| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | Bilingual babies Thread poster: Lucy Phillips
|
|---|
Sol 
United States
Local time: 17:59
Spanish to English
+ ...
| My experience is quite frustrating | May 7, 2004 |
I have lived in the U.S. most of my life (i.e. more than half), I live far from relatives and hardly know any other people around who I speak Spanish with. My husband is a midwesterner. I started speaking Spanish to my twin daughters when they were born, read them in Spanish, bought Spanish music and videos, did everything in my power to get them to be bilingual... but they only speak English. It is especially frustrating because I know people in the same situation who have done it, but there... See more I have lived in the U.S. most of my life (i.e. more than half), I live far from relatives and hardly know any other people around who I speak Spanish with. My husband is a midwesterner. I started speaking Spanish to my twin daughters when they were born, read them in Spanish, bought Spanish music and videos, did everything in my power to get them to be bilingual... but they only speak English. It is especially frustrating because I know people in the same situation who have done it, but there are many variables at play here. First, you need to be able to expose your child to the language. That is, you need to be able to take the child where the language is spoken on a regular basis. Second, I hope you are not having twins, because they will confabulate against you
But, on the bright side, my children, who just turned 11 years old, do understand Spanish for the most part, so I wouldn't say that they are "biLINGUAL" yet but maybe they are "biMINDED", and one of these days they might decide to speak their mother's tongue (without prompting)
¡Felicitaciones por tu bebé!
[Edited at 2004-05-07 20:32] ▲ Collapse
| | | | NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 17:59
Member (2002)
French to English
+ ...
MODERATOR | total and constant immersion | May 7, 2004 |
Last winter I accepted to teach a semester at Royal Military College, Kingston. It's a littel over two hours one way, and with our winters... well, I could and did stay in the barracks through the week, coming home Friday afternoon and leaving again Monday at 4 am
but the worst part of all this was discovering that My daughter ahd lost all her French during my absence, and would correct me when I spoke to her: mets tes souli... See more Last winter I accepted to teach a semester at Royal Military College, Kingston. It's a littel over two hours one way, and with our winters... well, I could and did stay in the barracks through the week, coming home Friday afternoon and leaving again Monday at 4 am
but the worst part of all this was discovering that My daughter ahd lost all her French during my absence, and would correct me when I spoke to her: mets tes souliers - no, Mommy, shoes
Good news: it doesn't take long, at that age, to come back.
Nancy ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Don't worry, Sol | May 8, 2004 |
Sol wrote: But, on the bright side, my children, who just turned 11 years old, do understand Spanish for the most part, so I wouldn't say that they are "biLINGUAL" yet but maybe they are "biMINDED", and one of these days they might decide to speak their mother's tongue (without prompting)
I don't know wether they are going to be really bilingual, but you have already given them the main part. Do you still speaking Spanish to them?
My three children had different experiences as we were not living in the same places, and that children are different, but our first daughter was used to talk to her father in Spanish while he spoke only French to her. They did communicate fine. But when we went to France (she was four), she was very surprised to see that the same scheme of communication didn't work. The little neighbours came home to ask me what she had said. She got angry being unable to communicate. We were there for 4 months, from July to October. When she went to school on September nobody could have said that she spoke another language than French. So, don't worry, and keep speaking Spanish to them.
| | | | Mericil
Local time: 23:59
Latin to German
+ ...
| Baby language? | May 28, 2004 |
Hi Lucy,
first: why speaking to your child in "baby language"? She'll say, what she'll hear, though there shouldn't be any problem. My parents never taught me or my brother "WauWau" instead of "Hund" (dog). A dog is a dog and when it's barking it sounds like "WauWau" and dogs bark everywhere the same.
My uncle is American, though my three cousins grew up bilingual, but to say the truth: Their German is not really the b... See more Hi Lucy,
first: why speaking to your child in "baby language"? She'll say, what she'll hear, though there shouldn't be any problem. My parents never taught me or my brother "WauWau" instead of "Hund" (dog). A dog is a dog and when it's barking it sounds like "WauWau" and dogs bark everywhere the same.
My uncle is American, though my three cousins grew up bilingual, but to say the truth: Their German is not really the best(I don't think they like this langugae too much). They now have some advantages, but none of the two languages they speak is "perfect", although two of them already live in Germany. Perhaps you should start teaching her both (Spanish and English) and if she has no problems, doesn't feel swamped, it's allright. The most important thing is, that she'll first have a good command of her mother tongue.
