Which second language and why?

[THen]

Hi Y'all!

I'd like to teach my baby a second language and was wondering which second language you chose and why you chose that language.  A little description of how you teach (or plan to teach) would be helpful to me, too. 

Thank you!  You guys are great! 

[rixu]

im a Maldivian so we r teaching Maldivian language as the first and English as the second language. as English is an international language whee we have books and lots of teaching materials. i am teaching most by using there brillkid teaching materials and starfall and flash cards that i made on topics.  Arabic is the  third one this i started by flash cards and now use the arabic phonics songs from youtube

[joan]

Hi THen,

I would say that depends a lot on the resources available to you. For my first, I taught him English as first language and Chinese as second language because English is spoken by everyone around him. For my second, I'm making an effort to speak mostly Chinese, and leave the English part to the others (although sometimes I forget so she's still getting about 40% English and 60% Chinese from me). Since you speak Japanese, wouldn't that be the natural choice?

I would love to teach them Spanish (since it's the 3rd widely spoken language) but no one around us speaks Spanish. I could expose them to some Spanish but it's not "live". So if we get the opportunity to have regular contact with people who speak other languages, be it Indonesian, Arabic, Japanese, French, anything, I would choose that over Spanish.

Joan

[patreiche]

I think the offer from the BBC for 5 languages, one of which is english, sounds like a bargain. The dvds immerse the child in the languages. Sounds like it would take them to kindergarten level in 5 languages. It is only $199. Haven't actually tried it yet, but it has 30 day money back guarantee.

[Nikolett]

I am Russian,my husband Hungarian and we speak English to each other and our close friends. So English ended up their first, Hungarian second and now comes  Russian. Though I think I missed it with that

[aneta]

I guess for me the first choice of language was its practicality for our family so
No.1 is english as both me and my husband speak it ,and it's the languague we use in all the places we worked.
No.2 is polish it's my mother tounge .I speak to kids polish 60% none school related time.THey speak and read polish quite well.
No.3 is gujarati ,my husband teaches that one.Beacouse he can't spend as much time with them it took them a bit longer but they are
 progressing fast.
NO.4 Is russian as I can speak it too and we have alot of russian friends.I talk to them russian for 2 hours a day.Plus I use alot of word flash cards.
No.5 is spanish  which we are working on this year and I'm learning it too. we started off with flash cards,and then we will move to short sentences.
 I try to read to kids a lot in those languages, play games and with older ones we write poems for fun .

[Nikolett]

Wow, that is a  list! Karma to you! Can you share your Russian word cards?

[Mima]

HI all,

My first language is Mongolian.
I speak english and mongolian language in my home.. I grow up learniing russian..

[THen]

Thanks Y'all for your replies!

My first language is definatley English, but I learned Japanese when my family moved to Japan when I was in second grade.  My father spoke Japanese to my mother, but they spoke mainly English to the kids.  I do speak Japanese, but after living in Russia (and having to learn Russian), then going to Germany and learning just a bit of German, it takes my brain a while to get into speaking Japanese.  (Although, I can chat really well when I visit my Japanese-speaking grandmother.)  Then, when I'm tired, I can hear an accent in my Japanese.      And, there aren't many Japanses speakers in the area (there are a lot of Spanish speakers). 

So, we've been thinking of Spanish.  My 12 year old says he wants to study Latin.  He can do that on his own.  I'm not sure I want to teach the others Latin right now.

I notice many people choose to teach their child Chinese.  Is there a reason for this? 

Thanks again y'all!   

[KL]

I notice many people choose to teach their child Chinese.  Is there a reason for this? 

Perhaps cos it's the most spoken language in the world?
Yep, it's true, although of course English is much more widely spoken across different countries and different races (whereas Chinese is 'most spoken' simply because something like 1/4 (or is it 1/3?!) of the world's population is Chinese, though they're mainly in China!).
Also because China is one of the fastest developing nation and it's economic influence is getting stronger day by day, so if you ever imagine your child one day doing business with China or with Chinese, it'd be a useful language to learn.

For people in Asia, learning mandarin is starting to be seen by many as being mandatory now.

[milovelu]

For us:

No.1 is Chinese. I am a Taiwanese, so teaching my kids Chinese is simply by talking to them. Since they live in the US, I do not worry about them learning English.

The problem I heard from a lot of Chinese parents here is that the kids will try to avoid speaking Chinese, but only English, once they go to school. Mainly because their friends all speak in English at school. My daughter started to talk to me in English a lot after she went to preschool. Anyway, I try to talk to her in Chinese most of the time so that she does not forget this language.

No. 2 is English. My husband does not speak Chinese, kids mainly pick up English from him.

No.3: My daughter asked to learn Japanese, so we are going to work on that.

No. 4: We are thinking to have the kids learn German or French.

[cristy]

We are teaching our daughter Spanish as the first language since both my husband and I are "native" speakers.
Second language is obviously english.

I'd love to teach her mandarin chinese. Why? It can give your kid a huge advantage, specially if they learn it at a young age. If they do, they can enroll in formal classes and learn how to read and write. This is a real big challenge for adults who need to learn it.

In a near future, after having a head start with those three languages, I'd love her to learn french. I lived in Montreal when I went to college so I know quite a bit.

[patreiche]

Do you think it is bad idea to teach several languages at once? Do you wait till they start to talk with first language? Do you wait till they catch on with second before you start third?

[Nikolett]

I've been looking into it as I had the same question. Here I sumed up what I  found.
It's possible to teach as many languages as you would like simultaneously if there is a clear pattern to it. The child  might start speaking later (as late as 2-2,5y.o.) Some samples of patterns:
1. One person- one language i.e. mom-English, dad-Chinese, grandma-Russian, nanny-Spanish.
2. One place -one language, i.e. home-Russian, out-English (language of the country), German preschool...
3. Timing. English a.m. Russian at lunch, Chinese after nap...
4. Toy association. A puppet works for language  classes.
3. The first person to speak chooses the languge. (For older kids)
Hope  it  helps.

[Nikolett]

Forgot to add. Choose your pattern and prepare to stick to it for years to see results Consistency is key

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