Teaching Children a Foreign Language

[carron81]

Hi

When is the best time to teach a child a foreign language?

I had a friend whos mother was british and father was from Iran. She was brought up speaking both languages from birth but as she got older she never had any need to speak her fathers language and she now cant speak it.

I'm due a baby any day now and I'd like her to learn spanish as my dad has a house out there and will be retiring there soon. So we'll be having lots of holidays there.

[andrea81]

I speak Welsh and my husband can only speak English, as my son was going to a Welsh school, I began speaking Welsh to him from Birth. They don't get confused, they just accept it!

Important thing to remember is not to actively 'teach' your child i.e. This is an apple (obviously in Spanish) best way is to just call it an apple in conversation! A child needs to be immersed in the language. If they hear it, they will pick it up!

I'm a teacher by trade so have taught bilingual children, they will pick it up quicker than you think! good luck x x

[ladyalex]

Friends of mine are Polish and English. They each spoke exclusively in their own language to their children, quite normally and natrually and the children were perfectly bi-lingual.
It didn't seem to be difficult at all.

[itarahman]

Hi, andrea81, Like you, i speaks my language that is malay n english my hubby speaks more swedish, as we hv a year old dotter i hv to speaks 3 languages now, swedish, english n malay, mom cannot speaks english she speaks malay n so do my mom in law she speaks swedish do you think my baby will confused with the languages course sometimes she did response to what i said..or shall i tell my hubby to take one language at the time...