Mother making her child's mother tongue a language she herself hardly knows

[AdoraLovesCake]

I have never done an AIBU before.

This morning I went to a cafe in the UK (where I live) with my 5 year old daughter.
A woman in front of me in the long queue turns around and asks my daughter how old she is. DD replies that she is five then goes to look at the cakes.
I then crouch down to the boy holding the woman's hand (he looked age 2 or 3) and I say "Hello little one, how old are you?"
He stares blankly at me and his mother says, "Oh no. He doesn't speak English." And I think "Ok, he doesn't speak at all."
But then his mother says, "He doesn't speak ENGLISH. He speaks Spanish. Even though my partner and I don't speak Spanish very well, and we intend to live in England forever. Our friend said Spanish was easy so we taught our son that. Then when he's older, he can learn English. He'll have a bigger brain by then.
She then was about to order and I saw her type into google translate for her son, "Do you want a cookie?"

Poor boy. Why would you teach your child as their first language a language that you don't know? He's going to turn into a five year old, not understanding anything anyone is saying, having to learn English, a very hard language. Babies will pick up their first language much easier won't they.

YABU: This is normal and a good approach to parenting
YANBU: Agree with OP, this is weird

xxxx Cora

Are you called Cora with a child called Adora?

I can't believe I've just read this.

So they are deliberately teaching him a language neither she or dad speaks well? Is she English herself?

This is bananas. Or plátanos as Google translate tells me they say in Spain.

Well this won't last long. It's not even remotely true.

Oh I fell for it......haven't had my coffee yet.

no her name is dora obvs

I mean, she's talking English around her child in the shop. The child would clearly pick up English :-D

Yes because language is learnt by only hearing things your mum types into Google translate

He will speak English without a issue. Itnwill still be the majority language. However it is really hard to raise a child bi lingual without support and I'd argue even more if a language you don't know well.

What I find most disturbing is the fact that you OP might actually have a child(Ren) in RL

Madness, if true (checks date, not April 1st!)

A colleague of mine taught herself Welsh, she is Welsh, lives in Wales, but didn’t grow up speaking Welsh. Fair enough, although her city is not known for being a Welsh speaking enclave. She exclusively spoke to her children in Welsh. I think that’s different and justified, but the OP’s example is bonkers. I’d find it hard and I’m fluent! What kind of mangled google translate Spanish is that poor child going to learn.

This isn’t even a good attempt.

She told her whole plan including ‘we always plan to live in England’ ? Why would you think people believe this?

If the mother is still using google translate for something as simple as ‘do you want a cookie?’ How on earth does the child know ‘do you want a cookie?’ In Spanish.

the child would have to never see anyone else and the parents would have to not talk to eachother at all. If the parents only spoke Spanish for 2/3 years in their house, through Google translate they would be able to speak Spanish.

This is so fucking weird.

How exactly did they teach the child a language they don’t speak themselves?
I think you had your leg pulled 😂

I have seen an instrgrammer who sends their child to a Spanish speaking nursery for no real reason. Very odd.

Nah. Unless the parents keep her locked in a cellar and only take her out once a week, the child will pick up English from its surroundings.

completely implausible, and one wonders what the OP’s agenda is

aside from… you know… the benefits of learning another (very very widely spoken language) from a young age?

If you were in my first year fiction workshop, I’d be suggesting you worked on your dialogue.

Did ye, aye?

😂

So untrue. Why make this up? Strange.

Children's brains are capable of learning several languages at the same time - but this child will undoubtedly speak better English than he does Spanish because he will be totally immersed in English - from nursery, TV, school, friends and so on.

The parents may try to teach him Spanish but if it's not their native language then the child will never be fluent. To get him to speak fluent Spanish, they'd have to move to Spain and send him to a Spanish nursery and then Spanish schools.

Poor attempt 1/10- that's purely for Cora Dora.......

Whilst it's very odd (if at all true) he'll still learn English as everyone around him including his parents will be speaking or. Do him know harm to know some bits (as that's all he'd truly pick up) of another language.

Is this what happens when you order ChatGPT from Wish?

That's not odd at all!

I think you need to be a bit embarrassed you spent time writing that OP 😂