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Raising a bilingual child

post #1 of 6
1/13/10 at 1:59pm
Thread Starter 
Hi, I'm British and my wife is Japanese. We are trying to raise our son to speak both languages. I'd like to know if anyone else has had this experience and if you have any good tips/advice?

Many thanks,
Lewis
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post #2 of 6
1/13/10 at 2:51pm

Re: Raising a bilingual child

to Baby U! I do not have personal experience in this area. However, my cousin is American and her husband is Mexican. She spoke to the children only in English, while he spoke to them only in Spanish. The children (now all adults) are fluent in both languages. It did seem to cause confusion for the kids when they were really small. I don't know how other people achieve this, but this is what they did and it worked for all three kids.
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post #3 of 6
1/14/10 at 6:29pm

Re: Raising a bilingual child

My mom had a friend who hired a spanish speaking nanny for his children. She was with them for years. Both of them are fluent in Spanish and English (he is mexican, but doesn't speak it much and he wanted the kids to be fluent). The nany didn't speak much English, so she only spoke Spanish to the kids and he spoke English to them.
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post #4 of 6
1/22/10 at 12:16am

Re: Raising a bilingual child

When I was young my mom and her friends spoke to me in korean and my dad spoke to me in english. Now I am pretty good at both languages lol. My 11 month old knows mostly korean words and he is a quarter korean!!!
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post #5 of 6
3/18/10 at 8:28pm

Re: Raising a bilingual child

My niece's mother is Mexican and her spouse is Greek American. The mother speaks primarily in Spanish about 80% of the time. She is almost 6 years old and understands just about everything her mother says. She speaks fairly well but like most people understands more than she can speak. I think its wonderful to learn different languages at an early age. Good luck to you.
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post #6 of 6
6/1/10 at 11:46pm

Re: Raising a bilingual child

When I was 3 years old I use to be able to speak 3 languages. I could speak English, Vietnamese and Tagalog. The problem occur when my father stop speaking Tagalog and mom Vietnamese to me. It took me awhile to learn Tagalog and I am starting to learn how to speak Vietnamese again. Parents must continue to speak to their children in their native language always. Let your child watch Japanese anime in Japanese language when your child is older. I suggest that when your child is old enough to travel, bring her or him to Japan to be more acquainted with the culture as well.


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