Mistake #4 can be avoided by striking a balance between correcting and allowing the child to be themselves. It's only a mistake when we overdo one or the other, so the challenge is finding the right equilibrium.. Is it hard for you to find a balance when it comes to correcting mistakes?
I've heard that correcting might be unnecessary altogether. Since kids are still open minded about how the language works, they'll just hear the right way enough times to adjust subconsciously.
We’re a Polish-Mexican couple and we’re nervous about our first kid. Your videos are very helpful and calm us down, they make it all sound possible. Thank you :)
I’m an English speaker currently learning Spanish. My bf’s first language is Spanish but living here in the US has really weakened his Spanish speaking. We’re currently living with his parents who speak majority in Spanish. We’re expecting our first baby end of September and I have made a big deal out of making sure our baby knows both languages!
My friends and I just got on with it and brought up our children with both languages 40 years ago. There wasn't much advice about in those days so we winged it. In fact, we were just emerging from the theory that using more than one language from the start would "confuse" and "damage" the child, so everyone in the same position was experimenting or just getting on unscientifically. We must have got something right because they are now bringing up their own children bilingually. Over 50% of the world's population is bilingual without any effort or theoreticising on the parents' part. It's the norm in large parts of the world. No need to overthink it.
Thank you for your video. I am Japanese and my husband is Romanian, but we live in Czech Republic. We both communicate in English 😅 4 languages environment is super challenging for us, but we will try …
Oh I feel you. I'm French, my husband is Japanese, we live in Tokyo and speak English (and a bit of Japanese here and there) at home. Not quite as challenging as 4 languages, but we already wonder where to start..we're expecting twins, so they'll be learning at the same time and chance is that they'll pick a comfortable language to talk to each other 😅
Oof same here. Husband is Japanese and I'm Hispanic living in the US. I speak to our child in Spanish and my husband speaks to him in Japanese but hubby and I speak English, which I don't want my child to learn until they're in school. It's definitely a bit tough.
Thank you for the video! Could you do a video about how to manage situations where the whole family is together and parents use OPOL? How to establish the joint language for the family?
I am Bosnian and my husband is Ukrainian… very similar/slavic languages. Some words are almost exactly the same, many slight differences in emphasis or a single letter, while other words are completely different. We both know each other’s language a little bit, mostly just understand it. We speak English as we live in the US. Would baby confuse the two languages since they are so similar? We are thinking that the OPOL method should work as we can speak it with our family members as well.. but we do fall back on English often. Any advice? Thank you!!
Hi Andrea, I found your videos so useful and clear that I would suggest my wife to watch them in order to convince her to maximize the exposureto the minority language. She doesn't know much about bilingualism and keeps over-exposing our children to the majority language. In this video only a(n important) sentence is still not so much clear to me: "Learning multiple languages at once without mastering any of them may be detrimental to the overall cognitive development". What exactly means that? That equal exposure should be avoided if the child is not proficient in the majority language? Or that the parent must be adequately proficient? Thank you in advance!
Hi, and thak you for your message. What I meant with that is that children need to develop at least one language at a level that is considered "normal" for their age in at least one language, no matter if it is a minority or the majority language, so that they can deveop a healthy self-esteam. If they speak a little bit of many languages but can't express well their needs in any of them, they start suffering. So the best way to go in general is to speak a lot and consistantly in your strongest language with your kids. Contact me if you need more help figuring things out. Kind regards
@@MultilingualFamily hello, following up on the above comment, I can speak Spanish at about 80% fluency & 100% in English. I decided to speak nothing but Spanish to my second child but she’s still not speaking. She’s 2. I believe I’m holding her back since I’m not speaking Spanish efficiently to her.
In our situation, the majority language (which includes my husband) is Spanish. I’m the only person who speaks English to our daughter. We also read books in English. She used to speak words in both but now that she’s creating short sentences (20 months) she uses Spanish only. I’m not sure how I can help, since I’m the only English-speaking reference for our baby girl
Thank you for useful information 🌹🙏🏻 I’m from Iran so my first language is Farsi but I speak also English Turkish French Almost arabic and Spanish and Azerbaijani. My husband speaks English French and arabic . We speak English at home so I want my baby to learn all of them what do u suggest ?
