Can your child be bilingual if you aren't?
By cutepenguin
@cutepenguin (6431)
Canada
August 26, 2012 11:51am CST
I learned some Japanese in high school and we are thinking about trying to teach our son Japanese. He might be a bit too old to start, but he's not getting younger, so we figure we'll start now and send him to Japanese preschool when he hits preschool age.
How do you handle teaching your child another language? (especially if you aren't both fluent in it...we haven't spoken anything other than English in over a decade).
1 person likes this
12 responses
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
4 Sep 12
You child can be anything, including bilingual even if you aren't. That is the whole of societies providing free education. Until your child starts preschool you can purchase learning toys and other items geared toward language learning for him. You can also use these things to practice and be able to speak the Japanese with him.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
5 Sep 12
Well, Japanese school won't be free, :)
But I met a woman who wants me to help her practice her English so she will help me with my Japanese and that will help.
@lynboobsy11 (11343)
• Philippines
27 Aug 12
You can both try to learn over the net, they are some site that offers language learning with voice for you can hear the accent and how it pronounce. Sure you can teach and do it together while he is learning from the school and you from online.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
I've been watching youtube videos and have shown my son a couple of Japanese children's shows. The internet does have a lot of resources for this.
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
27 Aug 12
My kids are both bilingual, yet I am far from being so. My eldest is now learning a third language.
Both could have another language by now as well, if my partner had spoken to them in his own first language from an earlier stage. Unfortunately he didn't as I don't understand it, and now is probably a little late to start.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
That's pretty cool. My partner doesn't speak Japanese, so I'm teaching him some so he can catch up to where I am.
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
5 Sep 12
Honestly, while there should be time each day for him to practice Japanese outside of Preschool, he should also be speaking English as well. If he's still young enough to be in preschool, I mean you don't want him to forget the english he's already learned. I say English should be the main thing he learns at home, but with practice on the side. You can see about creating "courses" for him, little lessons and activities that will be fun and that he can expand on as his understanding of the language increases.
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
6 Sep 12
Actually, care needs to be taken so that he doesn't get confused and start using Japanglish. It is not uncommon for schools to treat a child as ESL when the parents are from a different culture. If he lives in an English speaking community and is "social" he won't forget what he has learned. Kids know a lot of words before you ever realize what they are saying; it's concepts they need help with.
@myfb2009 (8296)
• Malaysia
28 Aug 12
Hi Cute, as for myself i can speak in a few types of languages apart from my own mother tongue language. I started to teach my son Chinese language since from the age of 4 and he is doing fine now. He can speak quite well, only writing still need time to practice to make it perfect. I think we should begin to teach our children at home the basic knowledge of the new language if we really wants them to get to know another new language. Hope your son will start to get to know more about that new language from you soon.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
I hope so too. I'm not going to worry about writing for awhile - he's still at the crayon stage so still too young. I'll do a bit so that he won't be completely confused in his classes.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
28 Aug 12
Some of the elementary schools in our county offer a Spanish Immersion Program. This is something that the children have to start when they are in Kindergarten and it is a program that goes through 12th Grade.
My Kindergartener stated with the SIP this year in hopes that he will have the opportunity to be bilingual. Now, neither my husband or myself are bilingual, but I do speak some Spanish. I do believe that having programs like this are something that does make it possible for a child to be bilingual despite the fact that their parents are not.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
Here there are French Immersion programs, but everyone who wants their child to go into this program enters their name and it's done by lottery, so there is no guarantee of getting in.
For Japanese, there are a few schools and community centre programs. Children end up going on weekends or after school. We're going to start our son in the preschool, which is really just regular preschool in Japanese, and then figure out our options once he reaches school age.
I just sent an email to someone about doing a language exchange for myself - I help her practice her English and she helps me practice my Japanese. There were a couple of posters up, so if she doesn't respond I will try another person.
@KrauseHome (36447)
• United States
5 Jan 13
Well, it is often hard to teach someone a language they are not familiar with, but many people are able to learn it all the time, and there are many who can speak a language that their parents cannot. I know a little French, but forgotten most of it, and know enough Spanish to almost get by, but my main language is English for sure.
@angelwithkids (1256)
• United States
26 Aug 12
that's a good strategy! my children had to take foreign languages in high school in order to graduate. you can do what i did with them, learn together. my daughter took spanish and my son took chinese. i'm not fluent in both but i've learned a few phrases and when the kids want to tell me something without dad knowing, we'll talk in the other language. ;) it's cool!
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
I'm hoping to learn it ahead of him by practicing while he's asleep. once he goes to school, though, I think he'll quite quickly be ahead of me.
@jaiho2009 (39141)
• Philippines
27 Aug 12
Learning other language is indeed a good idea.
I don't know any other languages aside from my mother tongue and English.
But my daughter is learning Italian language as her choice.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
I did a bit of Italian in high school. But I think that's my problem - I did a little bit of a lot of things so I really can only speak one language, English.
@AdalieM (1134)
• United States
5 Jan 13
Yes, your child can be bilingual if you aren't. I have many friends who can speak German even though their parents are not German. The reason why they learned was because they went to school with many German kids, here in the USA and they taught each other to speak German and English. I don't have any kids, but if I did, I probably would send them to school to learn many languages or buy them a program to learn. I heard that Rosetta is pretty good.
@vanessa11 (296)
• Philippines
26 Aug 12
"Practice makes it perfect"
Start by practicing at home, try to talk to your son in japanese language or I mean teach him few simple words per day. And once he's in Japanese school, his knowledge on the language will improve as the month/year passed by. And if he's into it, then he'll probably get into it. GoodLuck.
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 12
Well, I'm trying. It's tricky because he already knows a lot of English, so he just tells me the word in English. But you're right - if I keep practicing with him, he'll be able to use it at school.
@heaytheblogger (2876)
• Philippines
29 Dec 12
Well this is pretty much possible, most especially when you engage or enroll your child in special classes such as foreign language classes. It also helps when you train your kid in learning a new language at a very young age. He/she will develop acquiring a new learnt language as he/she progresses and grows.