Good luck for the birth! ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
Dorota Cooper
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:59
English to Polish
+ ...
| This thread has made me think... | May 30, 2004 |
It's a thing of the future, but my situation is yet more complicated: I'm a native Polish speaker, my boyfriend is bilingual (in Dutch and Frisian) and our only language of communication is English. We don't know yet where we should settle - as for now we live apart. I have been wondering how to cope with such a situation though. I think that both of us would like our future babies to speak our respective mother tongues, but it sounds like quite a feat to raise them quadrilingual! Any ideas on t... See more It's a thing of the future, but my situation is yet more complicated: I'm a native Polish speaker, my boyfriend is bilingual (in Dutch and Frisian) and our only language of communication is English. We don't know yet where we should settle - as for now we live apart. I have been wondering how to cope with such a situation though. I think that both of us would like our future babies to speak our respective mother tongues, but it sounds like quite a feat to raise them quadrilingual! Any ideas on the subject? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Environment is powerful | Jun 1, 2004 |
youngling wrote:
It's a thing of the future, but my situation is yet more complicated: I'm a native Polish speaker, my boyfriend is bilingual (in Dutch and Frisian) and our only language of communication is English. We don't know yet where we should settle - as for now we live apart. I have been wondering how to cope with such a situation though. I think that both of us would like our future babies to speak our respective mother tongues, but it sounds like quite a feat to raise them quadrilingual! Any ideas on the subject?
I have friends in a similar quadrilingual situation: the father's native language is Spanish, the mother's Slovak, the language of communication between parents is German, and the kids have been raised in English-speaking US.
Both parents made efforts to give their native languages to the children. The mother fought an uphill battle using Slovak music and books, and initially the daughter used Slovak animal names, etc. But as the mother became proficient with English, she seemed to favor it herself and the daughter (now 5) does not speak or understand it. The father, through a lot of effort, seems to have succeeded in giving his daughter good Spanish comprehension (he speaks hiself, and they also have Spanish-speaking friends with kids in the area). But the child is most comfortable speaking English. So environment would appear to be the dominant factor.
I remember an exchange in which the girl, then 2 or so, asked her dad for "mango", using the American pronunciation ('main-go'). The father corrected her pronunciation, using the Spanish 'a'. She tried it tentatively, then tried the American sound again, comparing. Apparently preferring the American sound, she then said it strongly in the American way (perhaps also to tease her father). I wondered where she got the confidence to ignore his suggestion, and it struck me how powerful 'environment' must be.
As for German, the parents hoped to keep that to themselves so they would be able to speak without the kids understanding. I remember them saying that this made the language particularly interesting to the daughter.
| | | | Ruxi
German to Romanian
+ ...
| Trilingual and some remarks | Jun 1, 2004 |
Congratulations for your baby, first of all and the best wishes for him/her.
I envy you (in the positive sence because I am very glad for you),because unfortunately we don't succeed in having a baby, not even with adopting a child.
We are a trilingual family, that is both of us come from different countries (Romania, Italy) and we live in Germany. We speak German at home.In the meantime I also speak Italian.
We were adviced and it seems it is a general opinion, in case of havin... See more Congratulations for your baby, first of all and the best wishes for him/her.
I envy you (in the positive sence because I am very glad for you),because unfortunately we don't succeed in having a baby, not even with adopting a child.
We are a trilingual family, that is both of us come from different countries (Romania, Italy) and we live in Germany. We speak German at home.In the meantime I also speak Italian.
We were adviced and it seems it is a general opinion, in case of having children to speak each of us in his mother-tongue and in the community the children would speak German anyway.
I would do it like this.
Since we live in a very international region of the country I could hear other families where it has function. Children were fluently speaking two languages at the same time. I remember a Japanese mother speaking with her daughter (met them in a bus)more in German and the girl answered sometimes in German, sometimes in Japanese.
Now I think about some other aspects. They say children have a great capability to learn foreign languages. But always?
I could see children having language lessons in kindergarden and school. Some learn very easy indeed, but many don't have a talent for this. They learn difficult, having a bad pronunciation. I think it depends also of some features of the person, most of all on the musicality.
I have a good friend who had such a problem, she is has not voice and her musical hearing is low. She learned perfect more languages, but the pronunciation is bad. Grammar and vocabulary are very good. So there are are some problems.
