Raising Bilingual Kids
Posted on August 22, 2010 - Filed Under Guatemala, Kids, Simple Life | 9 Comments
A LOT of people ask me how we managed to raise our kids to be fluent in two languages. There are a lot of questions out there and while I’m no expert, I did do some research before Dorian was born to try and make sure we did the right thing. So, with that in mind, I thought I’d answer some of the more common questions.
First, I’ll tell you what we did. Our strategy was based on the fact that we live in a Spanish speaking country and they would spend most of their time playing with Guatemalan children. That’s since changed since a lot of expats with kids have recently moved to the area, but when Dorian was born, we knew virtually no other English speakers.
With that in mind, I stocked up on children’s books in English, DVDs in English and they were exposed to my native language that way. Also, I spoke only English with them (still do for the most part) and Irving speaks only Spanish with them. The idea behind this was to separate the languages. Other ways you can do this (particularly if the parents are not bilingual):
- Speak one language at home and another at school
- Parents speak one language, the maid or nanny speaks another
The idea is to keep the languages separate. Supposedly it takes longer if kids are hearing several languages from one person and I’ve actually seen that in other families where one parent will speak two or three languages to the child.
On to some of the common questions . . . feel free to ask more in the comments.
Do they actually speak two languages, or just understand them both and speak one?
My kids both speak and understand Spanish and English. Which one they prefer depends on the day! Early on, Dorian spoke mostly English, though he understood Spanish just fine and Dante was the opposite, speaking mainly Spanish until about a year ago.
What do they speak with each other?
Mostly English, actually, but there’s a lot of Spanish mixed in. Anyone who speaks just one language would be a bit lost listening to them play.
Do they get confused?
They don’t seem to! While the boys switch to the other language if they can’t think of a word, they can stick to just one language when necessary.
Do they know which is which?
This is a connection that Dante just made and Dorian has understood the difference for a year now, so it seems to happen around 3. Now they ask for movies in English or Spanish, depending on their mood and if they start speaking to a friend in Spanish, you can remind them “they speak English” and they’ll switch over.
Is their speech delayed?
Dorian was a very verbal child and started speaking at four months (in English), so it obviously didn’t affect him . . . but Dante was a bit behind until recently. From what I read, most kids are somewhat speech delayed when learning two languages from the get go, BUT they catch up very quickly, which is evident in all the kids I’ve seen.
We know one little boy who was raised trilingual and he didn’t speak until he was 3 . . . but you’d never know that now, he chatters away fluently!
How’s their vocabulary?
Well, Dante told me the other day, “You’re dispicable!” And they frequently refer to food as “delicious” or “disgusting”, so you tell me.
What are you going to do about school?
Since we’re homeschooling and I’m the teacher at the moment, we’re starting with English. Dorian is currently reading in English and by Grade 2-3, he will probably start reading and writing in Spanish, but we’re taking it as we go.
Any more questions?
Comments
9 Responses to “Raising Bilingual Kids”
Talk to Me, People!
Thanks for posting this. You answered so many questions that I have been wondering about, especially the part about knowing which words are which language. Wow speaking at 4M! I’m impressed!
Deja fully understands Spanish, but prefers to speak English. She was in for a surprise the first few days in Guate. In order to communicate with her cousins and grandparents, she had to speak Spanish. And she did, just fine. Each day, she spoke more and more Spanish, which was great. Because it is not her native language, she speaks broken Spanish at times, but is eager to learn the correct way to say it. I am happy that she is speaking more Spanish, and I feel that more time in Guate will do her good language wise and also family wise, spending more time with her cousins and very big family there. She really wasn’t ready to leave when we did-and I am hoping next year we’ll be there a month instead of 19 days. My son who also understands everything in Spanish, talks Spanglish to his dad (who is also Guatemalan and lives here in town) I find that they talk English but go into Spanish when he doesn’t want other people to know what he is talking about. His speech was delayed a bit being in a bilingual household, but he does just fine. Deja’s wasn’t delayed at all. I think it’s neat having bilingual kids, I was bilingual French and English before I started school and lost most of it because the teachers told me I was in America and had to speak English. I will be heading up to Quebec soon and although I understand my uncles pretty well, talking to them is a whole other issue! Your boys do great at both English and Spanish, I heard them talking both when you came to visit us in Antigua.
I am a nanny for an 11 year old boy who was raised in Canada by a Canadian father and a Mexican mother. Both parents speak Spanish fluently and even when they split up, the step father is also Mexican as well as their housekeeper who does not speak any English at all.
Instead of raising him bilingual, they decided to teach him only English as to not confuse him…and then teach him Spanish when he reached the age of 10. It kind of backfired on them though, because by ten, he had absolutly no desire to learn spanish and absolutly refuses to even try and learn it. I think its way better to teach it when they are babies, so that you don’t reach the point where it is too late. Even if it confuses them a little, its better for them in the long run. I’ve never heard of anyone complain about being bilingual.
I think this is great and you are such a good mom. I just love your blog.
Learning the word ‘despicable’ at that age is awesome. You’re in trouble.
Also, if you want to throw in another language, it’s possible! I learnt 8 languages growing up. My mother is half chinese, half native. My dad is a different native. So from the get go I spoke 3 languages. Add that to the national languages (Malay & English) and the regional language (Iban). Then because we live near the border to a neighbouring country, I also learnt to speak their languages (Kedayan) as it was widely spoken in town. Then we had Indonesian nannies and helpers so of course I ended up speaking Indonesian as well, though it wasn’t hard because Malay, Kedayan and Indonesian are closely related. Actually, I even speak 2 different chinese dialects: Standard Mandarin and the widely spoken Hokkien. Ironically, never learnt to speak Hakka (grandad’s original language) because he hardly speak that himself.
It wasn’t difficult at all because I was around these languages on a daily basis. My parents didn’t do much to, I just somehow learnt it. I’m not a unique case, it seems that everyone from my state learnt at least 3 languages growing up. Mainly because there’s a lot of interracial marriages.
I do find that I tend to forget certain words though now that I’m speaking English most times, even with my parents. So I guess using one dominant language can dilute the others.
This is wonderful information to share. There is so much misinformation out there about bilingualism. Your kids probably don’t know how lucky they are right now, but when they’re adults they’ll thank you!
There´s definitely a window of opportunity that seems to start closing around 7 or 8. If by that time you haven´t introduced the child to the other language, it´ll be difficult. (This is just from my own private observations.) I´ve tried speaking English with my children (now 10 and 11), but they get tired easily (because they tend to translate in their heads). If I had spoken only English to them and let everyone else speak Spanish, that wouldn´t have been a problem. The thing is, when it´s not your native language, as a mom, it´s kind of difficult to speak to your children in a language that isn´t the one spoken in your country. I´m really glad your boys are bilingual!! That´s a great advantage.
You’d never know it’s not your native language, Cristina, from the way you write! I’ve never met you, but I can imagine that your spoken English is just fine. Still, it would be very difficult to speak in another language! I would find it very difficult to speak Spanish only to the boys and that’s with living in Guatemala and speaking it to my husband!
Guatamala does not object, I guess, to homeschooling. Do you have to have the government monitoring you and such as in the USA? Also, I heard a friend of mine told me some people he knew gave up a good job and went to live in Uruguay and the government told them they couldn’t homeschool, forced them to enroll their child and also to give him vaccines.
That would be a real bummer, to leave one country for another, hoping for more freedom, and get less.
I’m wanting to relocate. The USA is getting too crazy. But I don’t want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.
Thanks for your great blog.