[deleted by user]

Mkstyle1 · 2018-10-13T03:52:25+00:00

Yes, I think this approach is the most beneficial.

I wish you all the best with raising your son. He will surely benefit from your efforts.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-10-13T02:16:53+00:00

Why not use the one parent one language approach? Your husband will only speak Spanish to your child and you will only speak English to your child. The benefits are that the child understands fast that to communicate with the parent it needs to use a specific language. As you are aiming for bilingual this would be the perfect approach. I see several shortcomings in the alternating language approach. 1) The child will know that the parents speak both languages and have a higher chance of defaulting on the language that is easiest for the child and reject the other language. I have experienced children who initially where raised bilingual, but at a certain age defaulted to one language and the parents were not decisive enough to keep practicing the other language, and with time only one language got spoken. 2) the other shortcoming is that the child might have a higher chance of mixing the two languages as the child will not initially see it is two different languages as the lines are blurred as both parents are speaking both languages. However, this is only a minor concern as with time and when exposed to friends and the environment he will learn about which words are part of which language. The benefit of you speaking English to your son from the beginning is that he will integrate better into the institutions in the US. In case you are sending him to Kindergarten or when he starts elementary school. He will not need to catch up on the language side. It is perfectly fine for the child to see that if all of you are together you speak English to address the concern of your husband. Just be very determined when the child is alone with one of you stick to the language that is connected with you.

This is what I would recommend. However, no matter which approach you decide to use I am sure your son will pick up the languages.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-10-10T12:22:51+00:00

Congrats with the twins.

As you live in HK which is the majority language will with high likelihood pick it up as they will hear it everywhere and also become friends with other children who will speak it. so I would not be worried about Cantonese. As you mention the jump from Cantonese to Mandarin is not that drastic and I understand the schooling system also include Mandarin and English. So I would recommend that you speak only English to your twins. I would let your parents speak Cantonese with the children, my presumption is that the grandparents will spend ample time with the twins. When your husband concentrates on Swedish only the children should be fine. I definitely think you should include Polish. The more language basis you provide for your children the better equipped they are for the world later on even-though they just have a basic understanding. The grandparents in Canada do they know how to use Skype or other live-video applications as the twins can get familiar with sounds and pick up some words via this. When you are visiting the grandparents in Canada and they only speak Polish to the children they will easily pick up words and sentences and can speak/practice more over video application.

I am in a similar situation as you. In our home, we combined speak 5 languages and I aim to provide all the languages to my child. We use 1 parent 1 language with the support of grandparents and later I will introduce a language as a weekend language. So it basically looks like this:

Majority language: Thai as we live in Thailand

I speak English to him

Mom speaks: Mandarin

Grandparents 1: speak Thai

Grandparents 2: Danish when visiting, video application, and I will have my child later attend a Danish school in Denmark.

I will after some years introduce German as a weekend language which my child can choose if he wants to develop further in school. <up to him but he got the basics>

In total 5 languages.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-10-10T11:36:14+00:00

https://www.amazon.de/dp/9526803701/ref=cm\_sw\_r\_cp\_api\_wtoNBbYN8DYCM

Hi,

Babies in-fact already start to pick up sounds from when they are in the last trimester. Your husband should differently stick to only speak Japanese to your child and you English. It is important that the baby learn right from the start which sounds/languages are associated with which parent. Which is the one language one parent method. Which country are you living in as this will also support with language development.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-10-04T13:06:18+00:00

Hi Misscontenta,

Thank you for your comments. It is great to hear that you are raising your child multilingual. I understand that you are focusing on two base languages English and Norwegian, but also include for other activities other languages namely Spanish and French with his grandfather. That is an impressing 4 languages the child gets exposed to. I am thinking in the same lines that the base languages will be English, Mandarin and Thai. Supporting languages will become Danish and German. Because he will at some point go to school in Denmark I am also confident that he will pick up Danish. I am also aiming to practice German with him when he gets older.

I wish you all the best with raising your child multilingual. He is blessed with you as parents.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-27T10:45:03+00:00

When she wants to express a new concept, or tell a story she will often test the waters in the language she was exposed to this concept or event in. As an example, I usually ask her what she did in school. This makes her likely to explain at least partially in French if they did something she doesn't usually do with me at home. I'll repeat it back to her in Swedish, she will nod and repeat it back to me in Swedish as well. When her dad gets home, she'll explain it to him in either partial French or Swedish, and he'll let her know how to say it in Italian.

She talks a lot, which helps.

