Want my DS to be bilingual in Spanish which is DH's language - do I need to speak it to him too?

[Judez99]

My husband is Colombian and we want our son to be bilingual in English and Spanish - or at least able to understand Spanish so he can communicate with his Colombian family who don't speak any English. From birth my husband has always spoken to him in Spanish but he now lives away from home during the week and only sees him at weekends, and not every weekend, which means our son is not getting as much exposure to Spanish as we would like (he's now 18 months old). I used to speak Spanish fairly fluently but am rusty due to lack of practice (my husband and I only speak to each other in English) so I wouldn't feel comfortable speaking to my son in Spanish.

Some people have advised that we should only speak in Spanish in front of him...but how can we do that if I speak to him in English? Will Spanish books/DVDs etc be enough? He doesn't have much patience yet for these things in English, let alone Spanish!

Any advice/words of wisdom would be gratefully received!

My family situation is quite similar to yours.
I too feel that my DCs don't get enough time with their Dad to be as fluent in Japanese as I'd like.
I would recommend that you speak Spanish with your DH as much as you can so that your DS hears it in use. However, it's probably best that you stick to English yourself, as you really want him to learn native Spanish rather than pick up any of your mistakes.

DVDs, books, Spanish children's songs, etc will certainly help.
Also, can you find any Spanish speaking groups or friends in your area? Having the opportunity to use it outside the home and with other children would be great. It would also help you to remember it yourself.

Thanks for that - I'll have to look into Spanish-speaking play groups etc in my area, I'm sure there must be some as I live in London.

I thought it worked by the english speaking parent speaking english to the child and the spanish speaking parent speaking spanish to the child. That way he hears both languages spoken by the native parent and will learn each language quickly.
Babies are very clever with language and can differentiate between languages from a very early age

90% of the time it does but when the minority language parent isn't around the balance is upset and you might have to look at increasing the minority language by other means.

Following on from a thread I have just created, what do you do if he says 'aqua' for example? Do you say, yes, water, or do you say yes, aqua? I am worried about confusing my LO in case he thinks that the word he is trying to say is wrong because I then repeat the English rather than DH's language.

Debs75

But the OP clearly states that there is an issue of insufficient exposure to Spanish!

I don't think it's a case of "this is how it works"- any more than in any other area of child-rearing ("you put them on the naughty step for 2 minutes because this is how it works"); it's a case of what works for you, for your family, in your circumstances. Most of the evidence for bilingual methods come from individual families detailing what has worked for them, that's all it is.

If you are worried by insufficient exposure, then the sensible method would seem to be to up the exposure in the ways Ruthchan suggests. As long as there is plenty of exposure to native speakers, I also don't think you will do any harm by letting him hear you speak Spanish from time to time or in a certain type of situation; he will soon work out who is the best model (my dcs did this very quickly).

I found story time and singing to my dcs did a lot for helping their minority language when they were little; as they got older trips to their other country and bonds forged with other children there meant more than anything. Spanish-speaking clubs sound a great idea.

We're a bilingual Spanish / English speaking family, though with the opposite problem to you. We live in Latin America and I'm the only one speaking English to the dcs so our problem is getting them to speak English and not Spanish.

I believe in DVDs and children's TV to maintain the minority language (which is why my dcs sound like Mr Tumble and CBeebies presenters). There are loads of Spanish language children's DVDs, if your h is Colombian I imagine you might want LA Spanish vs "Spanish" Spanish. LA Spanish DVDs are available on ebay, generally coming from the US.

Barney, Backyardigans, Teletubbies, Little Einsteins, Bob the Builder... all available in LA Spanish. Even if he's not interested in watching for long periods, having them playing in the background will expose him to the language.

Our twins are also learning several languages at once - I am Dutch, my wife is from Austria and we live in the UK. I speak Dutch to them, my wife speaks German to them when she is at home and my wife and I speak English together (plus everything outside our frontdoor is English).
When the children say a word in German to me, I will praise them with "Well done, that is how mummy says XXX" and continue with "Daddy says XXX". This has, so far, worked really well for us. Another 'tool' we use is skype ... talking to our families in the Netherlands or Austria. This achieves a few things at once ... 1) there are more people speaking that language - not just mummy or daddy; and 2) they get to know their family members and recognise their voices.
We also have made use of speaking toys.