Which second language and why?

[purplefungi]

I have listened to the first CD of Pimsleur Greek.The Pimsleur CDs are definitely not for children. I like them because they go slowly how words are pronounced.

I have been doing the Rosetta Stone Chinese and really like it. Again, it can't be used for babies for the most part. I am interested in possibly making powerpoint presentations that are kind of set up like Rosetta Stone. I've been thinking a lot about the idea.

Here is a website for learning Greek geared for children:
http://www.ilearngreek.com/greekforkids/greekforkids.asp

[saniso]

I choose Marathi ( as a second langauge) as this is my first language and I would love it if my child was able to read and understand the nuances of this language and enjoy fine literature in Marathi the way I do. I have started with flashcards and some LR presentations and hopefully will add on more languages to it. I admit I love the feel of FArsi and would love to learn it myself.

[omimama]

     I wanted my daughter to learn a second language, but my husband and myself only speak English. I had trouble deciding which language, so we are doing several. So far we are studying French (which I think is my favorite), Spanish, Hebrew, Mandarin and ASL. I took ASL for two years so that's the easiest one for me. As for the others we listen to CD's, read books and watch videos via you tube. I have learned a lot.

I think the hardest part of learning another language is opening your mind to receive the sounds as real words. Once I stopped trying to translate the words in my mind, and just accepted them as another way of expressing something I found less resistance from my mind. For example, instead of thinking that "wu ai ni" means I love you, I think that "wu ai ni" is something I say when I want to express love. I hope that makes sense.

I dare not tell anyone about this for fear they will think I'm being too ambitious. But I believe that my little girl (and myself sometimes) has the ability to learn all of these and more.

I forgot to mention that I also found some groups at meetup.com in my area. These groups get together maybe once or twice a month just to talk in a particilar language. Its a great place to practice. You can see if there is a group in your area at http://www.meetup.com/

[munster718]

im an american an i say english is first of course an spanish could be bennificial cause the mex are coming to the u s more and more it could help them getting a job later in life or something

[Joanna07]

Bot I and my husband are Polish,we speak it at home. Second language is Italian, we used to leave in Italy and can speak Italian pretty well. My third choice is Spanish, I'm planning to send my son to spanish preschool two times a week and we have spanish neighbors
We live in US so my son will pick up English real fast.
I would also like to teach myself and my son Japanese.

[L and J]

THE FIRST LANGUAGE I'M TEACHING PORTUGUESE BECAUSE I'M FROM BRAZIL, SECOND ENGLISH BECAUSE WE LEAVE IN US AND SPANISH BECOUSE MY HUSBAND IS FROM VENEZUELA AND HERE HAVE LOTS OF SPANISH SPEAKERS.... I TEACH ONE FOR TIME AND I SAY, NOW WE GONNA LEARN SOME WORDS IN (I SAY THE LANGUAGE) AND THATS IT.

[nohayo]

I'm native in Arabic and English and so is my husband so I'd probably assign the Arabic to him since he's better at it and english to me ...

Then I also know some french and some German so these would be easier for me to learn and thus teach my baby so those would be my next two choices...I don't feel I'll be able to really have conversations with my kids unless I can speak it myself an these are the ones I have a basis for....

I would love to teach Chinese as well but I wouldn't leave them with a chinese nanny for example coz I wouldn't know what she's saying to them and that would drive me crazy

[Skylark]

I speak Ukrainian and Russian, my husband Cantonese and Portugese, we speak English to each other, and the rest of our family speaks Mandarin as their second language. So we are trying to figure out how to prioritise the languages, right now we speak English and Russian, and hoping to get LR materials in Chinese with the upgrade. And we still not sure where Ukrainian and Portugese come in  But definetly the first three, we are working on those.

I found that having other materials (like songs, videos, powerpoints) in secondary learning languages is really great. For instance, as much as I would like my daughter to learn Russian, with English being spoken around the house, she still gets much more English, but having songs in Russian playing at some times during the day, or having an educationa or musicl video in Russian, really helps.

She is still too young to see the results through  

[Ana3]

I agree with having "extra" language materials such as: dvds, songs, flash cards etc.. my children seem to love it.  The songs especially. 

[hypatia]

I speak Ukrainian and Russian, my husband Cantonese and Portugese, we speak English to each other, and the rest of our family speaks Mandarin as their second language.

This is absolutely amazing. What a great gift your daughter is going to have, all those languages. (and I'm guessing she must also be a very good looking child!)   

[Skylark]

She is beautiful ( does not every mom thinks her baby is? )! But even though my husband grew up in Asia, he is not Chineese, he is from US, even though he never lived there  However he spoke more portugese and cantonese, as a child then English. But English is the only language we have in common, ha!

I am planning to learn some Chinese together with my daughter and actually really looking forward to that!

We still did not figure out how to incorporate Ukrainian and Portugese in our learning, as we are the only speakers around at the time, and I do not want her to mix the languages. So far, our plan, --

I speak Russian,
Daddy - English
School time with LR - Chinese, and possibly some other activities ( we have not started yet)..

So, ideas anyone?

[happymomof5]

I like what was said about kids having the ability to pick up three or four languages. I have lived abroad since an early age and had many friends who were from international families, with the father or mother speaking English as a first language, and the other parent Spanish, Japanese or another language, and then their family was living in a country other than that of the parents. These kids were growing up speaking three languages fluently! I was so envious. My own children grew up in China, were cared for by a Chinese nanny part time when we were at university, and learned English and Chinese at the same time. The only side effect I personally saw was that it slightly delayed their speaking, in that they usually didn't start speaking fluently in any of their languages until around 2, but when they did, they were speaking fluently with full sentences, virtually missing the whole baby talk phase. I'm not sure if that would be the case for all kids, but that was what we experienced. Overall I'm very glad we did, and I feel the good result was worth the slightly later age in speaking.

[alma]

Our baby is learning 3 languages, spanish because I speak spanish, her dad is french so she is learning french and english because she lives in the US. We never speak to her in english but she start saying words in english I think is because of the tv and some baby classes she is taking. I would love her to learn chinese, is it possible that se can learn if none of us speak it. Have you taught your child a language that you don't know

Thanks

Alma

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