Advice on raising trilingual children?

Question

My husband and I are pregnant with triplets, due any day now. We've been discussing teaching our children more than just English as they develop. I speak English, French, Italian and Assyrian; my husband speaks English and German.

Ideally, we'd like to teach them English initially, as the most important language, but because our families reside in Italy and Germany primarily, we'd also like to teach them Italian and German.

I grew up speaking just two languages, so I worry that having three languages may be confusing for our children. However, I know that learning a language at a young age is easier than starting a language later in life.

Does anyone have any suggestions for us?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

First, let me commend you and your husband. I honestly think that what the two of you are doing is great. By raising your kids to be trilingual you are enhancing their knowledge from a very young age.
Hmmm well now the dilemma becomes how to instruct your children so that they properly learn all of the languages. I understand that you would like for them to have a very strong grasp on English (I assume you live here in the U.S.) But to be honest I would suggest that English not heavily be used at home. This might seem strange especially since you want this to be their best language. However, this is almost bound to happen anyway. If you live in an English speaking country they are going to be around English all the time anyway. Kid's programs, songs, conversations in the street, instructing in school, all of this is bound to take place in English. As long as your children are attending school/daycare and are allowed to play with friends who speak to them in English at a very early age (the sooner the better) they will become fluent. My friend speaks the Indian language Malayalam in her home yet she still has a firmer grasp on English simply because of the enviornment. She hears English practically everwhere while Malayalam is mostly heard only at home. So needless to say I think that them learning English shouldn't be a problem.
With that being said the languages that will require more work are Italian and German because there are not as many native speakers here. To make sure that they learn these try to eliminate as much use of English inside the home as possible. When you talk to your children make sure that you converse with them in Italian all the time while your husband always uses German. While this might seem peculiar at first, it makes sense. When the child wants to speak to you he/she will automatically associate you with Italian and when they want to speak to their father they will associate him with the German they know. This will reduce the chance of them confusing the languages. Obviously when they are a bit older you will not have to worry about this as much.
Because of the fact that they will only be learning the spoken part this way you must make sure that they also learn how to read in German and Italian. I would suggest that soon after they learn how to read and write in English you start teaching them to read and write in German/Italian.
Once again, great job on what you're doing. I think it's really cool and also want my children to be bilingual/trilingual. Good Luck!

Answer 2

Introduce them to as many languages as possible while they are young. I've been reading about how the brain processes learning and, what it comes down to is that, as kids grow older - even by age 7 - the brain starts paring away certain networks of connections and it gets harder to learn new things, especially language and other basics.
And Italian and German are so different in both structure and vocabulary that I don't think they'd be confused. And both of them have similarities to English - German in structure and Italian in vocabulary cognates.

Definitely encourage them - and, when you can, let them hear you speaking with you husband in whatever languages you share. That way they'll also get the context and learn that it's OK to speak in several languages with no cultural stigma.

And, as an example, think of the Swiss and the Dutch. They learn 4 languages (at least) in school and don't seem to have any problem keeping them straight.

Answer 3

Someone I know also lives in Europe. Mom speaks English Dad speaks French. Kid goes to school and speaks German. So this kid is now 4 and can speak English, French and German. All with a German accent BTW. Its cute. But seriously, whatever country you are in, that is usually the language they wil learn in school so they will learn Italian and German in school. So speak English because that is what they will not hear most people saying and by the time they are 4 they can impress everyone!

Answer 4

Theres a thing called one parent one language. How it works is your husband would speak to them only in German and then you would speak to them only in italian and then being immeresed in an all english speaking world they would pick that language up too. There are plenty of books on the subject I would. I havent read this one, but you could look into it http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Multilingual-Children-Language-Acquisition/dp/0897897501

Answer 5

Just speak to them in different languages. You don't really have to "teach" them, they'll pick it up

Answer 6

Why not just speak in english to the child when at home at let the child learn spanish naturally...

Answer 7

I fully agree with Regan C and Menino because that is the way it has worked with my granddaughter.

Answer 8

i'm 13 and billingual, plus i am now taking spanish

i would start teaching them one language 1st, than branch off from what they know