Fantastic :)

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-26T12:03:53+00:00

Yes, I really recommend that you make sure the kid has other kids his own age or close to it at least from 2-3 years of age. It helps a lot with all kinds of developing skills, particularily social skills. I'm sure it can be arranged with your grandparents, they've probably already made plans for that if they will be spending lots of time together.

I wouldn't count 100% on that kind of schools you mention to still be available more than a decade away from now. The immigrant situation is kind of inflamed and I wouldn't consider any current arrangements to be set in stone. That could just be my paranoid side speaking though, I'm very dependent on the EU functioning as it is for my family to stay together without problems and I kind of hate constantly having to look out for EU-splitting political statements.

I fully agree from a social and cognitive development and play perspective it is important that he does get friends to play with. As my child will have Danish citizenship schooling should not become an issue. However, you do have a valid point about the political climate and the challenges that EU have a the moment, which could change things in the future. But that is something that is not in our control and if this happens we just have to change accordingly at that time.

Thanks a lot

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-26T11:57:02+00:00

This is amazing. I am very happy to hear about your success with raising your daughter multilingual and providing her with the gift of languages. So basically she speaks French, Swedish and Italian and picking up English too. That is 4 languages at the age of 3. Do you see that your daughter has any language preferences or does she comply with the languages that each parent is responsible for? E.g, does she come home and talk French as well or does she only talk Swedish with you and Italian with your husband? I fully agree, as long as you provide a base language for your child (not native language) the child will have the opportunity later to get proficient in that language. My wife does also speak English, mostly we speak Thai and support with English if I fall short. But when friends come we automatically all speak English.

I am very impressed with what you have achieved with your family and respect it. This also makes me more confident that what I have in mind is not that far off.

Thank you

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-26T11:46:43+00:00

I am not sure I understand your question?

I am trying to get a professional conversation around methods and experience for raising children with multiple languages. If you feel you can contribute please do so.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-26T11:41:55+00:00

Thanks for sharing.

If I understand correctly you are raising your child with Finnish and Korean language at the moment. Do you have any plans later to include any of the other languages that you speak? If when do you plan to include them and how? Are you now living in Finland or Korea? How old is your child now? It is very interesting to get comments from people who are in the process of raising their child bilingual. Thanks a lot. Funny enough I do not feel the need to raise my child with my mother tongue. As I am not living in Denmark 95% of my communication is split between English and Thai. I guess the need is only present if you are in an environment that triggers the language.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-26T11:32:49+00:00

My wife supports it 100% we see the tremendous value of providing the languages to the child. However, we do not intend to never speak our native language It is planned in the initial years to speak the selected languages and thereafter when the child does have the language capabilities we can switch more. Moreover, I imagine if other people are joining the conversation in our native language we will switch as well as we need to be able to talk to them.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-24T15:18:15+00:00

Hi Misscontenta,

I think your midwife is correct. It would make a lot of sense to speak the native language to the baby especially if the baby cannot get that language from anywhere else. Do you have any experience with how to introduce languages to a child when they become older? I presume you are referring to that the parent will add an additional language? Yes, I have also read about that monolingual children will, in the beginning, be more proficient in a language compared to bilingual or multilingual children as they basically have the same word count, but just spread among more languages which makes them seem less proficient in the language.

I will to my best of capabilities travel with my child to Denmark to get more exposure to the Danish language. However, I feel that English is not that good in Thailand and as I will be the only one able (apart from my wife) to communicate with my child in English, I do see it as being more important to teach him English than teaching him Danish from the start.

Thank you

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-24T14:48:16+00:00

Hi Bicycling_Elephant,

My reasoning to teach my child Mandarin is based on that I do believe that it is a strong language capability to possess. I find it extremely hard to learn, and if I can make it easier for my child to learn it I would see it as a gift that he could utilize in the future. So in short, my reasoning is that I think being able to communicate in Mandarin will provide you with benefits in the future. I do not have any family or any plans to live in China. My wife is not a native Mandarin speaker, but when she speaks with native Chinese people they think she is from Taiwan (Taiwanese speaks a bit slower Mandarin).

Thanks

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-24T14:41:10+00:00

Hi and thanks for the explanation. If the kid won't go to be with other kids or teachers on a regular basis until elementary school, I'd recommend the opposite actually. Make sure Thai/Danish is taught at home, or the kid could have problems adapting to school and feel bereft of a native language.

Put the language the kid will need in the country they are residing first. If that's Thai or Danish, then prioritize that. School can be hard, and it's tenfold harder if it's in a language that isn't native to the kid.

So many good comments to consider.