You need to carefully craft a plan for your baby so that things work our smoothly. Consider booking a consultation with me so that I can help you with the details. More information here: www.multilingual.family
Wow! Thank you so much for your videos! Me and hubby are learning a lot and good to know what to expect and try to be prepared for raising our child with multiple languages. I did have a question and hope to hear what you think. For background, we are in the US and am planning to speak to our baby in my native language, Tagalog (Philippines), which will be the minority language. Me and my parents and brother will be her main source of Tagalog as we don't really have a lot of other resources in that language. I just thought about me singing in general. I have not been singing songs in my language and I only sing songs in english. I love just singing in general everyday and we also have praise in church. Will you recommend i refrain from singing in english to her or around her?
Hi, we are Polish couple. I speak fluent English ( lived 15 years in UK) but my accent is still strong . How this can affect my child ? She's 11months. Thanks
What languages do you speak with your child? Normally, it's best to use the strongest language that you can speak with your children. Here you can find more information and help: Webpage: www.multilingual.family Subscribe for free tools: www.multilingual.family/sign-up Consultation: www.multilingual.family/coaching-call-60-min Other Services: www.multilingual.family/services UA-cam Videos: ua-cam.com/users/multilingualfamily Kind regards, Andrea
You'll have to stick to english ALL the time.....only you! Your partner does the same in Polish! We did this with my son 50 years ago and he is fully bi- lingual, English/German and picks up languages so easily. The best thing you can ever give your child. Good luck!
Nah you got it wrong way round, Natalia isn’t English and like me she lived in Uk 15 years but it’s not English. She should speak just polish just as I speak only Slovakian to my son even though I fluent in both English and Spanish, we live in Spain and his mother talk to him in Spanish…later I’ll teach him English but it’s lower priority, don’t wanna overwhelm and confuse the kid ❤
I'd love a video with tips for raising a multilingual child in a single parent family (either because you are a 100% solo parent or the other parent is away for long periods of time). I will be raising my children as a single parent and want to be able to teach them my first language of Sign Language, but also English as it will be the primary social language and French as it is my family's language. They will get English through child care, but I don't know how to teach them both French and Sign without confusing them but also giving them enough exposure (my family does not live nearby so will only be able to speak to them in person a handful of times a year).
Hi, thank you for you ideas. Make sure to watch my other videos. I have many that can help you figure out how to deal with all those languages without confusing your child. The key is to use one main language (OPOL) and then introduce the others using for example the OSOL method.
I am Slovakian but living in Spain. I speak to my kid Slovak and his mother Spanish as we should. However, I speak to my son sometimes Spanish when we are outside around other Spanish…intuitively this seems the best approach, also when I teach him words sometimes I mention the Spanish version but 95% of time it’s pure Slovak…could you please confirm that this is in fact ok
Thanks for different advices. My children 8 and 6 understand the minority languangue (English) but always reply back in majority languague (Italian), I don't know to increase the minority language. Thank you
What language do you want to introduce and why? Here some helpful links: Webpage: www.multilingual.family Subscribe for free tools: www.multilingual.family/sign-up Consultation: www.multilingual.family/coaching-call-60-min Other Services: www.multilingual.family/services UA-cam Videos: ua-cam.com/users/multilingualfamily Kind regards, Andrea
I wonder how dangerous it is that the child can not tell the different languages apart and gets really confused if the parents are not consistent in their language use... We don't aim at both languages to be perfect, but that he gets the basics in the minority language urdu at least. And it's hard for my husband, who is the native speaker in that language, to keep talking urdu to our 3 month old son ...he keeps falling back into german. I am also learning urdu... So sometimes we talk in urdu, sometimes german. It's hard to stick to rules like speaking urdu at home or something... I am really worried that in the end, our son won't even be able to tell the languages apart... Any experience or advice concerning our struggles?
