1. language - How strong after introducing 2. language

[Lolobride]

Hello,

Maybe the title is a bit confusing. My question is: do you think, that the child's development in the first language learnd goes a bit slower  / backwards,  after introducing a 2. or 3. language?

My little daughter is 2 years old and speaks very good hungarian already. I'm just afraid, she will lose a bit of that, after learning now german, and later english and french. Hungarian is a really difficult language and I know many hungarian people living here in Germany, who don't speak so well after a few years.

Thanks for your answers about your experiences.

[mom2bee]

I'm sure that there are many children who learn Hungarian and German and Another language, easily. Hungarian isn't hard for a Hungarian baby who is growing up and living and loving the language each and everyday with papa and mama.

I think that if you add in a German time activities regularly and explain to baby that "Look, lets learn German colors. This is...., can you say....? Good job!"

Learn Vocabulary. Read books, do simple Q and A, do an activity. repeat. Enjoy.

Get one of those My first 500 Words in ___ books and use it as a guide to give your baby a good foundation vocabulary, and continually use it as a guide for learning more. Play games and read together and speak to her to help with sentence structure etc...

Have fun.

[Lolobride]

Hi Mom2bee,

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, I'm really motivated and exited to start to teach her german!! I'm just afraid, that she will lose a bit of hungarian. Because every hour, I speak german with her or exercise, I speak 1 hour less hugarian... But probably you are right, I shouldn't worry too much, just enjoy!

Why do you think, so many people don't speak hungarian here so good after a few years? For instance, I know a man, who lives here since 20 years, he came with 23 years to Germany and speaks german since then with his wife. They have now a little son and he says, he doesn't want to speak hungarian with him, because his hungarian isn't so good anymore. And he spoke the first 23 years of his life just hungarian!

[kirthika]

Hi Lolobride,

I am sure that a child can learn more languages in early years when he exposed to the multiple languages.I stay in Indian city and here many people use different languages.my son speaks mother tongue Tamil very well which  we speak at home and when he plays in park or at school he picked up the English and he  speaks in English with his friends and he can understand the local language Kannada and can answer with some words and he is trying to understand Hindhi which is our national language and his some of the friends language . If a child grows in multilingual community they automatically pickup so many languages without lot of effort.my elder son can speak and read 5 languages.my younger one started to speak in 2 years and now he is 2 and half.I keep telling him answer in English to this friend and answer him in Kannada like that,he realizes that this people speak this language and trying to answer in their language.But I am very strict that I am sticking with my mother tongue and most of conversations at home is our language only. so keep on exposing ur child to many languages to learn.

[Ouroboros1]

I remember reading somewhere that to retain a language a baby should have 20% of it's time hearing/speaking/being read to, and active language use(rather than just hearing that language playing in the background).  --I think the book "Superbaby" maybe?

I would be interested to hear from someone who has taught their child to speak more than 2 languages fluently, and what is the best way to do this.  If the 20% rule is true, a child would only be able to pick up  5 languages fluently, and I tend to think kids are able to learn more than that if conditions are right.   I just wish I knew how best to introduce more than 2 languages to avoid being a jack of all trades and master of none.

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