Comments on: Multilingual Parenting

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 29 May 2011 15:11:50 +0000

Hi,

I was just surfing the internet how to learn Swedish through easy radio programs. I guess I have found a couple from your blog so thank you.

I can’t help but notice that you have quite a multicultural background and I am glad to see someone who really respects the importance of multiculturalism and multilingualism.

If you haven’t come across, the book titled “The Language Imperative” is an excellent source where you can find everything about language. It has a dedicated chapter where it talks about childhood language learning so I hope that might give you a few ideas as to how you can bring your child to be multilingual.

Have a good day.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:27:39 +0000

So how goes it? (I hope that the fact you haven’t posted about this challenge lately doesn’t mean you’ve abandoned your quest.)

I would like to invite you and your readers who are also raising kids with more than one language to visit my blog, Bringing up Baby Bilingual, where I write about being a non-native speaker of the language I use (exclusively) with my son and my nephew (it’s French).

Periodically, I post profiles of other bi/multilingual families, and I would be delighted to include you all! If anyone is interested, please take a look at what I’ve already published (click on the label “profiles” in my sidebar) and email me at babybilingual (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thanks!

By: angel

angel — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:55:38 +0000

I only have my own experience to speak from but if each parents speaks to the child in their own lanaguage then the kid will pick them both up without any trouble. My mum used to and still talks to us in english only and my dad in arabic only, and me and bros and sisters are fluent in both. Now im learning Japanese ;)

By: Japanese and Swedish Peek-a-boo | babelhut.com

Japanese and Swedish Peek-a-boo | babelhut.com — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 14:41:55 +0000

[...] mentioned before that I’m raising my son to be multilingual in English, Japanese and Swedish. That’s changed a little bit as Swedish is becoming too [...]

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:22:48 +0000

Yay! I’ll be so interested to see how your multi-lingual parenting goes! I’m trying to expose my kids (age 3 & 6) to as many languages as I can. I speak French, so that’s what they hear the most. But we’ll casually listen to a Chinese dvd here, or dance to Spanish music there. Still blows me away how my kids absorb language so much faster than I do! Our household, family, neighborhood, etc. are monolingual, so I feel it’s crucial to do what I can. They are in no way bilingual yet, but I hope I’m instilling a positive and curious attitude toward languages. And we’re having a lot of fun. I’m adding you to my blogroll & I’ll check in often :-)

By: Brett

Brett — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:44:25 +0000

Thomas, it’s great to hear you want to blog about your experience in multilingual parenting. It’s a topic that really grows, if you’ll pardon the pun!

My son Reno (2 years and 8 months) and daughter Noa (8mths) were both born in Japan, their mum speaks no English and we are currently living in Australia. We speak Japanese at home and I speak English to my kids only when we have one to one face time.

We have been here only a couple of months, and I know when the kids start going to day care next year they’ll have no trouble picking things up quickly.

The next language I’d like to learn is French, family on my mothers side has French heritage, and I’m really interested in the culture.

@bkzk7188 I’m really interested to why you’d only want to speak Japanese to your kids, when it’s not your native language and you speak others as well. Are you in Japan? Are you married to Japanese? Just curious.

By: bkzk7188

bkzk7188 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:35:03 +0000

As a Swede, I’m happy to hear that you’re interested in Swedish. How come? Here’s some translations to get you started, except for the idiomatic “What a big boy you are”:

Look at the flower. – Titta på blomman.
This is a monkey. – Det här är en apa.
Let’s eat some carrots. Open your mouth. – Ska vi äta lite morötter? Öppna munnen.

By the way, I was born and raised in Sweden by Spanish parents and two years ago I passed JLPT 1 after a couple of years studying Japanese. Together with English this makes me more or less fluent in four languages, but I’ve been planning to speak only Japanese to my future kids. I’d love to be persuaded otherwise though!

By: Goddess Carlie

Goddess Carlie — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:15:14 +0000

That is awesome. I’m very interested to hear how it goes. I don’t have children yet, but I do want to raise multilingual children. I will be happy if all I achieve is an appreciation and a desire to learn languages.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:11:03 +0000

To answer your other question. I myself is working on all 5 languages, and I will always be on the upper-hand. The only language that I might fall behind from my daughter is English. But I am foreseeing that this will not happen at least until she becomes a teenager.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:03:00 +0000

I know it is tough. In fact, the only language that we are confident on our daughter is English. She communicates mostly in Cantonese now, but we anticipate that her English will overtake her Cantonese in a few years time.

As for French, as we live in Canada, the kids will be exposed to French in school. However, there is a high failing rate. The problem is to keep them interested. So my current goal is to expose French to my daughter. She does not need to learn it at this stage.

As for Mandarin, here in Toronto, I can get her exposed to real people speaking Mandarin. In fact, one of her best friends at school speak the language. This way, she would attach better to the language.

Spanish is a bonus at this stage, but I still want to expose the language to her without forcing her to learn it. She enjoys very much watching TV programs such as Dora the Explorer.

I think the main idea is language expose. How you do it does not matter much.