| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: How many languages does/do your child/children speak? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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maryblack 
United States
Local time: 02:03
Member (2013)
Spanish to English
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My daughter was raised in Catalonia until the age of 10, so she speaks Catalan, Spanish and English. Funnily enough, when we returned to the United States her teachers were afraid she might need bilingual ed - Spanish/English - since she had never used written English academically before. But although she's from Spain, Spanish is by far her weakest language since we spoke English at home and Catalan in the schools. Her Spanish came from the TV and friends who spoke it.
| | | | | Two... hopefully | Mar 7, 2011 |
My situation is similar to that of dasein_wm. My son is 3 1/2 and I'm the only English-speaker in his French environment - his Dad, step brother and sister, kindergarten and child-minder are all exclusively French-speaking.
My son doesn't speak English all that much yet, but he certainly understands everything and will drop English words into French sentences when speaking to me (but not when speaking to anyone else - he definitely knows the difference). When his (English) Grand... See more My situation is similar to that of dasein_wm. My son is 3 1/2 and I'm the only English-speaker in his French environment - his Dad, step brother and sister, kindergarten and child-minder are all exclusively French-speaking.
My son doesn't speak English all that much yet, but he certainly understands everything and will drop English words into French sentences when speaking to me (but not when speaking to anyone else - he definitely knows the difference). When his (English) Grandma doesn't understand what he wants to say, he'll find a way to express himself in English, although he may not be able to find the exact word. He'll take English books away from Daddy too, saying "No, Daddy, that's for Mummy to read, it's English"!
Interestingly, when he was a very tiny baby in an incubator (about a month old), the staff at the hospital found that he calmed down much more easily if they used the few English words they knew, rather than speaking to him in French!
I am completely determined to keep up the English input throughout my son's childhood, despite occasional opposition/criticism from other people. Apart from the enormous importance that English has for schooling and job prospects here, I really want him to be able to communicate properly with his Grandma, and the rest of my family and friends of course! I always speak English to him (even in French-speaking company, despite the fact that it could be considered rude, as it's just so important to me), and read, sing and play games in English, and he watches English DVDs too.
Learning to read is going to be the next interesting thing - we're at the "F for poisson" stage at the moment!
Time will tell of course whether my son ends up speaking English fluently, but I'll certainly keep doing all I can.
Edited for typo.
[Edited at 2011-03-07 12:31 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | jdf
Local time: 09:03
French to English
My children (aged 15 and 16) have both spoken english and french from the beginning. I speak english with them, but we live in France. They also have english lessons at school (about 1 hour per day from the age of 3) as they are in an international school. All their friends from school speak at least 2 languages, so they find this natural and are surprised to meet people who can only speak one language!
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We are a German-English family living in Austria.
My son will be 7 in June and he speaks both English and German. His German is a little bit better due to the fact that we live in Austria but still, his English is very good. He has never picked up an Austrian accent in German even though he was born here but he will use Austrian words.
My daughter is 3.5 years old and even though she understands everything in English she does not speak much English. But I am glad that ... See more We are a German-English family living in Austria.
My son will be 7 in June and he speaks both English and German. His German is a little bit better due to the fact that we live in Austria but still, his English is very good. He has never picked up an Austrian accent in German even though he was born here but he will use Austrian words.
My daughter is 3.5 years old and even though she understands everything in English she does not speak much English. But I am glad that she speaks as much as she does because she was a very late starter. I'm sure that in a few months she'll be talking English like her brother.
We have always read a lot with our children and that certainly helps the little ones a lot in feeling at home in a language.
We were also very strict in who speaks what language: I only speak German with my children (but will read in English) and my husband only speaks English with them. And my husband and I speak English with each other. And I couldn't imagine it any other way.
Take care ▲ Collapse
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| Never give up | Mar 7, 2011 |
Caroline said ''I am completely determined to keep up the English input throughout my son's childhood, despite occasional opposition/criticism from other people.''
I heard so many times: '' you're not in France, you have to speak dutch to your kids, at home too''
Yeah! As parent you have to hear many bad advices, but that's one of the worst! That's the best way to transmit to your children the bad habits you have in the foreign language(grammatica, gender, accent, etc...).... See more Caroline said ''I am completely determined to keep up the English input throughout my son's childhood, despite occasional opposition/criticism from other people.''
