Does anyone have a bilingual family?

[skatty]

Hi, I'm english and my DH is danish and we live in Denmark. We of course speak english with each other and will with our baby too. I have ordered a book about bringing babies up bilingual but wondered if anyone has any first hand experience. Our plan is that we will speak english with her and everyone else will speak danish to her. It has worked with my dog! She understands both but more english because I am the chatterbox

 

[babsi]

Husband is Argentinian but we are in Canada. He tries to speak to Kai all the time in Spanish but that is all the Spanish Kai has. Don't really have much advice but this is the best time to learn another language as kids pick up stuff so quick.

 

[skatty]

Thanks, the fact that I don't speak much danish will mean that our child will have to speak english and her danish family will all speak danish so I hope this is ok. I guess when she goes to nursery it will be easier. That would be fab if Kai grew up with spanish, its such a useful language to have

 

[Xena]

I keep trying to speak to Lydia in French from time to time, but she ends up looking at me as though I'm insane lol.

 

[hayley]

My husbands brother lives in hong Kong.. he's english, his wife is japanese... their 3 children speak english, japanese and hong kong (think the last 2 are slightly different) althou both parents speak all 3... mum speaks japanese to them and dad speaks english... at school they speak Hong Kong (what ever the language is called)

Don't they say children pick up languages much easier the younger they are...

x

 

[skatty]

Yes they say if a child speaks to languages from birth they can sometimes be late speakers but it all evens out. I have also been told my danish should improve once I have a baby as its easy to pick language up from children.

 

[Urchin]

MY husband is South African and can speak Afrikaans but doesn't really at home, only when he's around other SA's

 

[cassi]

I think it might be better if your OH speaks to baby in danish and you speak to baby in English, cause sure everyone outside and in school will speak to baby in danish but for the most important time of learning languages your baby will mostly only be with you and your oh so to become fluent in both will need both of you to speak the languages. There is a few french - english children at my nursery and the english parent speaks to them in english and the french one speaks to them in french. Also most TV etc over there is english right? (well in Sweden it is so im comparing ). So alot of danish people learn English very easily from that aswell.

HTH
Cas xx

 

[skatty]

Thanks for that Cassi! It was really helpful, I think we are really going to have to think about what will be best in our situation. I just don't like the thought that we would forever be speaking two different languages in the home!

 

[LouisecH]

Hi

I'm English and my husband is Pakistani. I speak to Zara in English and he speaks to her in Urdu. It's really important to us that she will be able to speak to her Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts in Pakistan as they can't speak English.

My cousin's children grew up speaking French and English. Apparently they confused the two languages for the first few years and then separated them out at about 4 years old.

Should be interesting!

Louise

 

[skatty]

I think it give children such an advantage to grow up with 2 languages, I wish I had

 

[cassi]

Thats ok .

It will help you learn Danish quicker aswell

Och nar du kan Danksa, du kan lara Svenska ocksa o vi kan chatta har och ingen ska vet vad vi sager

cas xx

 

[skatty]

Det vil være godt

 

[Xena]

eek....xena not speaka di danish!

 

[cassi]

lol xena.

I was speaking Swedish, Skatty answered in Danish, but she has the right keyboard so mine isnt quite right without the proper letters lol.

Swedish and Danish are very alike

 

[Xena]

lol I wouldn't have actually known what either swedish OR danish look like before this lol!

 

[cassi]

lol...Swedish is nice and soft, Danes sound like they are choking when they speak..

HAHA just kidding (all the swedes and danes constantly take the mic out of how eachother talk lol, then again all the northern and southern swedes take the mic out of their accents too lol)..

Cas xx

 

[Lgibson2370]

Even though my son is not spanish my OH is spanish and my son has grown up around it. I speak english and so does my family and my oh and his freinds all speak english to my son. He can tell you what they are saying and answer them although he usually answers tehem in english LOL. But up until he was about 4 1/2 he would come out with words that sounded like a little of both. Of course he is getting the hand of it. I am glad causei think it will help him in school

Leslie

 

[Jenna71]

linguists recommend that each parent speaks his own language to the baby, they're able to tell the difference, yes i know it's incredible.

 

[kirlykird]

My OH is Swedish and I am English.

We have decided that he will speak Swedish to the baby when they are alone and the majority of the time we will speak in English.

We believe that the baby has to know where it's roots are and he would like it to be able to understand him even if it can't actually speak it.

Think I'm going to have to learn a bit more Swedish !