I have the other problem about languages. I learn them very easy (I like them),I have sort of a sound logic like in music (music I rather learn on hearing and not with notes). Most of the time it works. I don't have a good memory of grammar rules, many times I can not memorise things because they don't sound logical for me and don't have an explanation. A French teacher answered me at my questioning: "But why is it like this?" with "There is no explanation, it's just like this, French speak it like this."
There are people who can not learn foreign languages as well as others can not learn computers (programming), or mathematics, or music, or sports.
Are babies different? How can they manage to learn?
There is also another aspect in multilingual families or communities: the capability to switch between languages which means a very high time of reaction.
We had a prime minister in our country who is a talent in foreign languages.He also was bilingual in his family (but with two latin languages, so very similar). Still everybody could see him in meeting at European level speaking free more languages and switching immediatly. He heard questions in different languages (French, English, Spanish) without interpreter and answered to each of them in his language perfectly and immediatly.
Now that is something, because our brain is like the hard-disk of a computer. He has to receive information, compare them which his own (t.i understand them in Romanian) and then translate them in another type of information,all instantly.
With bilingual babies there seem to be a double or even triple hard-disk, each of it storing basic information and then they have to work simultaneously.
I don't know if being more-lingual is not tiring and confusing for children. Learnig at school and using once at a time a language is O.K, but always using 2-3 languages at the same time?
I was invited to work within a project at a German company and had to prepare a large document translating from German into English. It worked perfect, but after that I was very tired, I also had to understand and adapt the document for our needs.
I am still not sure where the truth is.
Ruxi ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Cyprio-French couple | Jun 1, 2004 |
Hi there!
I have more or less the same situation as you here, my boyfriend is Greek-Cypriot, and I am French, our communication language is English. He can barely say 'my name is...' in French, and I still don't get the Greek alphabet right. We live in the UK for the time being, and are thinking about a baby, but we don't want it to loose the opportunity to have three languages from the start of its life. Our thinking is to stay here in England for the time being, and the baby will be brou... See more Hi there!
I have more or less the same situation as you here, my boyfriend is Greek-Cypriot, and I am French, our communication language is English. He can barely say 'my name is...' in French, and I still don't get the Greek alphabet right. We live in the UK for the time being, and are thinking about a baby, but we don't want it to loose the opportunity to have three languages from the start of its life. Our thinking is to stay here in England for the time being, and the baby will be brought up in an English environment. As Henry said, it will probably be its first language. But nothing prevents us to speak our own language to her/him, neither to watch movies, going on holidays to see our relatives in our respective countries. I do not have the illusion that the baby will be trilingual, but I know for sure that if we try hard (but still enjoy it), it will be able to understand at least 3 languages, and then to make a choice( or not) according to its preferences.
And that's the most important, its preferences.
Karine ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| My parents decided to speak to me only in English (and I lived in Argentina) | Jun 3, 2004 |
My father was English and my mother was Scotch, but I was born and living in Argentina.
My parents decided to teach me only English, since they knew that, living in Argentina, I would pick up Spanish in any case.
Of course, the maid at home spoke Spanish (my father was a technical manager of the British railways in Argentina). And later on they had me one full year at school in Scotland.
I will always be grateful to my parents for having taught me the English lan... See more My father was English and my mother was Scotch, but I was born and living in Argentina.
My parents decided to teach me only English, since they knew that, living in Argentina, I would pick up Spanish in any case.
Of course, the maid at home spoke Spanish (my father was a technical manager of the British railways in Argentina). And later on they had me one full year at school in Scotland.
I will always be grateful to my parents for having taught me the English language. If not, I would probably not be today in the translation business.
Although I did not follow the same principle with my children, I had them in bilingual schools since they were very young (starting with an English playschool when they were 3 years old and then in bilingual primary and secondary schools)since my wife spoke only Spanish. My daughter at age 17 obtained her Proficiency Certificate from the University of Cambridge, and speaks English fluently. Actually she obtained the second prize in a nation-wide English composition contest, so both systems seem to work OK.
Robert Ingledew ▲ Collapse
| | | | Angela Dickson (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:59
French to English
+ ...
| Children's language learning | Jun 8, 2004 |
Ruxi, I think you might be confusing general talent for languages (which translators have, usually) with the universal ability of small children to pick up at least one language very quickly. If each parent speaks a different language to a child during its early development, it will almost certainly pick up both languages well. If the second language is added later, (how much later is a matter for debate) then whether or not the child picks it up well will depend on its general aptitude.
