How do you raise your child bilingual?

Question

I'm German and my wife is American. How would we raise our children to be able to speak/understand both languages at an early age?

Answer 1

Just talk to your baby in German as much as you can when you are with your children. the smaller they are the quicker they can catch on. My sister married a french man and her kids can speak spanish, english and french. the more you spend time with your children the more they will understand and speak it.

Answer 2

I was a nanny for a family that wanted their children bilingual. I spoke to the children in Spanish all day (approx. 8-10 hours). When I left, the family found another Spanish speaking nanny and today all three children are fully bilingual. In dual language families I have seen, one parent speaks in each language desired. Begin speaking to them in the second language immediately (as infants). They will understand quickly because there will be no translation instinct as in older children or adults. I am doing this with my son (4 months old) I speak in Spanish most of the day but revert to English in the evenings because Daddy speaks only English and I want us all to communicate in a "family" language. Check out this site for other ideas:

http://www.bilingualbabies.org/modules/xoopsfaq/index.php?cat_id=2#q6

Answer 3

2 is far too late. You do it from birth. One parent speaks to the child in one language, the other uses the other language. Starting to learn a second language at 2 from a program is just that - it's learning a second language. Your child will not be bilingual. Bilingual kids have two first languages.

Answer 4

A suggestion that my cousin is doing - Father is French and speaks only to their son in French. He also expects his son to speak back to him only in French. If he speaks to his Dad in English, he doesn't answer.
The Mum speaks English and does the same. The child is 2.5 yrs and understands this. He speaks both languages.

Answer 5

I am bilingual. Both of my parents speak spanish. My mother only speaks spanish and my father speaks both english/spanish. Both of my parents spoke to me in spanish and I learned english from my cousins & school. Hope that helps. I plan to do the same with my child that is due at the end of January.

Answer 6

i read somwhere that it is very usefull if your child is small (5-32) month that is very usefull if you read to him some cartoon book in a foreign language...

the important is not to learn your child to SPAK that language but that he to develope the ability and capability for addopting and learning new languages in the future... english is my third language.

i have national language romanian, ad native language hungarian. i was for 2 years in a romanian kindergarden, and for 1 year (i think) in english kindergarden... i dont remember leaning very much english there, but i know till now to sing the ABCD... in english :) and could learn more easies later durring my classes...

- but if the parents are bilingual, ofcourse children can addopt to both languages... just be carefull in school language chosing.. but i think those chilren who speak more than 1 language till 7 yr old will have communication probelms, if it will be rise in a community which wont agree with this....

Answer 7

Speak to them in both languages. Teaching children in both languages also helps improve the parents speech in both languages.

Answer 8

I was told that one should speak to the child solely in one language (in my case, English) and my husband should speak to him solely in the other (Vietnamese). It isn't always easy for my husband to remember to do it but my son is 2.5 and he does understand everything that we both say to him.