I heard so many times: '' you're not in France, you have to speak dutch to your kids, at home too''
Yeah! As parent you have to hear many bad advices, but that's one of the worst! That's the best way to transmit to your children the bad habits you have in the foreign language(grammatica, gender, accent, etc...).
My two boys (7 and 8) are fluent in dutch and french, but sometimes they don't know how to say thirty in french, of they use a dutch grammatica in a french sentence. But not so often now. And they really have not a problem at school with the programme.
I keep talking to them in french, I let them look at french tv programmes (thanks internet!!!) and they have a lot of french books that also exist in dutch so they can talk about it with their friends.
They had a periode they didn't want to talk french to me (around 4 / 6 years, when they started going to school). Then I didn't answer of gave them what they asked. Of I answer in english. I knew that they wanted to be just like their friends, but I needed they could communicate in french to share what a mother can share with her kids.
I think they now understand that language is just a way to communicate, not your identity! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alice Bootman
United States
Local time: 02:03
Spanish to English
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My three year old twins speak Spanish very well as they have it at pre-school, with the nanny and with my in-laws. They understand my English perfectly and often use English as well. I am sure that with time they will speak very good English too. I think they are still sorting out the languages, although they have recently added the words "Spanish" and "English" to their vocabulary - asking me how to say words in one language or the other - a good step, I think. They also know several words in Q... See more My three year old twins speak Spanish very well as they have it at pre-school, with the nanny and with my in-laws. They understand my English perfectly and often use English as well. I am sure that with time they will speak very good English too. I think they are still sorting out the languages, although they have recently added the words "Spanish" and "English" to their vocabulary - asking me how to say words in one language or the other - a good step, I think. They also know several words in Quechua, a native language of Bolivia, from their nanny and my in-laws, and randomly throw them into everyday speech! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Alex Lago
Spain
Local time: 09:03
English to Spanish
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| Trlingual - Spanish, English & Catalan | Mar 7, 2011 |
Both my children grew up speaking both English & Spanish, my wife is English and in my case my mother is English & my father is Spanish so I also grew up speaking both languages.
Then when they started primary school at 6 because we live in Mallorca they got their schooling in Spanish & Catalan, so they both speak Catalan fluently as well.
They are now 13 and 11.
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I am still 19, so I don't have any children and would like to keep it that way until I finish my studies and get settled down. However, as most parents share their passions with their children, I would love them to have the same opportunities as I did - I am trilingual since I remember. As I would like to emmigrate to a Commonwealth country, I think English and Portuguese should be a minimum.
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| I don't have children but... | Mar 7, 2011 |
I don't have any children yet but I am really passionate about this subject! I feel strongly that, if it is possible to bring up a child to speak another language/s as well as his/her mother tongue then this is a really fantastic oportunity for him/her to not only become bi (or even tri) lingual but also to gain a real insight into another culture.
I am in a same nationality relationship and both my partner and I would always prefer to speak our mother tongue (English) to our (futur... See more I don't have any children yet but I am really passionate about this subject! I feel strongly that, if it is possible to bring up a child to speak another language/s as well as his/her mother tongue then this is a really fantastic oportunity for him/her to not only become bi (or even tri) lingual but also to gain a real insight into another culture.
I am in a same nationality relationship and both my partner and I would always prefer to speak our mother tongue (English) to our (future) child/children as it conveys so much about us and who we are. Nonetheless, I really really hope to be able to pass on a love of French/Italian and languages in general through holidays, language clubs etc etc!
As part of my dissertation I translated a really excellent book called:
LE DEFI DES ENFANTS BILINGUES by Barbara Abdelilah-Bauer
I think in Italian it's called:
IL BAMBINO BILINGUE
and in German:
ZWEISPRACHIG AUFWACHSEN
As far as I know it hasn't been published in English - I am still trying to work out who to send my English version to! (Any suggestions gratefully received! ).
