Hi house.

Kindly share how-to, clue or experience on raising a multilingial children.

Thanx

Interesting topic. My son counts in russian, swahili, spainish and french. For some weird reason he likes the idea of knowing different languages and he is only 3. I have taken note but I really don't even know where to start with it. If maybe I should make him focus on one or just let him have fun with it the way he is now

lol outstrip. Let him go with the flow,just make him go slow and easy. Enroll him in classes and when you think he can't cope then you can cut it down to 2 or 1. I think he can cope if he is not rushed into it but taught slow and steady. Abeg no kill the boy dream ooooo,lol

Jon.Bee:

Hi house.

Kindly share how-to, clue or experience on raising a multilingial children.

Thanx

I know someone this affected, when he was a lil kid, he spoke German/Dutch and all its variation as spoken in Germany, Austria, Holland, Switzeland, etc, he was also fluent in French, Spanish, and 3 African languages at once, whilst he thrived at home and everyone could understand what he was saying, it became an issue for him at School as he was trying to speak all the languages at once and getting muddled up and his Teachers could not understand him and it started affecting his performance.

Lol BB it depends on the kid you know.

Any child of mine that is interested is only allowed to know 3 and like I once stated it's all about going slow and easy,starting with simple lines, e.t.c

jennykadry:

Lol BB it depends on the kid you know.

[s]Ehn hen, always thought he was extraordinarily dense, now this confirms it Na Mr BB i dey talk oh [/s] Jenny why are you disrespeckin my man na, watch yourself oh

Lol Oloshi ,BTW Is MR BB bi-racial?

^^^

Nor bribe me, I am still telling him

Is that the word they use now Yeah he is half n half

^^ No worries mate. Just wanna know cos I am planning on having my way with him

Now I know why BB wants to have kids every year. Who wouldn't wanna have "bi-racial" as kids and who wouldn't wanna sleep with a sexy looking biracial.

If na someone like me the thing go sweet me so tey I no go know when I go dey born every 6 months

Emmm BB I got gifts from aussie for you and your wondeful pikin.Please send me your contact details (Address) I need to send em to you.

P.S if na biracial with "ARAB" or INDIAN'' blood, please I no want. Thank you , danke, ose, dalu

jennykadry:

^^ No worries mate. Just wanna know cos I am planning on having my way with him

Now I know why BB wants to have kids every year. Who wouldn't wanna have "bi-racial" as kids and who wouldn't wanna sleep with a sexy looking biracial.

If na someone like me the thing go sweet me so tey I no go know when I go dey born every 6 months

Emmm BB I got gifts from aussie for you and your wondeful pikin.Please send me your contact details (Address) I need to send em to you.

P.S if na biracial with "ARAB" or INDIAN'' blood, please I no want. Thank you , danke, ose, dalu

Ah that reminds me, you need to give me Mr Kadry's shoe size, I've already got yours, i saw some nice his n hers rubber slippers at Yaba Tejuosho market that would make the loveliest gifts for you and him

How you wan take born every 6 months, e don tay wey you don kolo

Jenny nor corrupt me joo, I am still a new chassis fagin so dunno whacchutalkin about, i am even too shy to type the S word that you use yekini for Na UK blood dey hin body jare, Arab ke

rotflmao. Jenny and bb una head no dey house o

@OP,how old is the child?
Are u and/or ur hubby bi-racial and communicate with the boy in ur different lingos?do u stay in a country with a different(from either of u) lingua franca?
If the answers to above questions are positives,i wud say u have nothing to worry abt(if those are the lingos the boy speaks).There is no fear of "losing it" as he has people to converse with efficiently in those languages.The key to learning and retaining a language is "usage"

If however,he is just learning (outside the above scenarios) chances are that some of the languages wud die off from his head or he wud go the way of "speaking in strange tongues" as BB pointed out.

I was once on same boat,before i open my mouth,friends wud remind me the language. . .French only please,lol.I got sane by maintaining english and let the others die,(I had no one to constantly converse with in those languages)

@Jenny, who is that man in your profile? Your man?

.

chaircover:

Do you know I never really thought about it

My daughter attends catholic school so naturally a lot of Italian is spoken in the playground. She wanted to fit in so asked us to send her to Italian lessons which she attends. They learn Spanish in school anyway and is taught in English. She also understands a fair amount of Yoruba.