Another thing you can do : We do days. For exemple, one week in english and one week in french or french during the week and english on the weekends. But it’s proven that babies don’t get confused and there is not a better strategie than an other. You baby might just be better in german and take longer to learn urdu. In bilingual babjes, there is often a dominant language. For exemple, my toddler makes sentences when speaking french but not yet in english, so when he speaks english he often mix both languages. He will often start with « je veux (i want) » and then add the english word. When he’s gonna get better in english he will not mix anymore. Most bilingual babies go to this learning process. Btw. I’m from canada, and since there is a lot of bilinguisme here, many universities have studies on bilinguisme. I participated in one with both my kids. That’s why I know what’s normal not in bilinguisme development.😅
At the end of the day, different languages just sound different. I might not speak German or Spanish but if someone speaks one of these, I can tell which language it is. Babies are even better at this because they have more neuroplasticity. Yes, differentiating the languages by speaking them at set times helps, but it is not essential. Good luck!
I was brought up with mom speaking Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia changing every now and then up to her moods. Though my speaking javanese is minimal, but I can clearly understand javanese. So, based on my experience, telling the languages apart is not a problem at all. Languages have their own distinct sound that will help children to differ them.
Babies are smarter than we think. My 5 yo daughter understands and speaks 3 languages besides her native tongue. Born in Turkey,, her first language is Turkish but I've only spoke French to her from birth. Since me and wife speak English, she was a passive listener until age 1.5 when we started to have weekends in English. When she was ariund two, I started njecting my second native tongue, Russian, and she was very keen and quick to get into it. Kids are curious by nature and they love playing whereas adults are too cartesian. I first started having only days in a different language, but now it turned more to weeks. She never really mixed the languages except inserting words here and there. Obviously she has stronger command of Turkish and French, but she can also communicate wirh English spoeaking guests and her Russian granny. In short, don't worry!
Virtually no one speaks pure Urdu anyways in Pakistan or India without mixing in English and/or a local languages, so it must be hard for your Husband to speak constantly in Urdu.
Mistake #4 can be avoided by striking a balance between correcting and allowing the child to be themselves. It's only a mistake when we overdo one or the other, so the challenge is finding the right equilibrium.. Is it hard for you to find a balance when it comes to correcting mistakes?
I've heard that correcting might be unnecessary altogether. Since kids are still open minded about how the language works, they'll just hear the right way enough times to adjust subconsciously.
@@Koospa Yea, that's why it's important to make sure that they get high-quality input.
We’re a Polish-Mexican couple and we’re nervous about our first kid. Your videos are very helpful and calm us down, they make it all sound possible. Thank you :)
Stay posted to get all the help and support you need. Consider joining my mailing list: www.multilingual.family/sign-up
I’m an English speaker currently learning Spanish. My bf’s first language is Spanish but living here in the US has really weakened his Spanish speaking. We’re currently living with his parents who speak majority in Spanish. We’re expecting our first baby end of September and I have made a big deal out of making sure our baby knows both languages!
My friends and I just got on with it and brought up our children with both languages 40 years ago. There wasn't much advice about in those days so we winged it. In fact, we were just emerging from the theory that using more than one language from the start would "confuse" and "damage" the child, so everyone in the same position was experimenting or just getting on unscientifically.
We must have got something right because they are now bringing up their own children bilingually.
Over 50% of the world's population is bilingual without any effort or theoreticising on the parents' part. It's the norm in large parts of the world. No need to overthink it.
Thank you for your video. I am Japanese and my husband is Romanian, but we live in Czech Republic. We both communicate in English 😅 4 languages environment is super challenging for us, but we will try …
Oh I feel you. I'm French, my husband is Japanese, we live in Tokyo and speak English (and a bit of Japanese here and there) at home. Not quite as challenging as 4 languages, but we already wonder where to start..we're expecting twins, so they'll be learning at the same time and chance is that they'll pick a comfortable language to talk to each other 😅
Oof same here. Husband is Japanese and I'm Hispanic living in the US. I speak to our child in Spanish and my husband speaks to him in Japanese but hubby and I speak English, which I don't want my child to learn until they're in school. It's definitely a bit tough.
Thank you for the video! Could you do a video about how to manage situations where the whole family is together and parents use OPOL? How to establish the joint language for the family?
Sure!
I am Bosnian and my husband is Ukrainian… very similar/slavic languages. Some words are almost exactly the same, many slight differences in emphasis or a single letter, while other words are completely different. We both know each other’s language a little bit, mostly just understand it. We speak English as we live in the US. Would baby confuse the two languages since they are so similar? We are thinking that the OPOL method should work as we can speak it with our family members as well.. but we do fall back on English often. Any advice? Thank you!!