Good luck to all! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Children are amazing.... | Mar 7, 2011 |
1) I am Albanian, my husband is Italian so there you go - two right here, fairly well;
2- They attend an American International school so actually their real language is English, (they reason, count, think and play in English), where
3) They take Spanish and they are pretty good at it. But it is not all.....
3) We are now in Romania (we move to another country every 4-5 years) and they both speak but do not write Romanian. Their Russian (we were in Ukraine before) is disappear... See more 1) I am Albanian, my husband is Italian so there you go - two right here, fairly well;
2- They attend an American International school so actually their real language is English, (they reason, count, think and play in English), where
3) They take Spanish and they are pretty good at it. But it is not all.....
3) We are now in Romania (we move to another country every 4-5 years) and they both speak but do not write Romanian. Their Russian (we were in Ukraine before) is disappearing now and they can only say very few words.
They speak and are exposed to these languages daily and they do not seem to suffer or to be confused at all.
In fact, when we go somewhere where they do not speak the local language they start shooting one after the other the languages they speak. Its so fascinating to see how they swoop from one language to another without any difficulty, being exposed to so many nationalities and languages at the school with their friends. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 01:03
English to Spanish
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In memoriam | English & Spanish | Mar 7, 2011 |
My only daughter, age 28, speaks both English & Spanish. Spanish has always been the language of our household and English was the language at school. We live in a border community where being bilingual is very necessary and it is the norm for most kids growing up here.
| | | | | Born interpreters! | Mar 7, 2011 |
Michael Harris wrote:
Our youngest even translates from Hungarian to the other languages for those who cannot speak Hungarian, it is amazing how they can sort out the languages and actively use them
I recently visited Austrian friends who are bringing up their children as bilingual French and German. The oldest girl, who is five, was my interpreter for the week!
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Anja Green (X)
United States
Local time: 02:03
English to German
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My daughter just turned 4 and she speaks German and English. We follow the OPOL approach with me speaking to her in German and her dad (along with the rest of the country) speaking to her in English.
Her German is excellent, better than her English actually, and (as teachers and friends tell us whenever we're in Germany) even better than many of her German peers. I like to think that the massive amount of reading and the non-stop talking about anything and everything we do has a lot... See more My daughter just turned 4 and she speaks German and English. We follow the OPOL approach with me speaking to her in German and her dad (along with the rest of the country) speaking to her in English.
Her German is excellent, better than her English actually, and (as teachers and friends tell us whenever we're in Germany) even better than many of her German peers. I like to think that the massive amount of reading and the non-stop talking about anything and everything we do has a lot to do with it, but who knows what really did the trick. Maybe she just inherited my knack for language(s) ▲ Collapse
| | | | GingerR
Local time: 09:03
English to Polish
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According to my husband and me (both native Polish speakers), our 4 year old son speaks one language, i.e. Polish, but from time to time he is exposed to some English.
According to our son, he speaks many...
We sometimes speak English as "secret language" at home. He has some tales in English and we read them to him (or rather do an ad hoc interpreting into Polish) ... See more According to my husband and me (both native Polish speakers), our 4 year old son speaks one language, i.e. Polish, but from time to time he is exposed to some English.
According to our son, he speaks many...
We sometimes speak English as "secret language" at home. He has some tales in English and we read them to him (or rather do an ad hoc interpreting into Polish)
Then, out of a blue sky, but in the right context, our little one would say: you gotta be kidding!
Or I hear him talk with his grandma (Polish): Grandma, you do not speak English? Ok, I will read this one to you....
Or he would ask me: Mommy, how do you say it in Russian?
Or, like yesterday: Mom, I will read this to you, as I know French. Listen....
And of course, he speaks many invented languages. If he uses the word I am not too happy to hear I ask him what does he mean. And he would say: it means "I like you" in Frenglish (for example). ▲ Collapse
| | | | | English-Russian-Ukrainian | Mar 7, 2011 |
I have a son.
His name is Ilia.
He speaks English, Russian and—
—Ukrainian (at the lessons of Ukrainian mostly).
Isn't it ironic that we practically don't use Ukrainian in everyday life living in Ukraine?
Best wishes to existing and prospective mothers and fathers! (:
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