Which second language and why?

[aneta]

I agree consistency is the key. It doesn't really matter how many languages you start as long as you not the only teacher .Especially with very small babies works great to have a language asigned to a person like Nikolle mentioned.My kids learned 3 languages at the same time and then I added more,but we still work on all of them.My brothers Grandkid learned 4 :mom speaks english,Dad portugese,Granddad afrikanse,Grandmom gujarati.All our kids spoke  early.

[puzzlemelody]

I use the Teach Me (French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, etc) Series www.teachmetapes.com to expose my children and dayhome kids to a variety of languages.  The songs and phases are in English and the foreign language.  Nice introduction.  I can't remember the research - but what I remember is that as long as a child is exposed to various languages at a young age, their brains will be prewired to learn languages later if they choose to study them. 

Rosetta Stone has a very good CDRom program for various languages (geared towards older children 4+)

With my older son - I taught him Latin and Greek prefixes suffixes and roots (flashcard format).  Helped a lot with his vocabulary and comprehension. 

[wenjonggal]

Oh drat, doing it all wrong I guess! I am not super specific about which language when... just try to get it all in.

Teaching three languages (4 if you add ASL) is going very well.

His first born language was Chinese, as he was born there, and moved to Canada at 22 mos.
Now his first language is English, since it is my native language, that of my family and a lot of my friends. It's the language I listen to radio in and watch tv and gte most books.

Second language is French, since we live in Quebec, French community. He is in daycare 2.5 days a week in FRench, and will likely go to French school. Though at home I emphasize it less...like most of the posters here, we work more on the nonmajority language within the home... I figure he will get better French from native Quebecois speakers than from me (I mostly learned it after 18 yrs old) in our neighborhood, schools etc.

Third language is Chinese. Beyond the obvious: that I want to keep some link to his original culture, it IS going to be a great business language, even if he is just working at McDonalds and can speak to Chinese tourists and visiting businessmen! Personally, I am artistic and I enjoy the characters in Chinese. It adds a little extra fun for me, compared to other languages I have studied a little (German, Swedish... which are  languages of my grandparents)

The signing was Signing time, which was great for a toddler transitioning to English, and I still use it to help him understand Chinese and French words he doesn't know.

[Kappasweet]

Spanish, it is the only language I am fluent in other than English.

[rose08]

Spanish was first choice for me...but I am only teaching it as I have been learning to speak it myself. I think that teaching Chinese is a good choice as where I live there are a lot of people who speak it. I have heard that it is very hard to learn so wasnt too keen to try and teach my child it by myself.

[cassidy336]

I'm surprised how many people know several languages and how well people know English when it isn't their first language. I only know English.  I took Spanish in school so I know the vocabulary and I can understand some, but I could't put a sentence together on my own.

We are doing Spanish.  There are so many people in the US that speak it now that it seemed logical. 

[Angmei]

Malaysia is a multi-lingual country.  I myself can speak English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin including a few dialects.  At home, we speak English  and my elder son, 7 years picked up mandarin when he is with his cousins and he learns his Bahasa Melayu from  the maid.

In my opinion, you can teach children any second languages you like as long you are good and can guide your child.  If you are not so good, when your child wants to learn more, then the knowledge you impart to your child will be limited.
    
So....start any languages you like. My younger boy going to be 3 years in August can speak English & Bahasa Melayu.  Only a few words in Mandarin which he picked up from his older brother.

[Joha]

We live in the States and my husband is american, so my daughter's first language is English. I'm from Colombia, so her second language is going to be Spanish which I have been teaching her since she was born (she is only four months old). We had decided to teach her signing language which we will start when she turns 6 months old. The last language we are going to be teaching her is chinese because we thing it is going to come very handy in the near future. Neither of us know chinese, but we think that with the materials you can find you can give them some good tools. We know we are going to be limited because we can's speak it, but we want to take advantage of her bright brain and give her as much info as possible, so later in life it will be much easier for her to continuing learning chinese. Because of that same reason I have been considering to teach her some Arabic, since there are some many good resources in this website, but I have not been able to convince my husband yet   

I think that the more languages you know the easiest it is to pick up new languages. So, I think that any language you pick will definetly give your kids an advantage.

Good luck in your adventure!

[varshak]

My son is already in contact with 3 languages.English,Hindi & kannada that is our mother tongue.Me n my hubby talk in English,n my in-laws speaks kannada.As Hindi is our national language we are teaching him that too.It is very common in India that people are fluent in more that 3 languages.

[anjie]

Hi..
We are fluent in 4 languages; English, Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam our mother tongue.  Our son speaks English, understands Hindi and Malayalam.  Since we are staying @ B'lore, he is exposed to Kannada as well.  Now we are looking forward to introducing him to French as well with Little Pim.  Lets see how it goes....
As varshak mentioned it is not uncommon to see Indians speaking different languages.

