Raising Children bilingual

This is a really tricky decision! Hubby and I considered doing something like this with our daughter to sort of give her a leg up, especially since there's a large Hispanic population in this area and Spanish is a good language to know. I talked to my former Spanish (and French) teacher, though, who did raise her oldest son to be bilingual, and it just didn't work out well, so she cautioned against it. Unless it's a language that they are regularly exposed to outside of the house and using, they'll likely lose it. She taught her son English and Spanish, but when he went to school and found out that his friends only spoke English, he didn't make the effort to keep up with the Spanish, and by the time he took it in high school he didn't remember anything at all. Which was a bit disappointing for her, but at least she learned the lesson well with the other kids. xD

Where I live our children easily learn three or four languages. My husband and I speak different languages. Our children have learned to speak both and the other languages they learn in school too. My husband speak seven languages.. I can manage four. that's about it.

My niece (who is English) married a chap who was brought up bilingually and speaks Spanish and English equally fluently. From before the time their daughter could talk, they talked to her equally in Spanish and English (mostly my niece spoke English and her husband spoke Spanish). Laura grew up speaking both languages and had little or no trouble switching between the two, depending on who she was speaking to. At school and to her Grandmother she spoke Spanish and at home (and later on at University in England) she spoke English. As a result, she speaks both languages absolutely perfectly without a trace of accent (as does her father). I think that if you begin with a child when they are very young, they have no problem speaking two or more languages quite naturally. It seems to be after about the age of 6 or 7 that the linguistic part of the brain 'crystallizes' and we then have to learn a new language in a different way which is more 'intellectual' and more difficult.

Oh I think that's better if they are bilingual. More job opportunities and knowledge acquisition in the future! But what is your native language? Is it also German? I think it is good to teach them English, if they don't want to learn it on their own in the future then that is of course up to them. At least you gave them other options.

I used to speak to my son in Spanish, even though we are not a bilingual household. I don't think he picked up any of it, but there was little reinforcement. However, he is interested in languages as I study many of them and is teaching himself Dutch while taking Spanish in school. I think the important languages to learn right now are English, Chinese and Russian.

My husband is Anglophone (English-Speaking) and I'm bilingual (English and French). I was raised in both language. As we live in Canada, I think it's a good thing to have both. We're raising our kids in both English and French. It is a part of them. I think it's good for them to learn more than one language. As your husband has some German, it can't hurt for them to learn some German. But that's just me.

I think this is an awesome idea! It is a great cultural experience that children can learn. I wanted to teach my daughter Spanish, but I forgot most of it from my years.

I experienced that myself. I started to talk my first words using 3 languages, because I've heard around me German, Hungarian and Romanian languages, depending who has spoken with me. I think it was an advantage for me in the next years, but I think also it needs native talent to be able to learn so much languages. I see nowadays parents forcing kids to learn foreign languages, even they are not talented in that regard. Everyone has his or her special skills, and the parent must focus on those skills of their children.

that is a great idea. In our country, children are bilingual. not all bust most children. it is their advantage if they will learn english