Talking to baby in different languages

[AgaJ]

I need advise on how many languages we should talk to our baby daughter. I'm from Poland, my DH is from Portugal. Our DD is 2mo n we take to her in our own languages but to each other we talk English. Everyone around thinks it's great that she will know 3 languages from the very begining. I'm bit worried though that it's too much for DD. Isn't it too confusing for such a small child?
Has anybody know anything about it? Or maybe I should speak to some speach/language specialist?

My aunty is married to a man who speaks Urdu, and from birth his dad spoke to him in that language as well as English, and he spoke in both from being able to speak. I think your DD will be fine

eI think you're doing it fine - kiddie will cope but what I'd say is this don't be too worried when these comes a time (usually at nursery) where they prefer to respond in english - my ds I thought was not picking up Italian at all - we went ot Italy and he was fine and then I noticed at nursery pretty much all the mums are speaking to their kids in other languages and pretty much all the kids are responding in English.

3 is not too much I don't think if you do whatyou are doing ie one language per parent and then when together it doesn't matter which.

Its fine..Dh is Arab and I'm English so DS gets spoken to in both. Obviously, he speaks predominantly English because he's with me a lot more than DH

I have friends who speak their own language with their DCs and English to each other - kids are very versatile and its so much easier for them to pick it up at a young age rather than learn it later!

I'm also Polish and my DP is English. We have a 6.5 month old DS. I always speak Polish to him, and his dad speaks English. Admittedly, we have no third language so it may be a bit simpler, but I'm sure our babies will be fine.

I have some friends who live in Barcelona - he is Polish, she is Brazilian. They have four daughters who speak Polish with dad, Portuguese with mum, and Spanish or Catalan with their friends

AgaJ, there is a good Polish forum about multilingual families on Gazeta.pl - it's called Wielojezycznosc w rodzinie - are you aware of it?

I am a SaLT and we have no single clear guideline on this. My advice, based on my knowledge and experience (other SaLT's may disagree) is to speak the language in which you feel most confident at any particular time so that you always provide the best possible model for your child.
For example, if you feel most comfortable speaking polish during the day, do that, use 'motherease', make it fun, use simple language as you would in Poland to a baby. However, as your husband doesn't speak polish you will have to use english when speaking as a group, so do so, this is what happens naturally. You'll be surprised how clever you LO actually is when it comes to figuring out how many labels each object has - don't worry. It is fine for your husband to speak portuguese to your LO.
Some (not all) research suggests that children from households where multiple languages are spoken take longer to speak their first word, don't worry if your friends children speak before yours. The general rules for concern still apply, your child should be babbling away, making lots of noises, pointing, listening, trying to communicate, following instructions etc etc just like all the other babies. It is these basic communication skills that will give you a hint something isn't right, not whether your LO speaks polish, english or portuguese before or after other children.
I hope that helps. Happy chatting x

We are a bilingual households, I speak English and DH German with the DC. Since moving to Switzerland just over a year ago they have learnt French in school.

In my experience, the DC have started to speak later. They have also had a preferred language, depending on where we were living and what the local language was. They are now equally fluent in German/English and reasonably fluent in French.

You may find that your DH will have to work a bit harder to keep up your DD's Portuguese as I am assuming that this will be the language that she hears least. You can support this (and the other minority language Polish - when she starts nursery/school English will probably become her strongest language) by reading books and watching DVDs.

Do you have others around you who speak Polish or Portuguese with your DD?

One thing though, don't assume that it is so easy to bring your DD up multilingual. If may be for her, but as parents it is bloody hard work. You will have moments where you wonder if you should keep going. It is absolutely worth it. If my DC were not multilingual then they could not have the fab relationship with their cousins in UK and in Germany.

There is a bilingualism topic on MN if you ever need support or advice, you can always find lots of MNetters there who have experience with bilingualism.

Good luck.

thanks all for ur advise! Will defo carry on!

Duende thanks for info on Gazeta.pl

MmeLindt I bet its a bloody hard work but the worst will b to work on my lazy DH to speak Portuguese!

the advices are very helpful. I'm brazilian, hence speak portuguese, my DH is Indian and speak Hindi, but we communicate with each other in English only. my DS is 6 weeks old and I have made it a habit to speak to him in portuguese only, and have requested my DH to speak to him in Hindi only - however he is not doing that (he says he will once DS is old enough to talk). I speak and sing songs to DS in portuguese, but when DH is around and I'm talking to DS about dad, then I talk in English... and sometimes i say in english and repeat in portuguese.. hope DS won't get confused.