Hi, don't worry. The similarities won't confuse your child. Just be consistent in the use of your method.
Thanks for sharing your history, it will definitely help us raising our baby!
Absolutely!!
thanks alottttttttttttt for sharing, it was very helpful
Hi Andrea, I found your videos so useful and clear that I would suggest my wife to watch them in order to convince her to maximize the exposureto the minority language. She doesn't know much about bilingualism and keeps over-exposing our children to the majority language.
In this video only a(n important) sentence is still not so much clear to me: "Learning multiple languages at once without mastering any of them may be detrimental to the overall cognitive development".
What exactly means that? That equal exposure should be avoided if the child is not proficient in the majority language? Or that the parent must be adequately proficient?
Thank you in advance!
Hi, and thak you for your message. What I meant with that is that children need to develop at least one language at a level that is considered "normal" for their age in at least one language, no matter if it is a minority or the majority language, so that they can deveop a healthy self-esteam. If they speak a little bit of many languages but can't express well their needs in any of them, they start suffering.
So the best way to go in general is to speak a lot and consistantly in your strongest language with your kids.
Contact me if you need more help figuring things out.
Kind regards
@@MultilingualFamily hello, following up on the above comment, I can speak Spanish at about 80% fluency & 100% in English. I decided to speak nothing but Spanish to my second child but she’s still not speaking. She’s 2. I believe I’m holding her back since I’m not speaking Spanish efficiently to her.
In our situation, the majority language (which includes my husband) is Spanish. I’m the only person who speaks English to our daughter. We also read books in English. She used to speak words in both but now that she’s creating short sentences (20 months) she uses Spanish only. I’m not sure how I can help, since I’m the only English-speaking reference for our baby girl
Thank you for useful information 🌹🙏🏻 I’m from Iran so my first language is Farsi but I speak also English Turkish French Almost arabic and Spanish and Azerbaijani. My husband speaks English French and arabic . We speak English at home so I want my baby to learn all of them what do u suggest ?
You need to carefully craft a plan for your baby so that things work our smoothly. Consider booking a consultation with me so that I can help you with the details. More information here: www.multilingual.family
Wow! Thank you so much for your videos! Me and hubby are learning a lot and good to know what to expect and try to be prepared for raising our child with multiple languages.
I did have a question and hope to hear what you think. For background, we are in the US and am planning to speak to our baby in my native language, Tagalog (Philippines), which will be the minority language. Me and my parents and brother will be her main source of Tagalog as we don't really have a lot of other resources in that language.
I just thought about me singing in general. I have not been singing songs in my language and I only sing songs in english. I love just singing in general everyday and we also have praise in church. Will you recommend i refrain from singing in english to her or around her?
Sing sing sing, that is a wo derful way to learn languages with ease.
I don't have kiddos yet, but it's good to learn for the future right?😊
Hi, we are Polish couple. I speak fluent English ( lived 15 years in UK) but my accent is still strong . How this can affect my child ? She's 11months. Thanks
What languages do you speak with your child? Normally, it's best to use the strongest language that you can speak with your children. Here you can find more information and help:
Webpage: www.multilingual.family
Subscribe for free tools: www.multilingual.family/sign-up
Consultation: www.multilingual.family/coaching-call-60-min
Other Services: www.multilingual.family/services
UA-cam Videos:
ua-cam.com/users/multilingualfamily
Kind regards,
Andrea
You'll have to stick to english ALL the time.....only you! Your partner does the same in Polish! We did this with my son 50 years ago and he is fully bi- lingual, English/German and picks up languages so easily. The best thing you can ever give your child. Good luck!
Nah you got it wrong way round, Natalia isn’t English and like me she lived in Uk 15 years but it’s not English. She should speak just polish just as I speak only Slovakian to my son even though I fluent in both English and Spanish, we live in Spain and his mother talk to him in Spanish…later I’ll teach him English but it’s lower priority, don’t wanna overwhelm and confuse the kid ❤
I'd love a video with tips for raising a multilingual child in a single parent family (either because you are a 100% solo parent or the other parent is away for long periods of time). I will be raising my children as a single parent and want to be able to teach them my first language of Sign Language, but also English as it will be the primary social language and French as it is my family's language. They will get English through child care, but I don't know how to teach them both French and Sign without confusing them but also giving them enough exposure (my family does not live nearby so will only be able to speak to them in person a handful of times a year).