<... See more Ruxi, I think you might be confusing general talent for languages (which translators have, usually) with the universal ability of small children to pick up at least one language very quickly. If each parent speaks a different language to a child during its early development, it will almost certainly pick up both languages well. If the second language is added later, (how much later is a matter for debate) then whether or not the child picks it up well will depend on its general aptitude.
The central problem for modern linguistics is to explain how a child can pick up a language at such lightening speed - but this is not a question for this forum...
Angela ▲ Collapse
| | | | | stick to one language and don't make a big deal about it | Jun 17, 2004 |
My son (now 17) was born in Germany and lived there for his first 3 years.I always spoke English to him and outside the flat, life was in German only. He understood everything said to him in German.
When he was three, I moved to Antwerp. He started nursery school 2 weeks later, in Dutch. 8 weeks later, at Christmas, he was starting to speak Dutch and by the end of the school year, he was fluent. At home we spoke only English, life outside home was in Dutch only. When he was four, he contin... See more My son (now 17) was born in Germany and lived there for his first 3 years.I always spoke English to him and outside the flat, life was in German only. He understood everything said to him in German.
When he was three, I moved to Antwerp. He started nursery school 2 weeks later, in Dutch. 8 weeks later, at Christmas, he was starting to speak Dutch and by the end of the school year, he was fluent. At home we spoke only English, life outside home was in Dutch only. When he was four, he continued his nursery school, but in French (in Antwerp, for a fee since public French schools are not allowed in Flanders). On the first day, he came home and said he didn't understand what they were saying. I told him not to worry, just to have fun and he'd learn it fast enough. By the end of the school year, he was fluent in French (so, he had French in school, Dutch as the local language and English at home) As it turned out, he has studied in French ever since.I moved to Brussels when he was 6, so French became the language outside the home as well. I speak all 3 languages myself, but have always spoken only English to my son. He is now an authentic dual-mother tongue FR-EN (gramatically perfect and accent free (grrrr)) and he is very good in Dutch. When we go to a Dutch-speaking area or to the Netherlands, he speaks Dutch without hesitation. And wherever we are, he speaks to me only in English.
I think that whatever decision you make about the language to speak to your child, you must stick to it 100%. not switch back and forth. And try to stick to your native language-kids pick up mistakes. According to teachers,they often encounter children here who speak 3 or 4 languages, all at an equally poor level.
And most of all, DON'T make this a big deal for your child(ren). Don't turn them into party pieces, bragging and showing them off. Just let it be part of their everyday lives, nothing more.
My son assumed everyone spoke several languages and was very suprised when he was in the US/UK and found out that wasn't the case. If you become obsessed about this, you risk 'blocking' your child(ren)and they may end up tongue-tied or simply rejecting one of the languages.
[Edited at 2004-06-17 08:47] ▲ Collapse
| | | | berelin
Local time: 23:59
German to English
+ ...
| Trilingual baby? | Jun 17, 2004 |
Hi,
I've been following this thread with great interest. Our current situation is straightforward: I`m English, my husband is German, we live in Germany and up 'til now have been doing OPOL with our five month old baby. I was relatively happy with the situation and sure that my daughter would get enough input in both languages to grow up truly bilingual. However, at the end of the year we are going to relocate to Brussels, where I will start working full time, my husband will go part time ... See more Hi,
I've been following this thread with great interest. Our current situation is straightforward: I`m English, my husband is German, we live in Germany and up 'til now have been doing OPOL with our five month old baby. I was relatively happy with the situation and sure that my daughter would get enough input in both languages to grow up truly bilingual. However, at the end of the year we are going to relocate to Brussels, where I will start working full time, my husband will go part time and my daughter will attend a French-speaking crèche. I`m terrified that French will become her dominant language (my husband doesn`t speak a word, but I`m fluent), German her second and - because I`m at home less - English will take a poor third place. On the one hand, I see this as a wonderful oportunity for her, but on the other I envisage her not uttering a word until she`s in primary school, being terribly frustrated and missing out on the chance of having faultless English (a must in todays world).