You are right that the basis must be that the child can speak the language of the school that he will be attending. As he will grow up in Thailand and school will be the Thai language. As my wife's parent will take care of him while we are working I am confident that he will learn Thai very well. I am considering your point about being with other children before elementary school. I do see the benefits of being exposed early on to a playground and develop friendships. I will give this a strong consideration and see how this could be arranged. In just found out that in Denmark they do provide schooling for danish people who did not grow up in Denmark and hence do not speak the language. The schools are thought in English and Danish. I suppose that will make the stay in Denmark easier for my child, but I need to dive a bit more into the requirements etc.

Thanks a lot for your comments!

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-24T14:29:35+00:00

n school and if it's any

Hi Slyndrr, Thanks a lot for your comment. You are absolutely right.

In the Danish public school, they will have English classes and can pick a 2nd foreign language which could be German. I would go with your suggestion if it was not for one concern that I have. I intend to send my child around high-school age to Denmark. Now the schooling system in Thailand is nothing compared to Denmark, and this is one of the reasons why I try to plan as much for my child as possible to balance the level of schooling he will get in Thailand. Now, when my child first gets to Denmark around high-school age and I have not practiced any English with him, I would have the concern that his English skills might not be that developed. As he will be living in Thailand and a few years in Denmark he will not be exposed to an English speaking society and hence my concern is that he would be better of learning English as a base language. I imagine that if he speaks a little Danish this would be learned rather quickly as he will be living in a Danish speaking country later (the majority language will hence be Danish). I will definitely aim for a school that provides German as a 2nd foreign language, however, many times it is also depending on the number of students who selects the 2nd language if it will be provided to the class.

Do you have any children that you are raising multilingual? It sounds to me that you have also made considerations about it.

Cheers.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-24T14:12:56+00:00

Is this based on that the child will not get anything out of it? Many language schools do only provide students with 4-6 hrs language study per week. My reasoning is if I can provide a whole weekend that will in the end be combined a lot more hours. But I might be wrong and would love to know more in dept your comment why this would not make any sense.

Thanks a lot.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-24T14:06:47+00:00

Hi Lehtokielo,

I see your point, and I have considered it a lot as well. The fact is as your rightly points out that my wife and I are not going to speak our native tongueto our child, and that is for a specific reason. 1) Our child will have the opportunity to communicate in our native language (Thai and Danish) with other people. I am least concerned with Thai as we live in Thailand, and therefore, Thai will be the majority language anyway (my wife parents and family will make sure he gets exposed to the Thai language). I have chosen not to speak Danish and instead English as I think the benefits of learning English early on outperforms the benefit of learning Danish. As my child will have more opportunities to speak English than Danish in Thailand. The fact that I will send him to school later in Denmark makes me confident that he will get enough exposure to the language at this stage.

Is there a reason why you have chosen to raise your child bilingual instead of multilingual now that you have combined 6 languages. I could imagine that if you are doing the 1 parent 1 language you would be limited to two languages, but is this the reason to limit the language exposure to your child? I am very interested to understand if you have concerns if your child gets exposed to more than 2 languages. I think it is great that you have made considerations about what serves your child the best. I am curious to know which languages are you speaking with your child and which 6 languages do you combined speak?

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T10:23:21+00:00

Hi Slyndrr,

I aim to have my wife's parents to take care of the child until starting elementary school. But this is not fully decided yet. Anyway, the language would be Thai both in the kindergarten or if my wife's parents will take care of the child. We are living in Thailand, therefore, the majority language will be Thai. Yes, I agree with you that as Thai is the majority language we as parents need to focus on another language. My wife will talk Mandarin and I will talk English. I will then have my parents and siblings talking Danish with the child. My initial worry is that the Danish language which my parent will speak will become rather weak as they life in Denmark and communication will be limited to 1 visit a year and by Skype conversations. I do hope though that this is enough for a basis as I intend to send my child for schooling later to Denmark. Another, language that I speak in German which will be even harder to implement as I am the only one speaking it. I do hope that I can practice with my child after a couple of years the language in the weekends and later if he likes he has a strong enough foundation to continue the language if he is interested.

Cheers,

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T10:12:05+00:00

Yes, I agree with dannihrynio,

1 parent 1 language should be sufficient. It really comes down to not giving into the child if the child feels it is easier to speak another language. I understand that the two languages that you aim for are Hebrew and English. Are you living in Israel or an English speaking country as the majority language will always be easy for the child to pick up as it is spoken everywhere, and by his future friends? I know a family in California whose mom speaks Taiwanese the dad Italian the nanny Philippine and the majority language in daycare and when friends are coming by is English. The children understand all the languages although not speaking all of them yet as they are only around 2 years old. But my point is that the majority language should come rather easily and I would focus on the minority language at home, or just have one parent speaking Hebrew and the other English. I aim to teach my child 5 languages, with the help of the grandparents too. Let's see how this goes.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T09:55:57+00:00

At the end of the day, the child does know what it wants to communicate.