Hi, thank you for you ideas. Make sure to watch my other videos. I have many that can help you figure out how to deal with all those languages without confusing your child. The key is to use one main language (OPOL) and then introduce the others using for example the OSOL method.
I am Slovakian but living in Spain. I speak to my kid Slovak and his mother Spanish as we should. However, I speak to my son sometimes Spanish when we are outside around other Spanish…intuitively this seems the best approach, also when I teach him words sometimes I mention the Spanish version but 95% of time it’s pure Slovak…could you please confirm that this is in fact ok
Thanks for different advices. My children 8 and 6 understand the minority languangue (English) but always reply back in majority languague (Italian), I don't know to increase the minority language. Thank you
I M from pakistan and English is not native language and I m not sure from where to start because kids are 11 and 13 yrs old..
What language do you want to introduce and why?
Here some helpful links:
Webpage: www.multilingual.family
Subscribe for free tools: www.multilingual.family/sign-up
Consultation: www.multilingual.family/coaching-call-60-min
Other Services: www.multilingual.family/services
UA-cam Videos:
ua-cam.com/users/multilingualfamily
Kind regards,
Andrea
We are a family Brazilian × argentinian/japanese living in EUA.
I wonder how dangerous it is that the child can not tell the different languages apart and gets really confused if the parents are not consistent in their language use...
We don't aim at both languages to be perfect, but that he gets the basics in the minority language urdu at least.
And it's hard for my husband, who is the native speaker in that language, to keep talking urdu to our 3 month old son ...he keeps falling back into german.
I am also learning urdu...
So sometimes we talk in urdu, sometimes german.
It's hard to stick to rules like speaking urdu at home or something...
I am really worried that in the end, our son won't even be able to tell the languages apart...
Any experience or advice concerning our struggles?
Another thing you can do : We do days. For exemple, one week in english and one week in french or french during the week and english on the weekends. But it’s proven that babies don’t get confused and there is not a better strategie than an other. You baby might just be better in german and take longer to learn urdu. In bilingual babjes, there is often a dominant language. For exemple, my toddler makes sentences when speaking french but not yet in english, so when he speaks english he often mix both languages. He will often start with « je veux (i want) » and then add the english word. When he’s gonna get better in english he will not mix anymore. Most bilingual babies go to this learning process.
Btw. I’m from canada, and since there is a lot of bilinguisme here, many universities have studies on bilinguisme. I participated in one with both my kids. That’s why I know what’s normal not in bilinguisme development.😅
At the end of the day, different languages just sound different. I might not speak German or Spanish but if someone speaks one of these, I can tell which language it is. Babies are even better at this because they have more neuroplasticity. Yes, differentiating the languages by speaking them at set times helps, but it is not essential. Good luck!
I was brought up with mom speaking Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia changing every now and then up to her moods. Though my speaking javanese is minimal, but I can clearly understand javanese.
So, based on my experience, telling the languages apart is not a problem at all. Languages have their own distinct sound that will help children to differ them.
Babies are smarter than we think. My 5 yo daughter understands and speaks 3 languages besides her native tongue. Born in Turkey,, her first language is Turkish but I've only spoke French to her from birth. Since me and wife speak English, she was a passive listener until age 1.5 when we started to have weekends in English. When she was ariund two, I started njecting my second native tongue, Russian, and she was very keen and quick to get into it. Kids are curious by nature and they love playing whereas adults are too cartesian. I first started having only days in a different language, but now it turned more to weeks. She never really mixed the languages except inserting words here and there. Obviously she has stronger command of Turkish and French, but she can also communicate wirh English spoeaking guests and her Russian granny. In short, don't worry!
Virtually no one speaks pure Urdu anyways in Pakistan or India without mixing in English and/or a local languages, so it must be hard for your Husband to speak constantly in Urdu.
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You are a Spanish speaker, right? Mexico?
Ecuador :0)
nothing special
tanginamo