[sheeberi]

We're from US and therefore English is our main language. But, I'm a Filipino so I talk to my babies in Tagalog & Visayan as much as possible. I want them to learn Spanish too hence I'm learning Spanish now with "Rosetta Stone" & "Tell Me More". I watch with my babies lots of English-Spanish DVDs for kids like Fun With Languages, Kids Love Spanish, Preschool Prep, Brainy Baby Spanish & Little Pim so I can learn Spanish with them. And we're considering another language someday. I'm a little worried though 'coz at 15mos they still can't talk, they're just babbling a lot but they do signing sometimes.

[mmetlich]

Thanks Nikolett. I speak English at home, though I live in Mexico. My kids are learning English and spanish at the same time, my family speaks to ehm in english, and myhusbands family sepak to them in spanish as well as everyone else around them. I want them to start with a third language, but I don't know any language really well. I though about Chinese since it is the third language most studied on a professional level. There are some chinese people around, would it work getting a "babysitter" maybe three times a week just to play with them in chinese?
Anyone else have ideas.
I also have rosetta Stone and LR of course that could help a little more, but I have no clue on Chinese.

[Joha]

mmetlich,

If you can pay a babysitter to talk to them in chinese you will be set!  That would be great! It doesn't matter that you don't speak the language. This link may help you a little bit with that part of your question.

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-signing-speaking-foreign-languages/how-do-you-teach-a-language-you-cant-speak-yourself/

Good luck! 

[beatrixk]

Hi!

We are hungarians, so hungarian is my daughter's first language. I have been also using English with her. She says a couple of words and signs in English but of course she understands a lot more things in Hungarian. She is 14 months old.

I have lots of DVDs and CDs in English, I will try to have her watch cartoons in English (as she gets older). Also, I will look for a native English speaker who would talk to her or play with her in English. We have some English books, too.

Bilingual daycare and school can be also an option. And of course, visiting our american friends would help to improve her English, as well!

[Violin]

We live in the US. Both my husband and I are ABCs (American-Born Chinese).

My Hubby's Experience
His mother spoke to him in Mandarin for his first year of life then promptly switched to English for the rest of his childhood. His father spoke English all the way through--that's all he can speak. He went to Mandarin classes for many years as a child but told his parents that this was not necessary "because we live in the US". He grew up in Alhambra, CA (a Chinese enclave of Los Angeles). Thus, my hubby speaks mainly English and had VERY halting mandarin when I married him 6 years ago. In the 3 years since we've had our first daughter, he's progressed amazingly to holding full conversations with her in Mandarin!

My Experience
My parents spoke to me in Cantonese. The joke is that I didn't know anything beyond my name, my siblings' names, ABCs and numbers when I went started preschool at age 4. After 6 weeks, I came home trying to speak English to my mother--PERFECTLY FLUENTLY! I grew up in southern California. My mother promptly instituted a new rule: Cantonese was to be the language that we (my sisters and I) should use to speak to her. If we used any other language, we might as well be speaking to the wall. This definitely kept my ability in Cantonese intact. We were sent to Mandarin lessons every Sunday from age 4 to 16. So, now at age 33, I am fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin. I read and write in Mandarin but speak Cantonese better. English, by far, is my strongest language.

My Daughter's Experience (so far)
She is 3 yrs 3 mths old currently. Because of our personal experiences, we decided before ever having her that we would REQUIRE all our children to be as multi-lingual as possible. So, from Day 1, my hubby would speak to my daughter in Mandarin (halting as it was) and ask for help from me. It was easy because babies can't respond to you verbally at the beginning--so he just kept asking how to say words that he didn't know. He would read to her in English because that's all he could do. Now he's learned to insert words in Mandarin as he is able. As for me, because I speak both Cantonese & Mandarin, I have been speaking to her in Cantonese when my hubby isn't around and in Mandarin when he IS around. I am the main caregiver. So, currently her strongest language is Cantonese. She definitely can speak Mandarin AND English enough to get around and make her needs known clearly.  NO CONFUSION at all. She speaks Mandarin to Daddy, Cantonese to Mommy, and English with everyone else. (We live in a mainly Caucasian area--English-predominance). We started learning Spanish together when she was 18 months. We listen to Christian songs (that I already know in English) in Spanish. That way, I already have a headstart because I know the tune and just have to work on getting the words along with her. Yes, learning several languages (Cantonese, Mandarin, and English) concurrently definitely delays your verbal output skills but once the speaking started, it has never stopped! She started saying single words around 15 months, full sentences by 20 months. We also used Baby Signs since age 6 months--she started responding with signs at 8 months and that helped alot since we knew she would be late in starting to talk due to multiple languages being taught concurrently.

So, for us, Cantonese/Mandarin #1 because it's our culture/heritage and it will be useful in my children's generation if they want to do business with or in China. English #2 because we live in the US. Spanish #3 because that's the next most spoken language in the world--very useful in California (which is where we live).

I hope this helps!  Kudos to all of you trying to teach your kids more than 1 language--I believe it really helps you think faster. It definitely helped me! 

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