Now my question: Does anyone know of any good literature/research on trilingual children? I have read a lot about bilingual upbringing but can`t seem to find anything on three plus languages (because, of course, there`s Flemmish as well)
Thanks ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
| Trilingual Baby - reassurance | Jun 22, 2004 |
Hi Berelin,
I was worried about the same thing here in Catalunya.
I was worried Jana would pick up Mum's Spanish, Catalan in the street and only be able to sing the odd nursery rhyme in my native tongue. However, this has not proved to be the case. A dedicated comittment to OPOL and a four week summer holiday in Britain last year where she was befriended by some older British kids has ensured all my dedication to the task has paid off.
Keep the faith - it ... See more Hi Berelin,
I was worried about the same thing here in Catalunya.
I was worried Jana would pick up Mum's Spanish, Catalan in the street and only be able to sing the odd nursery rhyme in my native tongue. However, this has not proved to be the case. A dedicated comittment to OPOL and a four week summer holiday in Britain last year where she was befriended by some older British kids has ensured all my dedication to the task has paid off.
Keep the faith - it is incredible how kids sort this all out at an early age!
On a Bilingual Familes list I was on I remember a couple who were succeeding in the following circumstances. Dad was Arab speaking, Mum was Dutch - they didn't speak a word of each other's languages and so conversed together in English (practicing OPOL with child) .... Where did they live?.... JAPAN! However, the kid seemed to have a good command of Mum & Dad's languages as well as the language of the street and was also picking up a lot of English!
Multi-lingualism seems to be natural!
Cheers,
Berni ▲ Collapse
| | | | Beta Cummins
United States
Local time: 17:59
Member (2005)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| ¡Que divertido leer tu relato! | Dec 17, 2007 |
Andrea,
Sou Brasileira de Sao Paulo. Morei na linda Buenos Aires por 3 anos. Que saudades...!!
Hoje, tenho uma filhinha de 3 anos, nascida nos EUA, pai Americano. Desta forma, minha filha fala 3 idiomas - Ingles, Espanhol, e Portugues. Nesta ordem.
Minha falha foi nao ter falado mais Portugues com ela. Mas, ela absorve e aprende com muita rapidez e assim, entende tudo o que lhe dizemos em Portugues. Mas nao fala tanto como deveria (mea culpa!).
O idioma Espa... See more Andrea,
Sou Brasileira de Sao Paulo. Morei na linda Buenos Aires por 3 anos. Que saudades...!!
Hoje, tenho uma filhinha de 3 anos, nascida nos EUA, pai Americano. Desta forma, minha filha fala 3 idiomas - Ingles, Espanhol, e Portugues. Nesta ordem.
Minha falha foi nao ter falado mais Portugues com ela. Mas, ela absorve e aprende com muita rapidez e assim, entende tudo o que lhe dizemos em Portugues. Mas nao fala tanto como deveria (mea culpa!).
O idioma Espanhol ela aprende na TV - voce com certeza conhece o desenho animado da Dora? Minha filha adora e aprende o nome dos numeros, letras, animais, etc.
Enfim, achei tao divertido ler seu relato, me identifiquei com muitas coisas. E a partir de hoje, nao falo mais Ingles com minha filha. So Portugues. O Ingles ela ira aprender no decorrer da vida escolar e na companhia do pai e familiares aqui dos EUA. ¿Que te parece?
Saludos y felicidades,
Beta Cummins:D
Andrea Jablon wrote:
Te escribo en español para que se te vaya haciendo más natural! (y porque se me hace más fácil hablar del tema en español);)
Te felicito por el próximo nacimiento de tu beba! Tengo 2 niñas hermosas (4 y 1) y sé que realmente es maravilloso.
Mi caso es así: mi papá se fue a vivir a Brasil cuando yo tenía 4 años, se casó con una mujer brasileña y tuvo varios hijos por allá (donde aún vive). Dejó de hablar español y se dedicó al portugués en tiempo completo. Resultado: su español actual es bastante dudoso y ninguno de mis 5 hermanos habla el idioma (aunque lo entienden razonablemente bien, si uno quiere que lo entiendan).
Desde muy chiquita pasaba varios meses al año en Rio de Janeiro y hablaba portugués con la mitad de mi familia, por lo que mi portugués es prácticamente nativo.
