Bilingual children

Kirsten - posted on 04/22/2010

Thank you for the book tip. I'll look it up.

Jakki - posted on 04/20/2010

Hi - there's a great book called "The Bilingual Edge" by King and Mackey. I found it enormously helpful and inspiring. It's avaialable from Amazon (not very expensive either!). I'm trying to teach my kids French (we live in Australia) because I was brought up biligually, and it is hard because there are not other French speakers around us. One of the big things is to make sure your child is regularly exposed to people speaking both languages. Don't worry about the accent, it will come naturally, and if it doesn't, more exposure to that language would help.

My accent in French is pretty good even though I haven't spoken French for 20 years...

Kirsten - posted on 04/20/2010

That's what we've done since birth.
Several other bilingual families with younger children are experiencing the same problems, so we have added an extra English language play date to our week together and we got together to form an English playgroup for pre-schoolers.
My only other tactic is telling my daughter I'll answer her question or talk with her when she speaks to me in English - that works, but also brings on temper tantrums (but then that's another topic all together).

Kathy - posted on 04/20/2010

Kristen,

We live in an Arab country and they are exposed to Arabic a lot, but I speak only English to them so it is their native language. I tried to get my husband to speak only Arabic, but it has been hard. My oldest (12) is now starting to talk to his dad in Arabic, but with English thrown in. If you decide to speak only English and can get your husband to speak only German, it may help!

Kirsten - posted on 04/20/2010

Thank you Kathy.
I'm noticing that regular, extended exposure to English (every 3-4 months for 4 days or more) is keeping her English going. I can tell it's time for our next visit to an English speaking country because she's starting to speak to me in German again. We're going over in 5 weeks though, so hopefully that will sort it out.

Thanks once again,
Kirsten

Kathy - posted on 04/19/2010

My children are all bilingual (Arabic and English) and as they grow older it becomes easier. My daughter will sometimes speak English with an Arabic accent and their English sounds very proper, not an American accent, but it's great because they know English and my husbands native language, which is the most important thing.

Kirsten - posted on 10/22/2009

English (mother tongue), French, Spanish and German ... with some holiday Italian too thanks to the mixture.

Jennifer - posted on 10/21/2009

It wasn't too bad. I think it helped build a foundation to learning other languages. I'm trying Russian right now because my husband is from Russia. Our daughter does have his accent but she only speaks Engish and a few words in Spanish so far. What are the four languages you speak? I think it's so much fun!

Kirsten - posted on 10/21/2009

That must have been a challenge Jennifer! I learned my first foreign language coming up to age 10 ...

Jennifer - posted on 10/20/2009

I'm not sure if this helps but I grew up speaking Spanish and German and actually learnt English just before school and French in school....now that I'm all grown up I do have an accent (different people hear a different accent with me because of the languages) and althugh I do not speak any language fluently anymore I am able to hold a conversation and understand almost everything in every one. English is now my first language.

Kirsten - posted on 10/20/2009

Thank you Michelle. It can be a challenge and consistency is the be all and end all ... but to top it off, she wants to learn Spanish right now too. So I'm giving her just a few simple phrases to repeat and practice, and sometimes put on a Spanish children's CD or sing Spanish songs with her (I learned 4 languages).

Michelle - posted on 10/20/2009

I do not have any experience with bilingual children but wanted to commend you for teaching your daughter two languages. It is so important these days to teach our children as much as possible so they can get ahead in the future.

Kirsten - posted on 10/20/2009

Thanks Liz. She's almost 4 and suddenly cat, hat, back, that, etc. have become ket, het, beck, thet .... (German and English are her languages). I can imagine it would be much harder with Arabic or an Asian language - I'm finding this challenging enough.

Liz - posted on 10/20/2009

Hi Kirsten! It normally happens to my 5 year old boy now. His dad is an Arab and he's often confused with his writing from left to right and right to left as it is with Arabic and English writing and vice versa. It depends on how old the child is. But I guess, it would help if you would appreciate the child's effort in learning both languages then patiently correct it as soon as you heard it. Don't worry, they'll get the hang of it in time. Hope this helps! Take care!

Liz - posted on 10/20/2009

Hi Kirsten! It normally happens to my 5 year old boy now. His dad is an Arab and he's often confused with his writing from left to right and right to left as it is with Arabic and English writing and vice versa. It depends on how old the child is. But I guess, it would help if you would appreciate the child's effort in learning both languages then patiently correct it as soon as you heard it. Don't worry, they'll get the hang of it in time. Hope this helps! Take care!