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any one with a bilingual baby?

im britishborn in Colombia we speak spanish and my hun speask albanian, i want my bb to speak those languages as well as english,
i just dont know how easy its going to be for him, how long till he manage the 3 or what will he use as his main language. hooooo too much q, im so confuse
Advice PLS.

XXX

Replies

  • Hi,

    I'm English and so is hubby but we live out in Norway, my lo is only 11 months so not speaking yet lol but he is going to start nursery next August and so will start picking up more Norwegian then.
    We have other English friends out here with children and it is amazing how easily they pick up the two languages. A friend of mine has a 2 year old and she seems to use whichever language has a word for things that is easiest to say!
    Children tend to learn languages differently to adults so they use it much more naturally. I would say if you speak some Spanish to your lo and your husband speaks some albanian he will pick it up.

    It is also useful to get baby books for him in the languages so he can see the words too.

  • Hi,

    I'm English and so is hubby but we live out in Norway, my lo is only 11 months so not speaking yet lol but he is going to start nursery next August and so will start picking up more Norwegian then.
    We have other English friends out here with children and it is amazing how easily they pick up the two languages. A friend of mine has a 2 year old and she seems to use whichever language has a word for things that is easiest to say!
    Children tend to learn languages differently to adults so they use it much more naturally. I would say if you speak some Spanish to your lo and your husband speaks some albanian he will pick it up.

    It is also useful to get baby books for him in the languages so he can see the words too.

  • hey,

    I used to know a family where the mum spoke in sweedish to her chldren. they understood it all and could speak some.

    It would be great for your lo to be able to speak 3 languages and they will be able to learn them the easiest when young. I would expose them to as much of the different langages as poss and as they get older you can explain things in diff languages so that they hear them and copy them. Also reading stories in the diff languages would help and be great!
  • My oh cousin is married to a French Canadian (live in canada) and her 4 year old (i think she is 4) has picked up both langusges well. I don't think there was any pressure for her to speak both languages, just parents spoke to her in there native tounge. I think babies pick up all languages if they are exposed to them often enough.

    Kerry, Freya and Bump
    X X X
  • there is a fight between mu h he wants albanian all the way at home and i want spanish!!!!!
  • my oh is Thai & I am English & from day one we have both spoke our own languages to lo & he now recognizes both. At 18 months he dossn't speak much but that is also supposed to be normal with bi/tri lingual kids but he "talks" a lot, all the time, just not using that many recognizable words at the mo.

    One of the funny things we have noticed though is lo calls me the thai word for mum & never uses the English & calls oh "dad" in English & not in Thai. We figure it is because when oh refers to me he uses the Thai word & vise versa!!!
  • hi my OH and I are both English but we moved to Spain when our son was 3. He is now nearly 5 and attends spanish state school, having been at a spanish nursery before. He speaks better spanish than both of us!We also have a baby girl and she????ll go to spanish nursery and then school too. We only speak english at home(we should at least try and speak both!)though my son and I have basic conversations in spanish.

    my close friend was born to a brazilian mother and an english father in venezuela...she spoke spanish at school, and her parents spoke to her in their first language so her dad in english and her mum in portugese. she is now tri lingual and speaks near perfect french and italian too!

    xx

  • so it seems that my bb is gong to take a long time to talk
    i wonder if because i will be sending him to english nursery he is going to prefer it.
    my brother speaks spanish but he prefers to speak english even at home!!
    xx
  • I work as a paediatric speech and language therapist and I would say - go for it! Our linguistics lecturer at uni was German-born, had a french husband and was raising their child in Scotland so their baby was learning 3 languages and doing it well. The only advice that we were given at uni is to have a good level of consistency. By that I mean that folk should make a decision about who is going to speak which language and then keep to it. For example, you speak english to your baby and then spanish to each other or one person speaks Albanian to your baby and the other speaks spanish and then you speak english to each other etc. This avoids the child learning to 'mix' the languages together which could be confusing when trying to speak with peers or in formal education. What a brainy baby you'll have!
  • Learning more than one language from a very early age will be soooo good for your little one's linguistic development! Rather than causing him difficulties, his little brain cells will all link up at an amazing rate because of all the learning - it's such a good start for him! He may not talk until a little later but he'll definitely catch up.

    I wish my French were good enough to be able to bring my baby up to be bilingual, but now I'm not using it regularly it doesn't come easily any more :cry:

    39+5
  • My mum is German and teaches her to sing German songs and speak it, She's a really fast learner so people are surprised to hear her speaking and singing in German. x
  • HI, my little one is 14 months and understands Elnglish and Portugeuse. We live in Portugal and my husband is fluent. I have chosen to ONLY speak English to our little one and my husband ONLY Portugeuse. We took advise from our Doctor and she said to do this as the child will only reply in that language whereas if I spoke both languages to her she will become lazy and look for the word that is easiest for her. I hope this makes sense. Anyway it is working great for us and people are amazed how she now responds to both languages so easily. Our Doc said that little ones can digest 3 languages at a very young age. I wish someone had taught me languages when I was a child, its so much harder now !!!
    Good luck
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • i dont know if i mentioned before but my brother had the same situacion and he only could speak 2 spanish and english however he prefers to speak in english even at home!!!
    xxxx
  • My OH and I are both English but I lived in France for a year so speak French too. At home I sometimes speak French to DS and he can understand what I say but replies in English. I wish I'd been more consistent when he was a baby but can't turn the clock back now! Someone I used to work with was German and only spoke to her son in German, her husband only spoke to him in English and he's now bilingual. I work in reception class at a school where the majority of children are Pakistani with English as a second language. They switch between the two so easily and it always amazes me that children who are so young can do that.
  • hi i think children are at an advantage to speak more than one language , my son is 2 and a half and we live in wales and he can do the basics in welsh like me but he will go to the welsh school so will be fluent in welsh and english by the time he is 5 which is amazing for kids there like sponges too they dont see it as learning like we do .....

    lisa mum to jack and 32 weeks woth baby number too (gatecrashing again sorry xx)
  • hi sweet i live in cyprus and wade's dad is greek so i speak to him in english and his dad in greek so i'm hoping too he picks up both of them. gio x
  • two languages should be fine but it three that i really thing might couse a problem for him to try and comunicate later. i don t know i might be just exagerating.

    xxx
  • Agreed with everyone that it shouldn't be a problem. My friend and her brother were brought up to speak dutch at school and english at home when they lived in Holland, and now they're in England its English outside and Dutch as much as possible at home. Its made it so much easier for them as they can revert to anything whenever they need to. xxx
  • i also had a friend like that but the baby tok a least 5 yesrs to espeak and make sense!1
    thats took long
  • My children are 10, 7 and 7 months. The first child speaks really good English (we live in Greece) but he has a slight accent. The second child understands everything in English but only speaks a bit. I think it is because he was always with his brother who spoke Greek to him. Whereas the first one only had me to play with in English.

    I nearly always speak to them in English but have never been strict with them about answering me in English. Just try and be layed back about it and it will all work out.
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