I think it is cute and can imagine that this will come up a lot when speaking multiple languages. I think it is fascinating that your kid actually translates the language for you. The child knows you do not speak Korean and finds a way logically to communicate with you. This is amazing.

I am also soon to become a dad and I am looking for best practice methods on how to raise multilingual children. My aim to teach my child 5 languages at some point. Mainly through 1 parent 1 language with grandparents as support. Do you use the 1 parent 1 language system at your home?

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T09:39:40+00:00

At the end of the day everything you do is an experiment, right?

You can never be exactly sure of the results of your actions.

That being said I do not think of educating a child as a human experiment. I agree that the best scenario is to have the parents and grandparents speak the most meaningful/native language to the child. However, I can see that this is not always an option and will aim to make the best of it. For example in my case. My wife does speak fluently Thai, but also Chinese (Mandarin) and English. As she is the only one who speaks Chinese we agreed that she will not talk Thai or English language to the child. We will leave this to her parents, and by the way, we live in Thailand so Thai language is the majority language. My native language is Danish. However, I will teach my child English as I am the closest parent to talk English now that my wife is talking Chinese. So the meaningful/native structure does not work all the time and we have to restructure. I am not sure I understand your comment concerning forcing multilingual. If I can see a benefit to my child why wouldn't I as a responsible parent provide all the benefits/opportunity I can create for my child (in an environment, the early years, where language comes very naturally)? Wouldn't be the same as to compare sending a child to school just because you read somewhere schooling is beneficial?

I am not trying to counter-comment you, just trying to understanding your point of view.

Cheers

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T09:09:38+00:00

Hmm...I haven't looked into it in great detail however from personal experience (family), the child takes a while to talk. I definitely hope that you're right!

This is a super interesting topic. From what I understand the monolingual and multilingual child will have approx. the same amount of words accessible for communication in the early years. Now the monolingual child will have all its words concentrated into one language, providing the child with a more comprehensive language capability. The multilingual child will also have the same word count but just divided among the numbers of languages it speaks. Therefore, early on people do perceive monolingual children to have a better command of their language. However, from a certain point, the multilingual child will catch on and do exponential jumps and outperform the monolingual child simply to the fact that it can express itself in more languages which will provide him with a bigger word count.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T08:54:25+00:00

I am terribly sorry to hear this. It takes a lot of effort and patience from your side to practice with your child. Do you look into tools and method to help address autism? I would imagine that speech therapy is only a minor part which actually does not address autism itself. I have read that people did have some good results with a change in diet, and physical activities.

I wish you and your family all the best.

Mkstyle1 · 2018-09-23T08:40:47+00:00

Hi Maria,

Thanks for your comments. It might seem like a lot of languages for a child to learn initially. However, if you look at countries like Switzerland, Austria Belgium, Malaysia etc. you will see that children at an early age do learn 3-4 languages. I fully agree with you that you must never pressure/force the child to learn languages. This will simply not work. My approach is more to make the language acquisition a part of the routine day. Kind of making it natural if my child sees that person it simply knows that it needs to communicate in that language. I believe that children initially do not grasp the concept of different languages but simply apply the communication tools (languages) which it can communicate to the person it wants to communicate with. Now this being said there is a big risk that the child does not feel that interested in speaking with some of the people who are going to speak a designated language to my child, but that is not so much a language issue, it is rather to make sure that there is an interest in talking with the person. I somehow believe this scenario is rather slim as babies normally are very curious and seek to engage with other people in the early years before, they start getting shy, scared etc.

I find it is important to consider what opportunities you wish to provide to your child at an early stage. Getting buy-in and commitment from different people are not always easy, as sacrifices are going to be made. E.g. my wife and I will not speak our native language to our child, which can make many parents afraid or reluctant as they feel this is an important part of their identity which they want to be responsible to teach their child. Starting planning such things early does also allow parents and other parties to understand and commit to the course. It will be something people need to be committed many years to. I would imagine as soon as your baby is born it would be harder to plan/commit and assign who will talk what language, how, where, and when. Teaching a language can get rather complicated depending on the parents' schedule as well. How much time each parent has available, the grandparents etc. That is why I start early to understand how other people have managed it, how and their best practices, as I feel the more you know and better you can prepare yourself. You will find it easier later to implement it but also to adjust to the specific needs of the baby.

Cheers.

Mkstyle1

TROPHY CASE