Bringing up bilingual children

[marsup]

I noticed on the thread about 'when do they start staying mama and dada' that a few mumsnetters seem to be bringing up their children with 2 or more languages. Would anyone like to have a regular thread about this, comparing different ages/problems/advice? there seem to be a couple of relevant discussions in the archives, but not a general thread.

My DS is only 5 months so nothing but vowel sounds yet! but we speak French at home.

Oh sorry, haven't been on the computer for a few days since I've left work (where I did most of my MNing) for the summer now as the nursery school is closed until Sept -whoopee DS and me at the beach for 3 months, I've got great employers! Chandra, it'll be interesting to know how you get on with your trilingualism (sp) My DS is actually doing OK but yes, Marsup there are Brazilian/Italian inteferences but it does seem to get clearer the more DS stays in nursery so I don't know what will happen over the summer when it is closed. I only say Brazilian because my DH assures me that it is very different from Portuguese and has told me not to buy any Portuguese videos or books - from experience I would only say it's vaguely different but then I'm English so I would, wouldn't I!
I guess this subject should now be continued on the new topic, thanks to those of you who helped to get it launched

Hello. Have just registered with the website and found this discussion, which is very interesting as my husband and I are German but have been living in London for the past 8 years. We have now an 11 week old son and speak German to him but have actualy wondered how he is going to learn English? I am sure he will pick it up early and it seems unnatural for us to speak English to him plus we don't want him to pick up our German accent .....What are your thoughts?

I wouldn't worry, he'll pick it up from everything around him - particulary from nursery/school. Try going to mother and baby groups so you mix with English speakers on a regular basis if you want to try and let him get a 'feel' for it earlier than that. DH didn't speak any English at all before he went to school, but picked it up really quickly and has no accent (apart from his lovely south london one!!! )

DS's school is bilingual (greek and English) and at the beginning of september they had two new boys start in year 1 (so, 5 going on 6) they only spoke portuguese. Now, their English is OK and they also have a reasonable grasp of Greek. I don't think your DS will have any problems at all (especially in London schools where English as a second language is very common)

HTH

What an interesting thread! My husband and I are both English but live in Spain, we havent been here very long so our spanish is basic. Our daughter who is 3 is attending a Spanish nursery but unfortunately there are 2 other english children there. This I feel has delayed her spanish because her teacher tells me that the english speakers tend to stick together, she also tells me that my dd will use spanish when speaking to the other children but wont use it in front of the adults. It is only recently, she has been at school for 6 months now that she has started to use Spanish in front of me.She has started to take a real interest in the language, asking me to translate and she is more than happy to watch Spanish tv. One of the funniest things is how she calls me mama, its always been muma and she also asks to go for a pee pee.Theres not really a point to this message except im excited about her language development and realise that I better get studying because I wont be able to translate for her for much longer, which is a major worry.

Does any one have experience of navigating the German state education system? I live in Germany with my family. DD is 10 years old and attends a local Primary school and is due to move to senior school next september. They opperate a system similar to the old UK grammar school system and this decision is based on the marks the children achieve in class this year. This is decision effectively streams the children routing them to university education or more practical education. I think this is far too early to decide her future but this is the system here.

Is anyone who originally posted willing to offer reflections (Eek! 20 years on..!)? Did those of you living in a majority-English country face language refusal once kids entered school? How did you address the "issue" of passive bilingualism? My mum (grandma) speaks Portuguese to our two year old on the phone. DD also has around 10 hours of childcare per week with another native Portuguese speaker. I am learning Portuguese (as my mother spoke to me exclusively in English after 2.5 and lots before also) and so is my partner (Australian): we speak Portuguese exclusively to our DD. He is a more or less fluent Dutch speaker but we are aiming for Portuguese to be our family language at least until DD is 6+ (we'll see how long our skills hold out). We also spend time with other Billingual families who speak French and Russian and try to learn what we can (we also do 30 mins of songs and basic greetings in French online with a native teacher weekly). We've had friends visit who speak German and have made a point of learning as much as we can. We also have Italian friends who speak to DD in Italian intermittently and I plan to pass on some Arabic (a language I studied at university) with the help of a native teacher when the time feels right. So far, DD has really enjoyed learning all languages (although if my mum tries to speak to her in Japanese, a language my mum has been studying for years, DD sometimes protests). Overall, I have found having more than two (non-fluent) languages helpful in our goal of de-incentivising spoken English in the home (DD has 4 days a week of English childcare and we live in UK), as instead of forcing her to choose between English and Portuguese, I can offer her the phrase she is saying in English in limited French instead. She finds this amusing so far and for now this distracts her from her goal of acquiring English (which we know will dominate eventually - I teach English and have a university degree in the subject, so this is a project for later and assume she won't suffer much if at all from the delay). Social context seems to be everything in the early years (other kids to speak the language are the main incentive) but I imagine it gets a lot tougher after 5+/school entry. Our local Portuguese community restaurant is full of school age kids who seem to communicate with each other largely in English. We wonder if having second child before DD1 is in school will help to establish Portuguese as the family language before she inevitably masters and reverts to English. Also, we've taught DD1 alphabet in Portuguese with the aim of helping her read in Portuguese before English (I teach English phonics as part of my day job, but DD will attend a rural state primary school which combines years one and year two, due to lack of pupils, so we don't want her to be so ahead in English in the early years that she gets bored and misbehaves). Any experiences of teaching reading/blending in the minority language first? I don't know of a mainstream Portuguese phonics system, but have borrowed one from a Dyslexia program. So far so good. DD can't yet identify all the letters and numbers reliably, but she has memorised lots of the songs and sounds that go with each letter/blend and I see no reason not to keep playing with the concepts in the bath and with animal alphabet puzzles, etc. There are some letter magnets that might help, but found the straightforward alphabet puzzles aren't interactive enough to sustain interest.