Cuando cumplí unos 10 años, me mudé con mi mamá (que no entiende una palabra de portugués) y su marido a Venezuela y, además, empecé a tener más obligaciones escolares, por lo que mis viajes se hicieron más cortos y mi relación con el portugués se hizo menos asidua. Siempre escuchaba mucha música y leía mucho en portugués, iba todas mis vacaciones, tenía muchos amigos, pero no era lo mismo. Después de recibirme en la facultad llegué incluso a vivir 5 años en Sao Paulo.
Sin embargo, nadie iba a imaginar que yo decidiría hablarle a mis hijas en portugués, ni siquiera yo...
Pero así fue. Cuando me quedé embarazada (en Argentina, casada con un argentino), no sé por qué, me pareció que no era posible que mi bebé no se comunicara con mis hermanos brasileños o que no entendiera a la mujer de mi papá o que no cantara Caetano Veloso!
Así que, desde la panza, viviendo en Argentina, y rodeada de una familia local (propia y política) que ni habla ni entiende portugués, me lancé a la loca aventura de hablarle portugués a mi panza.
En mi siguiente viaje a Brasil, hice lo que sabiamente te aconseja Claudia: compré música infantil, videos infantiles en portugués, libritos, etc.
Nació mi hija mayor y empecé a ver los resultados. Hoy tiene 4 años y habla PERFECTAMENTE ambos idiomas, y es más, ahora me pide aprender inglés. No sabes la naturalidad con la que simplemente asume que las personas de distintos lugares le dan diferentes nombres a las cosas. Ya la agarré viendo la tele en francés! "Si uno mira se entiende igual, mami". Al año y medio hablaba como un loro... bilingue!!!! Y por si esto fuera poco, mi marido ya entiende casi todo y hasta hace intentos para "falar portugues", pero mi hija le marca muy estrictamente sus errores, asi que sufre bastante...
Ahora estamos haciendo lo mismo con la menor, que tiene 18 meses. No habla tanto como hablaba Maia (en ningún idioma), pero si responde y "obedece" a lo que le digas en cualquiera de los dos, intenta cantar en cualquiera de los dos, le encantan los videos en portugués...
Actualmente, dejo el portugués para nuestros viajes a Brasil, mi casa o cuando estamos en familia, porque no quiero que se sientan incómodas delante de sus amigas. A solas: cuando me habla en español, yo respondo, pero en portugués. Si leemos un librito en español, lo leo en español, si es en portugués, respetamos el idioma. A mí se me hizo muy natural con el tiempo. Tanto, que si la tengo que regañar, me cuesta hacerlo en español, ¿puedes creerlo?
Mi hija mayor le habla a la chiquita en español (obviamente lo siente su idioma nativo), pero al llegar a Brasil, le toma apenas unas horas ponerse en ambiente. Me imagino que con el tiempo será igual con Nina.
En fin, mi experiencia es que no solo hablan dos idiomas. También tienen una visión un poco más abierta de algunas cosas.
No es fácil, pero ¡Vale la pena intentarlo! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I want to do the same with my future children | Apr 18, 2008 |
Hi! I am from Argentina and a Proffessor of English. I am happy to hear that there's somebody with the same idea I have and hope for it to be possible.
My native language is Spanish and my husband's too. However He is attending now a course of English 'cause we have the idea of bringing up our children to become bilingual. That would be English at home and Spanish outside. I am also going to take a course of "English teaching for babies" which is becoming common in my country nowadaysand w... See more Hi! I am from Argentina and a Proffessor of English. I am happy to hear that there's somebody with the same idea I have and hope for it to be possible.
My native language is Spanish and my husband's too. However He is attending now a course of English 'cause we have the idea of bringing up our children to become bilingual. That would be English at home and Spanish outside. I am also going to take a course of "English teaching for babies" which is becoming common in my country nowadaysand will provide me with the necessary material. songs, etc.
Besides I have studied the Gramatica Generativa of Chomsky and learnt that our mind comes with the faculty of learning languages in a naturally way, no matter how many they are, only provided that the children involved are no more than 6 years old.
My fear, though, was the idea of making this situation a rather forced activity and that once they adquire any of English would lose it after a time of exposure to Spanish, when they start school, etc.
Anyway I think I'm goinig to give it a try and see what happens!
Let us know how it goes in your case..
Good luck!! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | There is no moderator assigned specifically to this forum. To report site rules violations or get help, please contact site staff » Bilingual babies | CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
| | TM-Town | Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business
Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