She is only 7 and I haven't noticed any confusion in picking the right language for the correct occasion but I suppose at that age she doesn't realize that she is learning and it is all fun to her. How I wish learning was fun during my French Lessons in school .**sigh**

you can say again there is no confusion

when i was young we were forced to speak in english in our class and sometimes and school grounds but i never had an problem from switching from english to shona or shona to english

the same with indians & somalis here in UK their kids speak both fluent english and mother tongue etc

there is a lot of confusin within my fellow zimbabwean here in UK you hear them bragging that my child cant speal shona/ndebele the reasn they say it good for him to interact with others yes but that at school what about at home let him/her speak the mother/father language thats your ID

@JON.BEE don't try to teach them English.

Kids in many countries get to know several languages at an early age is not for genetic advantage but rather have been exposed to those languages  while young myself as an exemple am fluent in French English Portuguese Spanish and Arabic I also  speak Fulani Yoruba and Wolof ( spoken in Senegal Gambia and Mauritania) I think parents can help their kids learn languages by keeping most the exercice fun and challenging

I think its a nice idea if the kid (s) so desire, my GF speaks 5 languages it makes me wonder how she was able to swap, she's enjoying herself at work because she was the only one that can interact with almost every employee lol

Outstrip:

Interesting topic. My son counts in russian, swahili, spainish and french. For some weird reason he likes the idea of knowing different languages and he is only 3. I have taken note but I really don't even know where to start with it. If maybe I should make him focus on one or just let him have fun with it the way he is now

if you have one, can your son count in your native language? And if not, I pray to God to purge your mind of colonial mentality; and if yes, cheers and good job. I see that Swahili is mentioned, so I am assuming that Swahili is your native language.

i will ensure my daughter speaks french,dutch,ibo and english

the more the language the child can speak the better
certaiin that child has a bright future
why are you trying to limit the abilities of ur child

You guys make me feel like I should go buy all the language software for kids I can find. Since he is showing interest and actually likes the stuff. I always told myself I will nurture whatever sensible thing they come up with. We don't have anyone around speaking these languages. He does it at daycare with the older kids computers and always begs me to play them on youtube too. Na wa oh.

ANy child psychologist in the house? Your expert opinion pls. Will a child be confused at some point learning three languages simultaneously/

While I'm not a child psychologist, I've read articles actually encouraging parents to expose kids to as many languages as possible. Their little sponge-like brains can take it and it helps your kids grow confident and with superior language skills than their peers.

You can't go wrong!

See this link on top 10 Benefits of early language exposure for children:
http://www.early-advantage.com/Articles/Topten.aspx

Well, my boy is almost four and speaks 3 languages, a fourth one not so great but he understands it, kids don't really get confused with languages, their brains are porous so learning languages is easy for them!

I'm new to the forum but kids don't get confused by speaking a variety of languages- in fact it benefits their brain studies show.

I found this article on bilingual kids which may help:
http://www.incultureparent.com/2010/10/multilingual-families-monolingual-children/

There are other articles on this website too of families who have experiences raising bi/tri/4-lingual kids.
http://www.incultureparent.com/2010/11/osmosis-of-language/

http://www.incultureparent.com/2010/12/languages-of-the-mind-and-heart-the-mother-daughter-trilingual-connection/

Hope that helps!

ZIM DRILL:

there is a lot of confusin within my fellow zimbabwean here in UK you hear them bragging that my child cant speal shona/ndebele the reasn they say it good for him to interact with others yes but that at school what about at home let him/her speak the mother/father language thats your ID

A trait also common amongst Nigerians. You'll often here them say 'My Child Can't Speak Igbo/Yoruba' with pride.

@ POST
A family friend of mine wants all three kids to be fluent in what she calls the "Five Major world's language, English,Spanish,Italian,German and French'(don't ask me how she came to that conclusion. She enroled em' in classes which taught those languages and so far so good they can speak Italian,French and Spanish fluently and not too far behind when it comes to German.

If she had her way, those kids would in no time be learning Portugese too

Learning more than one language isn't difficult for children, it's the adults who get confused 

I have a friend who grew up speaking English, Swahili and German (went to a German-speaking school).  She said when they were little, she and her sisters would speak to each other in German when playing, and her English grandparents hated it!

What I've never understood is how Chinese children can speak their parents language, as can Indian and Pakistani children in Europe and North America.  Yet most African children cannot fluently speak their parents language unless their parents send them to lessons.  Why is it so hard for us to teach our children our languages?