I only speak my mother tongue with my 13 mos old (I want her to learn that language so she can communicate with her grandparents and other close relatives in my country). Everybody tells me she will pick up English through TV and when she starts pre-school, but I am so scared she would be left out when she is around other kids. Any suggestions?
2007-02-12 07:06:20 · 16 answers · asked by Elliem 3 in Pregnancy & Parenting ➔ Parenting
Your friends are totally right. She may be a bit slow to start out in pre-school, but she'll be totally caught up and totally bilingual by the time kindergarten rolls around. Once she starts learning English, continue to speak to her only in your native tongue so she doesn't forget. Read to her in your native tongue also, so she learns proper grammar and spelling.
2007-02-12 07:13:59 · answer #1 · answered by Karen H 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you are living in America or an extra English speakme nation it could be greater to talk English as essential language, round 6-7 years historical whilst they have got found out the fundamentals of english they would study jap as this age is perfect for studying, and no longer simply languages.Take it from me as I am Latin and went to a bilingual university, so i spoke spanish at dwelling and english at university.
2016-09-05 08:00:25 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A kid can speak at a very early age as many languages as you want. Here is just a mere example: Father Estonian, mother-Russian. At the kindergarten the child speaks English-Italian.
She is just 3 1/2 years old. Actually, it is recommended to teach the child many languages. It helps develop brain, build up vocabulary, confidence love for different cultures...etc
Don't worry! Besides it is very important for the kid to keep in touch with his/her roots.
2007-02-12 08:04:01 · answer #3 · answered by mik 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My brother in law & his wife taught their daughter only their native language until she started kindergarten and she picked up English really really fast. It's now a year later and you'd never guess she didn't always speak English. Remember, although you are speaking to your child in a language other than English doesn't completely prevent the child from being exposed to it through media and people outside your family.
2007-02-12 09:46:51 · answer #4 · answered by Sylvia 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you have a husband or someone who's always around her, hav them always speak english to her. It is true that until school age, children who speak a different language at home are a little distant and less social, because they don't exactly understand it all. There are 2 girls at my church who's mother speaks Finnish while their father speaks english to them. They never say a word, even though the parents insist that they can speak fluent english.
2007-02-12 07:12:18 · answer #5 · answered by .:Blair:. 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my ex's cousins live in Russia, and they tried speaking only Russian to their kids so when they started school they'd understand the other kids perfectly n wuld fit straight in. abt 2 weeks after moving out there they gave up 4 a reason i don't kno, anyway, their kids kno Russian and English very well and im pretty sure they did manage 2 pick it up from TV n play school. quite amusing when the 3 yr old gets confused n speaks in russian part of a sentence n english for the other!
2007-02-12 07:11:56 · answer #6 · answered by evilbunnyhahaha 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
She will be left out...at first. Until she learns English fully, sorry to say, but she will. My first language is English but my husband and his family are hispanic. His parents only know Spanish, my parents only know English. We speak to our 3 kids in both languages. My 6 year old is fully bi-lingual and my 2 year old has limited vocabulary, but he understands and speaks English and Spanish. We teach them English first because we are in the United States. But we also feel with the rising minority being hispanic, that it is important for them to know Spanish too. So we teach them both languages.
2007-02-12 09:42:03 · answer #7 · answered by amyvnsn 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well I have a friend whose mom and spoke to her in Spanish (and still does) and she was able to pick up English through school and the world quite quickly, and she is so grateful to have the extra connection to her heritage and to be able to communicate with her relatives she wouldn't be able to in English. I think you should speak to her in your mother tounge and have her pick up English later. Young kids are the best when it comes to picking up new languages and as long as she is been introduced to English she should be fine.
2007-02-12 07:21:58 · answer #8 · answered by pixelator 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
English. But our kids learn Arabic in school as the family speaks Arabic.
2007-02-12 07:51:12 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
well my daughter is bilangual now. i learned spanish really well and my first language is english. her father is a hispanic man and his family is involved with my daughter so she learned how to speak both english and spanish. i use both languages with her. shes still 3 so shes still learning and sometimes mixes both languages (spanglish) i think if ur going to only speak one lanuage to ur daughter, then do it, but if she will go to a school that she will need another language. start practicing with her. she will pick up some english from tv, but unless u help her she wont learn it well.
2007-02-12 07:45:28 · answer #10 · answered by Lil mzz green eyez 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