How many hrs/week to learn a 2nd language

[luckylucy]

I don't speak French at all but for the past 2 months my 20 month old girl is in French class 1 hour a week with a native French teacher and then she gets 2 hours on Sunday and 4 hours on Monday with a native French speaking babysitter who only speaks French to her.   So all together she gets about 7 hours of strictly native French speaking per week.  We would love to do more but 7 hours a week is all we can afford.  It's only been two months but she seems to understand when her babysitter ask "do you want to play" or "do you want something to eat" or "do you want to go into your room", etc. 

So I guess I'm wondering if she can become fluent in French with just 7 hours a week.   I've read that it takes at least 3 hours a day of foreign language exposure for babies to pick up the language but this seems excessive considering that I know one baby who has a French nanny one day a week, and a chinese nanny one day a week, and a English nanny the rest of the week and this 2 year old boy speaks all three languages!

What's been your experience?  Any recommendations as far as time with the babysitter? 

Thanks!
Lucy

[LDSMom]

I've heard it takes 15 hours a week. The local spanish immersion preschool says it takes about 500 hours of consistent exposure for them to become fluent. They do 3 hours a day 5 days a week.

I have my son in a spanish immersion playgroup 2 hours a day 5 days of the week, so he gets about 10 hrs per week and he is picking it up just fine. We also let him watch spanish cartoons and/or music which seems to help. His teacher says he is understanding what she says to him, and he speaks a few words here and there.

[Baining]

Oh my Goodness!  I am jealous you can do so much!  I think that is great!  Obviously she is learning and she is still so young!  She will be fluent if you keep that up!  Seriously!  The question is when do you want her fluent by?  Although young children have the advantage of those first 5 years they do keep learning after that.  She is well on her way.  We started teaching our boys Mandarin when they were 2 and 4 now 6 and 8.  We could never afford any outside help although we have a lot of Chinese friends, so have a lot of opportunities to speak  We have learned the language as well.  We didn't think they were getting all that much for a long time, now they are really blossoming!  I know that they will be fluent if we just keep going with it.  I think your approach is much better that hoping just a dvd alone will do the trick, which it won't I know!

Just some food for thought, why not learn French yourself?  If you try to master even simple conversations ( i.e. using Pimsleur) then your child will see that it is important enough for her to learn.  Also you can share the experience of learning another language with them.  Funny stories about mess ups and so on.  And of course when she is 16 you don't want her to have the edge over you!

Anyways sounds like you are doing a good job, just keep it up!
I would love you share how it's going on our site about teaching another language to your kids!
http://mandarinkids.wordpress.com/

[luckylucy]

Thanks for the responses!  I will definitely keep you updated on her progress.  Right now she is attending preschool 3 days a week and we cut out the French on Mondays because of $ so now she only getting about 4 hours a week of French but we're going to start up again soon.   I speak a tiny bit of French but I'm trying to learn along with her.  You are right, it's so helpful.  How much Mandrin can you now speak after trying to learn it along with your children?   I'll definitely report back to you on our French!

Lucy

[Baining]

Thanks so Much!  She is adorable!  Yes please share your cute language learning stories, which she inevitably will have, with us on the site under Smile Stories! 

We are not fluent yet, I don't know if that will ever come but we do have a lot of Chinese friends so we can keep a pretty good conversation going.  But if someone wanted to talk about  their recent hysterectomy with me then... no!!!

Please do keep in touch and please share also and learning ideas, questions, topics or frustrations on the site!  Thanks so much!
You can also get a free subscription there too!
Hope to hear from you soon!

Ni xinku le!  Your hard work appreciated!  Mandarin
Baining
http://mandarinkids.wordpress.com/

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