Teaching our child different languages?

Question

We don't have a child yet. But just wondering..

I'm Vietnamese, and my fiancé is Cantonese. I don't fully understand Cantonese, and he doesn't fully understand Vietnamese, but we really want our child to be able to understand/speak both, and then later on learn English at school.

Would it be possible for our child to understand all three languages, or would this be too confusing? Should we just stick with English?

Answer 1

Yes, It's possible.
The important thing is that the same person have to speak with them the same language. Don't ever translate from a language to the other one! You talk with them only Vietnamise, the father only Cantonese.

Answer 2

Many children speak and understand three languages. It is not too confusing at all. Some parents would do it this way: have the father speak to the child only in his native language (Cantonese) and you speak to the child only in your native language (Vietnamese), but let the child overhear you speaking English to each other. Then send your child to an English-speaking preschool and public school, and the child will quickly learn English as well. There will be no confusion because each language will be associated with a different context. Young childhood is the very easiest time to learn languages; later on it becomes more difficult. Don't be surprised, however, if English eventually becomes your child's dominant language, unless you and your fiance have a lot of extended family here.

Answer 3

Children are very good at learning languages and will pick up English, Vietnamese and Cantonese if they hear all three. You will probably find that they are a little slower than their peers in begining to speak but once they start, they will speak Vietnamese to the Vietnamese parent and Cantonese to the Cantonese parent. They will also pick up English at the same time.

A child with three languages to start with will find learning other languages later on much easier.

Answer 4

Lol my mum is Vietnamese and my dad is half Viet-Cantonese. I grew up on English and Vietnamese. Now my dad speaks fluent Cantonese but only at work. My parents use Vietnamese all the time. I have friends who for some reason talk Cantonese whilst leaving out Vietnamese. It's sad to see so many ethnic and half-bred people lose their language. My advice...teach all 3. It's not as hard as it looks. I'm on 4 languages =)

If not, at least teach some useful phrases.

Answer 5

The baby books talk about this frequent question. They're worth browsing at any bookstore, even well before conceiving.

From what I recall, they say the child would be taught another language through people who would keep to that language. For example, one relative would speak Vietnamese; and, the other would speak Cantonese. Additional relatives can reinforce either language, as well. I think there were guidelines on when to introduce multiple languages, so suggest the readings.

I think it's quite beneficial to anyone to learn multiple languages. FYI -- one of our favorite kid shows on PBS teaches sign language, yet another option.

Answer 6

Asking this question here now has made the difference between you raising a unilingual child and a trilingual child. Congratulations on asking and thanks on behalf of your child. It is a misconception, very commonly held in English-speaking North America, that speaking more than one language to a child will confuse him. It will not. We are hard-wired to deal with many languages at once from birth. While learning multiple languages does delay the overall progress because the child is learning 2 or 3 times as much material, over time, there is no diffrence or disadvantage. If you speak 3 languages in the home, the child probably already understands some of them. Do not hesitate to speak your language to your child. Have your wife speak her language to the child as well. Nothing special is needed. Just speak normally. If the 2 of you are using a third language to communicate, let that be the language he hears you speak together. The child will also learn to understand it. There are many places in the world where children are exposed to several languages. It is perfectly human and normal. We raised our 2 children to speak both our languages as my wife and I also speak different languages.

Answer 7

First of all: it is possible to raise a child trilingually, but it is hard work.
You and your husband will have to stick to your language when talking to the child. You should try to do this absolutely.
However, this is very difficult to maintain when the dominant language outside of your house is different and you have to stick to this language for inter-parental communication.
The child will acquire all three languages. At a slower pace than children who only learn one language, but it will!
It will take a while until the child realises that it's confronted with three different linguistic systems and for that while it will mix the languages. But as soon as it discovered it is speaking different languages it will be able to keep them apart.
However, you have to prepare yourself for the fact, that the child will one day discover that it is different, and the reaction might be that it refuses to speak one or even both of the languages you taught him as home languages. Don't worry about this, it's absolutely natural! And even though the child stops producing the languages it doesn't lose the ability to understand them. It can later reactivate the active use of the language.
You should definitely give it a try!

Good luck!

Answer 8

I think it would be difficult for a child to understand two (cantonese and vietnamese)languages at the same time..it would be confusing, but it also depends on the child's ability to learn.

Answer 9

No it would not be too confusing. If you speak to him/her in Vietnamese and you fiancé speaks too him/her in Cantonese then he/she should understand them by the time she/he grows up. I know two languages because my parents spoke to me in them while I was a child. I knew Russian also but I forgot =(.

Answer 10

Having had a child in languages classes in first grade and on while were in that school, there is a great advantage to learning a language at a younger age.

Sure, he or she might get things confused sometimes - we have friends who moved back to Norway and they were teaching their then three year old to speak norweigian as well - it was amusing the mix of english and norweigian she'd come up with sometimes.

I'd say give it a try - it really can't hurt.