Will you teach your child to be bilingual/multilingual?

[nitabunni]

I do believe that it is a very useful thing to be able to teach more than one language to a child while his/her mind is able to absorb the basic elements. If possible, do you plan on giving your child the resources to learn a second or third language early on? Evidence shows that it becomes more and more difficult to learn a language with age. How would you go about it?

[mamivon2]

My kids as you prob know are 6 and 7 years old. I did not speak swissgerman (my nat lang) when they were little. I wanted them to learn english first. I just started about a year ago and not on a reg. basis. I know I need to.

We have skype and my parents I talk a lot with my parents in my lang. Which seems to help. I also watch swiss tv. I do comment alot what I do in Swiss german. Like: Mommy is cleaning...

If there are any other swiss out there please pm me

[Laurence78]

Hello to everyone,

   Sorry for "reactivating" this thread only one year later. I personally find it so compelling that I am kind of surprised not to see many more responses. As nitabunni pointed it out, children's brain from 0 to 5 is like a sponge and it is a crucial time frame to teach them languages. After it gets trickier and trickier.

   My 7 month-old daughter is raised in a bilingual environment (I am French and my husband is American) and she starts being introduced to Mandarin Chinese which is supposed to help to develop a musician ear. Studying Latin is also extremely beneficial. A lot of people are not aware of this but almost  60% of English words have Latin roots.

  I found again this very interesting British article entitled  "Being bilingual 'protects brain' . Here is the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3794479.stm

 

[chica1965]

 My son's  primary language is  English but he can carry his own in Spanish .   We work on it daily

[cinnamon288]

My 2 year old speaks and understands both English and Darja. Hopefully his little brother will do the same. So far he responds appropriately to both languages but has not started talking yet. He is only 11 months so i guess we have time :)

[TiaraMom19]

 Hi,im aa and my dh is italian.My dh spoke italian up until he was 8years old.He can still understand it and speak the language a little.

My dh and I both want our kids to learn italian.

My son is now 18 and took italian in highschool(didnt do well though...lol).Im hoping my daughter(now 11) will follow suit when she gets to highschool:)

~Tia

 

[momcros]

I am American and my husband is French. He only speaks French to our 5 yr old. She is fluent in both French and English. She speaks perfect (according to my husband) French to family on skype. She translates for me when we go to France or when relatives visit us. She also learns a little Spanish and German in pre-school. My older daughter has a decent understanding of French and did very well when she took it as a foreign language in high school. I, on the other hand, need to buckle down and learn. I've had classes and have a ton of books. I just need to make it a priority.