Bringing up child trilingual?

[Cinai]

My DH and I are from different countries but live in the UK. We are discussing which languages our child should grow up with…my instinct is that one of us should speak their native language only and the other one should speak English with the child. So bringing the child up bilingual. For many reasons, it would be great if the child could learn both of our native languages, plus English obviously. Is it possible / beneficial for the child to grow up with 3 languages from birth, or should we stick to two?

We live in a very international area and there are quite a few trilingual families. My son went to a bilingual nursery (French/English) and there were plenty of children who were fluent in both plus the language of the other parent (Chinese, German, Arabic etc).

Why should one of you speak English rather than both speak in your native languages?

The child will pick up English outside of the home.

What a gift for your child to raise them trilingual

I grew up trilingual - it was 1 home language and 2 local ones, not 2+1 in my case - and it was fine. I was a bit slower in speaking the third language although I always understood it, even if I replied in another one until the age of 6/7.

I also see this very often in my circle as there are a lot of mixed families living in a third country. Just yesterday I was with the family of a little 3 year old who is growing up with French (dad), Igbo (mum), English (family language) and German (nursery and generally outside the home). There is absolutely no confusion in her mind between the languages even though she’ll answer mostly in German to anyone she’s not “connected” to one of the other languages yet.

The more languages, the better. If you can introduce the children to a third from birth, do it. They might never be fully fluent in it, or it might take a couple of extra years for them to feel confident about speaking the minority languages in public, but the advantages and benefits far outweigh that potential slower start. It’s also their right to know and feel familiar with their different heritages - so my vote is, do it.

What a gift to be trilingual. Definitely do it OP.

My niece is trilingual, started with her dad talking English and her mum talking in the language of the country they live. Once she was a bit older the mum started adding more of her home language in.

Definitely try trilingual. It will also mean your child will be able to communicate with relatives on both sides of the family.

I taught a trilingual family once. Each parent spoke his/her native language only, and the children started nursery at 2 with no English. Within 6-8 weeks they had picked it up, and the three languages advanced together. By start of school, they could all speak and understand all languages fluently. There was the odd bit of cross over, sometimes they would insert an English word into an Italian sentence, but on the whole it worked brilliantly.

That’s really great to know, thanks all!

DT’s grew up trilingual. DH and I spoke to them in our own languages and they learnt English at nursery. We don’t speak English at home but DT’s had no difficulty in learning a third language. Both did their degrees at English universities.

nephews are trilingual- SIL speaks French, BIL speaks Swedish and they learn English in nursery/school. The boys seem fine and switch so well between them. Adults speak in English to each other at home as neither speaks the others language very well.

Those who let their child pick up English at nursery rather than speaking it at home…do you support their English learning at home at all once they start nursery, like by reading them English books or singing English nursery songs, or do you strictly speak your languages only?

At home we don’t speak English. We read to them and watched tv but not in English. They learnt English nursery rhymes at nursery. They went to an international school (in the uk) and learnt to read and write in English, same as any other child of their age.

Trilingual.
DH started off like this - is parents spoke one language. His Grandma (who did a lot of the care) spoke a dialect of the home language.
He learnt English off the TV, then at school.
Very little English spoken at home.
If you live in the UK, don't worry about the English. It will just happen - especially if you use childcare.
I would use a preschool from 3 if there has-been minimal exposure to English before the tho.

My dh was raised trilingual. Now he just switches languages depending on who he’s talking to. I’m very envious. I’d say go for it.

We are trying bilingual with our dc.