Why don't parents teach their kids different languages or get them taught as little kids?

Question

Why don't parents teach their kids different languages or get them taught as little kids so gro up bi or multi lingual as common knowledge that little kids pick them up best

Answer 1

Although kids are like sponges, it isn't that easy I'm afraid.

I feel fortunate as my little girl should be lucky (only 6 months at moment). I am English and husband is Italian and we live in Italy. I am speaking to her only in English and husband in Italian so she should be able to master both languages quite naturally. Most likely her Italian will be stronger and we'll have to organise some supplementary education in English to master literacy skills.

However, extensive daily contact with both languages is needed if you really want kids to speak 2 or more languages fluently. I used to work in a private English school where kids as young as 3 used to come to have lessons once a week for 1 hr or 1 1/2 hrs. This situation may give some advantages over classmates but the kids won't be in any way proficient. Any contact is better than none, but expectations need to be realistic.

If there aren't two languages used in the immediate family, for a child to gain a high level of proficiency, contact with a 2nd language can be through a nanny/au pair, or enrolling the child in a school where lessons are conducted in the foreign language (like the lycée francais in London) which undoubtedly costs a fortune. One final alternative is to move to a country where the language desired is spoken.

Answer 2

First of all let me say that English IS the universal language for major business like world trading and airlines etc. So depending on what you do for a living it would require you to know a second language witch in tern makes it easier for Americans to be succesful if their employees and workers know more then one language.. I just had to say that for the guy who thinks he doesn't need to learn other languages

and now to answer your question
this is a very good idea.. but don't you think your question should be.. Why aren't there more bilingual or trilingual parents?... after all a parent cant teach its child what they don't know..A child doesn't only learn in the class room it also requires practice, repetition and a parent trying to get a young child to do this but not understand what the child is saying could be harder on the parent then the child i think.. i personally have taught my children both English and Spanish. there are some preschools that are teaching Spanish..as with everything if there aren't enough people pushing for something nothing gets done about it..

Answer 3

I think it's because a lot of parents don't know any languages themselves, and don't really know how to start going about teaching a language or finding somewhere for their kids to learn. Also, if they don't travel abroad to places where they can use other languages, they don't see the need or the advantage of learning other ones. The parents that do speak other languages, or who travel abroad and use other languages a lot, are very likely to teach their children languages, or to encourage language learning.

Let's face it, foreign languages are easiest to learn when a child is small. But if a family has no adult who speaks another language, (and of course, state primary schools don't teach foreign languages) and money is short, then there are many other things that are far higher priority for most parents.

Answer 4

Many parents do not speak another language themselves, and instruction can be expensive. But I totally agree with you- it is easier to learn another language when you are young, and that way you do not have an accent later. It enabled me to travel and see the world, and get a job that I love, so I am very grateful that my parents made me start learning a foreign language when I was 5.
Knowing a different language opens doors to many career possibilities, and it makes you smarter because you get to apply what you learn right away. I think all schools should start teaching kids different language as early as possible.

Answer 5

There are 3 sorts of things you can teach children:

Things they want to know ,
Things they MUST know (eg how to cross the road, don't lean out of windows . . . . thassort of thing),
Things you want them to know.

That last group is the hardest. It is quite easy to teach but hard to make it stick. If two parents are willing to speak a different language at home, themselves it will be easy. If not it will just join the list of all those other tedious things that parents want to make children practise.

But cheer up, even if you only half know a language, speaking it for an hour a day in the evening would help.

Answer 6

It is great that you are exposing them to multiple languages. Give your kids more credit. This is the best time to be teaching them too. It is much easier to pick up other languages as a child then as an adult. Do not listen to those other parents, they do not know what they are talking about. They will not end up confused. You are giving your children a huge advantage in life.

Answer 7

That would be the smart thing to do, but most time the parents only teach one language either because they dont know any other or they want to have a language that they can discuss and the child does not understand

Answer 8

American or foreign?
American people doesn't teach another language because they think: if English is the language most spoke, why you need to learn an other.
smarter parents, sometimes don't know another language.
Foreign people sometimes they don't teach the children the other language because they want learn more English.
Sometimes because they think the child will do better in school if they know more English.
Sometimes they don't want other people to know they are foreign (more when they have white skin).

Answer 9

My kids are going to learn both English and Arabic when they get into school. Because they don't think the kids need to know another language.

Answer 10

I SO agree with you. In Wales they teach welsh in primary school to very little kids (or they did when my friend's child was small). Young children pick up different languages very quickly indeed, it's a shame not to use that to it's best advantage.