Schooling

[honeydip]

Schooling in different languages. Our little ones are in an International School and its a bit strange. Monday and Thursday they are taught in French and Tuesday and Friday they are taught in a laungage of your choice (we chose portugese). They have Wednesday off. We are just a bit worried if this system is any good or not for their education. They are both now speaking English and French with bits or portugese but is this detrimental to how much they will learn about 1 language? I have met people before who speak 4 languages but none of them very well. We are contemplating taking them out and putting them in a standard French school because of this.

[Mosaic]

I have only ever seen benefit from multilingual upbringings, and I think your children have a splendid opportunity by being taught this way. You do not describe much about the backgrounds of your friends who (as adults?) are disadvantaged in 4 languages - but I'm suspecting that they have lacked complete cultural immersion, perhaps for family reasons, rather than language diversity having alienated them.
Sadly I see this happening in the region of England I live in, where non-English speaking parents fail to integrate with mainstream British culture, and raise children who through lack of immersion fail to grasp idiom and nuance in english language.
But if you are speaking English at home, and living good social lives in a French-speaking country, I can only see good coming of it.
Let them teach you the Portuguese words you do not know - they'll love doing that.

[FredPuli43]

You don't say what languages you two have as mother tongues; have you French or Portuguese; but children aren't impeded by being bilingual from exposure to and immersion in two languages or more.My daughter was at international school from 4.Her best friend in class started with no English but was trilingual by 5, because her parents had different mother tongues;French, which both parents used, and her mother's Danish. There were similar stories elsewhere in the school and, of course, bilingual was normal.

Children taught in this way know to think in all their languages and have no difficulty seeing them as separate; I have witnessed a nine year old, in a restaurant, conducting conversations in three languages at once, changing only for whoever spoke last, and all without missing a beat. The adults were switching languages too.

Adults who learn may never acquire this facility.

[honeydip]

Sorry yes. Mother tongue is English really. our kids are 5 and 3 and its mind bogling to me that they can do this.

[Old_Geezer]

From what I have read it tends to be benificial. Unsure if there are counter issues also though. I think it would have driven me nuts had I had to do it, since I never got on with languages; but caught early enough I guess kids cope ok. I don't think you need worry.

[joko]

language is supposedly learnt properly by exposure and practice rather than loads of schoolroom lessons.

[atalanta]

Only extremely intelligent children will be able to cope with 5 or more languages simultaneously. Less bright children will still cope well with 2, but you may find that a third language will be understood well, but not spoken well.
I once knew a child whose parents tried to bring her up speaking 6 languages - she wasn't that bright, so she ended up with the usual amount of vocabulary which a child of 13 would know, but spread over 6 languages. She mixed up these languages and got very confused. So did people listening to her. So - there are limits. 2 or 3 languages - fine, but try to keep them to separate contexts.

[boxtops]

Youngsters pick up language very quickly, our Asian friends' children are easily bilingual. Interesting that yours are learning Portuguese though - is Spain not nearer to you, on the French border?

[NOX]

My little girl who lives in Germany speaks German and English roughly equally as her mother tongues, Russian ( from her step father) and is learning quite well some Irish Gaelic from me and also some Icelandic and Scots Gaelic from her mother's new boyfriend. She appears to have no issues with any amount of languages. My wife has a set of younger twins one of whom is the same as my older daughter and has no issues and one who does indeed mix it all up together, so it might very well be as Atlanta suggests that some kids have issues with lots of languages and some kids don't.

[coccinelle]

Hi honeydip; I know a family whose kids speak American English, Italian and French. At first the kids sometimes mixed up the English and italian as they were spoken by their Mum. Later, by just being in an Italian environment they understood the difference. As the French and Portugese are being used at different times and their friends no doubt speak French they'll be fine with it. Sometimes it's the spelling of words which can they throw them so need to read as much as they can.

[coccinelle]

which can throw them ; désolée!

[honeydip]

Thanks for the answers. From the sounds of it will have to wait and see then and let them both give it a go.

[magsmay]

happy birthday to your eldest honeydip -he was 4 yesterday...today he's 5. I do not believe a single word of what you are saying about your children at 3 and 5 being taught in 3 languages -and I have 5 years experience of living in France with children and have taught at an International primary school in Paris when I was at Uni . My children were taught in French and spoke English at home and in French International schools French is the common language. Perhaps you can post a link to the school they are in that offers to teach your child in 'a language of your choice' -perhaps Klingon could be a good choice. Why you are posting these bizarre questions beats me but at least do some research beforehand BTW -how is your all over body fungal infection doing?