My wife and I, we are both multilingual (native). My mother tongues are Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. My wife's mother tongues are German (dialect), German (official) and Polish. The common language we share is English. We are now living in the UK and we will soon have a boy. After browsing through some of info. you got on the website, I am still left with some questions in regard to multilingual learning. Things like how to teach our child our mother tongues as well as English, and how many is too many as I have heard there is a possibility that learning too many languages at a early age can lead to a jack-of-all-trade-master-of-none situation... I am wondering have you got any information on this matter. Any help will be much appreciated. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Kevin Tang, UK
Have you had any experience of raising a child with more than one language?
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I am from Malaysia, I don't have any kids right now. I just want to share with you my experience. I am Chinese. Due to our country education system, I need to learn English, Malay and Mandarin since I was small. I also speak our own dialect, Hock Kien. I'm now, I can speak in English, Malay, Chinese, Hock Kien and Cantonese. However, what I feel is I can't master any of the language above. Learning more languages are good to the kids, but will they master it? Too much is no good.
Ah Shi, Malaysia
I have brought up three children who speak Swiss German,German and English. My husband is Swiss and speaks Swiss German. In our home we only spoke English to the children. Their grandparents spoke either Swiss German or English to them. Out in the street the children soon learnt to speak Swiss German playing with other children. I encouraged my children to write thank you letters for birthday presents to their Grandparents in England. We read them lots of books in English and German from a very young age. We didn't teach them to read before going to school. But they learnt letters that were written up outside shops etc. They wanted to learn. I have taught a child who could speak Swiss German, French from her Swiss grandmother, Spanish from her Father who she saw only during the summer holidays. He lived in Andorra, so she also spoke Andorran (similar to Spanish) and at school she had German. She learnt to speak English very easily. You really need separate people to speak the various languages to the children, then it works. The children can differenciate between the various languages. About Chinese Cantonese and Mandarin, The children need later to take classes in these languages so that they learn to write them. Sometimes, in Capital cities the Embassies offer these language classses free or for a very cheap price. The majority of children I teach English to, already speak 2 or 3 languages.
Brigid, Switzerland
I'm French, my husband is Spanish and we live in Andorra. Here, the official language is Catalan and I teach languages (English, French, Spanish) My 2 children speak French, Spanish, Catalan and English and my grandchildren who are 6 and 4 haven't got any problems with communication. They mix the different languages at the beginning but when they are 2-3, they know that they speak French with their mother and French grandmother, Spanish with their Spanish family, Catalan with their other family. After, English is not difficult because it's a way to understand different people. In Andorra, there's a mixture of different nationalities, even at school. So, why bother? Just speak, listen and practice!
Christine, Andorra
Of course that it is not bad to learn many languages at the same time, especially if you are a child. As the child's mind works successfully only when it is stimulated at the right time, you have to do so, let your child's mind work freely and you'll get very good results indeed. Children do imitate and practise, and that practice can explain how some aspects of learning a language are learned. I have studied three languages simultaneously, and I have never had any problems with them. It is a matter of practice, learning a foreign language is not difficult, but the mastery of it is the point.- What do you think?
Silvio, Argentina
Hi Kevin, my experience is that one parent should stick to one language. Since I am Austrian I know that german and polish are completely opposite languages. Which of these languages is the first one - the one both of you would speak first - some say you do it automatically in a shock situation? Obviously your wife has been brought up bilingualy as well. Both your wife and you should decide between one of your languages. After all languages are stable who could decide to provide your child with a third or forth language. personal experience: My son went to a bilingual school in Vienna since his dad is english speaking and has been born in the U.K. But because I am divorced (my son was one) and do not have contact with his dad I was forced to decide for one language. My main language is of course german. In the beginning when we returnded from the U.K. I spoke english to my son but I did not feel comfortable speaking a foreign language in my country. In spite of my efforts his first word was german - "no". My experience is that the surrounding language is very strong. Since I haven t had a partner with a second language I decided to "outsource" the father tongue. As soon as the first language was stable (an advice I followed.) he has gone to a bilingual kindergarten for two years. After that he went to a bilingual schoool. An experience I want to share especially with you, Kevin & wife, is the headteacher´s one: Her experience is that if the child is confronted with two many languages it might cause difficulties. it seems to much to be confronted with 5 languages. Even so it is not advised to speak more than 2 languages I would understand your wish to offer the best for your baby. My opinion is if you as parent offer two languages and your child gets a third one from the environment it seems enough. By the way my son is now 11 ys. Unfortunately we had to give up the biligual education because he had a dislexia problem combined with severe psychosomatic symptoms. So I decided to focus my energy on solving these more important issues. And now I am very happy that I can use his own wish being a londoner. Recently he told me something very cute: "Thanks for teaching me drinking tea like a real londoner." I am very happy that he is motivated in learning this language. the british council offers really nice learning activities for children. to Sue: Don´t worry your daughter will be very qick in picking up english when you are in the U.K. to all: I also met some adults who grew up with 5 languages but could not speak one as mother tongue. (of course hardly noticible to others) But as a side effect it could cause identity problems.
