. I am concerned though - can it slow them down developmentally with reading/writing?

I spoke italian before english