Learning more than one other language

[3bunnies]

Ds is 4. English is his first language, he knows some French (numbers, colours, greetings etc) as we spend most holidays there and dh's heritage is French and some of the family are fluent. Their school also teaches Makaton to all children which dh supplements with some BSL. Now ds is wanting to learn Spanish. He keeps asking me what x or y is in Spanish. Quite frankly he's asking the wrong person - my knowledge extends to Ciao. FIL speaks Spanish and we can order some books, apps etc but I don't know whether it will just confuse him with the other languages. His French accent is good but he still finds some English sounds hard (e.g. will drop his h sound so will pronounce it as 'opsital'), he gets some support for this with his teacher.

Go for it! He won't get confused and there's plenty of time to clean up any 'issues'. The more a kid can absorb at this young age seems to make it easier to learn when they get older.

Oh, and ciao is Italian, btw!

I said he was talking to the wrong person! I only did French, German and Latin at school! Looked hello up and told ds, now he wants to know goodbye!

If children want to learn something then I tell them. Why wouldn't you? (age appropriate and all.) Most languages are freely available. (Ancient Greek might be a bit of a problem.)

I guess I was just a bit concerned that he would get confused. He is only just 4 and although the girls have started on French and Makaton they have been content with that. I have downloaded an app for him and we will see how he gets on. He would probably like Ancient Greek - he enjoys watching Atlantis and wants that as a theme for his next birthday party!

I used to help in a primary school when my mum was teaching and the kids were always fascinated when I would write the date on the board in Spanish or Latin.

If he wants to do it then go for it - if he gets a little confused, does it matter? He will sort it out in his head fairly quickly I expect and it will be a huge advantage for him as he grows up if he has already developed an ear for languages.

my knowledge extends to Ciao.

Which is Italian, so he is certainly asking the wrong person.

Take a look at the poissonrouge website, it has fun games in several languages and DD loved it when she was little.

At 4 DD did French and Italian, but sadly does not appear to have any natural ability and can barely string a sentence together in French despite several years of lessons.

I would give it a try if he's interested, if it gets too much or he's not enjoying it then stop.

My 5 year old does French and Arabic at school - he loves it!

I've ended up learning 6 languages with a smattering of Italian on top.

English is by miles and miles the most useful, followed by Spanish. It is also relatively easy to learn.

If your son is interested, let him go for it. I'm sure u can find plenty of free stuff on the internet. (My husband used the bbc sites when he felt like trying to revise his school French and learn some Spanish.) U mighte enjoy helping your son and picking up a bit of it yourself along the way.

Native speakers of English have a huge advantage. They don't really need to learn any other languages now that pretty much everyone else is learning English, but it's fun for those who enjoy doing so, just like painting or playing the piano.

Thanks we will look at the poisonrouge website and maybe get some cds for the car. For us as a family French is more useful but for him as long as he enjoys it and it won't confuse him to learn more than one other language he will obviously have an advantage at Secondary if he knows some other languages first.