Isabella, Austria
I've two nieces from Germany, the last one came here without a word of Spanish and when they left she had a very nice vocabulary and could make her understandable to other people. watched tv in Spanish and communicate very easy with us. Her father talks to her Spanish, her mother German. Kids at early ages are very smart and they can talk many languages. The point is, which language is better for them in order to interact with it in a near future, and it is nothing but wasting time. Thanks.
Gloria, Colombia
My husband and I are both Russians but we have been living in Germany since 2000. Our child is now 10. He goes to a german school and he is doing well there. Though I notice that his vocabulary is smaller as that of german children. He started to stutter as he was 4 and the doctor said bilinguialismus makes it worse and we should exclude one language for some time. Living in Germany we decided to speak only German to him. In 4 years his stuttering declined and we started to speak Russian to him as well. He started to speak Russian to us but he mixes up both languages at home. He does not talk whole sentences in one language.He starts in one language and ends in another or even worse he takes a Russian verb and conjugates it according to German grammar. I worry whether he will be able to seperate both languages in his head and whether he will be speaking clear each of the languages.
Tanya, Germany
I am German, my husband is Danish and we have lived in English speaking countries for many years. Our boy was born in Denmark. When he was 4 years old we moved to Kenya and lived there for 3 years. Then we moved to India and stayed there for 7 years, then went back to Denmark. We always talked to our child in our mother tongues. Of course we had books and videos in all three languages. He visited the German School in New Delhi and after our return to Denmark a Danish High School. Now he is 25 years old and a civil engineer. He speaks, reads and writes all three languages fluently. When our boy was born I got the advise to use our mother tongues only from an UN interpreter and it was very good advise. It's a great gift to be brought up bilingual or even trilingual. That's what my son tells me.
Barbara, Germany
When I was studing to become an English teacher I read some articles about the subject, but authors don´t seem to agree on this issue. An aunt of mine who speaks both English and French (appart from Spanish) talked to her children in French since they were babies. None of my cousins speaks in French, but they fully understand it. I´m sure that if one day day feel the need to speak it they will be completly able to do it. In my opinion the younger you learn, the better. Since I got pregnant I decided I would speak English to my baby, though I´m not a native I think he will be able to learn it. I try to speak in English at home, especially when we are alone, so my baby will learn that English is our way of communication, something just for us (I do this because I think it´s very rude to speak it in front of people who can´t understand it). He is just ten months old, so the only sounds he emits are "mamama" or "pa" and other monosyllables, but I think he understands when I speak to him in English because he has the same reactions to the same ideas transmited in Spanish by his father or grandparents.
Florencia, Argentina
We are speaking Thai and English in our family and to make the matter worst, we are also living in foreign country - Japan. My daughter is 2 years old. She seems to pick up a bit of English and Japanese, but she can communicate very well in Thai. We were told to speak only in our own languages and she would pick up both languages as her first language. However, my husband who is a British English native speaking has much lesser time to talk to her due to long working hours. As we will return to the UK for her education in 2 years time, we are very worried that she does not pick up English as well as other languages. I have been speaking both English and Thai to her since last Christmas, she seems to understand more English. But she mixed 2 languages in a sentence and when she speaks English, she has my strange accent which her grandmother could not make any sense of it.
Has anyone have experience in teaching English in your bilingual family? Also any suggestion with language development impair? I would like to ask for advice and recommendation on what would be the next step to teach my daughter British English in order to prepare her to entering a school in the UK when we return in the next 2 years. Also home material resources, books and activities.
Sue, Japan
I totally disagree with the person who says that you shouldn't teach a child a foreign language. You have no idea I am sorry. I am from New Zealand and my husband is Spanish. Our daughter was born in Spain and is bilingual. I speak perfect english and have spoken to my daughter since she was born in english at all times. My daughter speaks english and spanish, and is now 7 years old, and I have started to teach her to read in english and she is having no problems what so ever. I think it is very small minded of people to think that a child will suffer with her native language if you introduce a foreign language. I know off hand because I have a bilingual daughter and have the experience to tell people that they should speak to their child in other languages. My daughter has two cultures, two languages. One parent has to speak in one language and the other parent in the other language. The child will understand perfectly and you should do it from birth. That way it is natural to them to hear two languages. Also the child can watch tv, in the native language and dvds in his/her second language. Kids are sponges and they learn loads. Don't listen to people who have no idea of what they are talking about they haven't had the experience of having a bilingual child.
Tracey, Spain
I am from Gori and I have a boy. He is studing at the third form and he study Georgian, Russian and English. I think it is not bad to learn three lenguages together beacous he remember every words which they learn at school. What do you think about this?
Gaiane, Georgia
