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Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

Foreign nanny to teach baby to become bilingual?

32 replies

ChampagneLassie · 13/12/2021 18:41

This might be a crazy idea but would it be feasible to hire a nanny who speaks another language and ask them to talk to the baby in that with the hope that the baby becomes bi-lingual? Or am I just being daftly ambitious. Neither me or my partner speak anything other than English.

OP posts:
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ChampagneLassie · 02/01/2022 16:00

Just to say I massively appreciated all of this input. Thanks. I've decided that if I can get nanny who speaks another language I'll ask for it.

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HeronLanyon · 02/01/2022 16:06

Does a nanny who is also being chosen to teach dc a language receive an enhanced salary ??
May be a bizarre thought and I can see it both ways but it’s surely a feature that makes them more attractive to prospective employers/agencies generally but v specifically to a family looking for it ??

ChampagneLassie · 02/01/2022 16:24

@HeronLanyon

Does a nanny who is also being chosen to teach dc a language receive an enhanced salary ?? May be a bizarre thought and I can see it both ways but it’s surely a feature that makes them more attractive to prospective employers/agencies generally but v specifically to a family looking for it ??
Potentially they could but I don't think there is a massive market for it - i.e. i don't think many people are looking for nannies to speak Mandarin or Spanish or whatever. I've decided I'll have it as a nice extra rather than fundamental. I imagine finding someone I feel comfortable with who fits in other ways isn't necessarily super easy and if they speak a language a bonus.
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HeronLanyon · 02/01/2022 17:14

Agreed op. Felt a bit odd for even posting but could see it from lots of different perspectives. Anyway really good luck !

OrangeBlossomsinthesun · 02/01/2022 17:23

@EileenGC

If the child knows they can speak in either language to the nanny, mum, etc, they'll default to the dominant one. That's why it's important there is clear boundary as to which person speaks each language.

I grew up trilingual and the minority language was only spoken at home. My parents were very strict about not allowing us to use the dominant languages when talking to them, even though they were both perfectly fluent in them, and is what they spoke at work, in the shops, when dealing with our schools... Even outside the home, unless having a conversation with someone else, we had to speak a specific language in the family. Of course as we got older things changed, between the siblings we very rarely spoke that language to each other, once we started school.

Most of my social circle is raising bi/trilingual kids, and from observing both their children, and remembering friends of my parents who were in the same situation as us growing up, it's definitely worth it being very strict on this. The minority language will get lost, accent muddled up, unless kids know they're expected to use it exclusively with certain people. It's not confusing at all, because kids are clever and able to understand that 'mummy speaks both French and English but I only speak French with her, and we speak English when we see my school teachers, or when we go shopping together'.

I live in Spain, I'm British and married to a Spaniard and have always spoken English to the children but never made a big deal of how they responded because forcing it just annoyed them and made English seem like a chore.
rifling · 02/01/2022 17:27

When my children were born we hired a Romanian lady as a mother's help/cleaner. 12 years later she is still with us and I really wish I had asked her to speak Romanian with them from day 1! Missed opportunity. I say, go for it!

TheToddlerLife · 02/01/2022 17:30

Do it OP! I grew up bilingual and it's great, I feel like I have a window into a different world (the country of my 2nd language) rather than just the everyday life that's in front of me. I have friends from that country and enjoy being able to watch TV, read the news and read books in a language completely different to English, with a totally different alphabet. Like another poster said, the benefits of being fluent in another language go way beyond just knowing another language. It broadens the mind, figuratively and literally...it's been proven to help develop cognitive ability by building new neural pathways.

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