Raising Polyglots

[fleur d-octobre]

I realize there is already a very similar thread to this, but instead of focusing on being raised by multi-lingual parents, I wanted to focus this one on raising multi-lingual children.

How many of you plan on raising (or already have raised) your children to be polyglots? If so, what languages would you teach them, how, and why? At what age would you begin?

Personally, I want my children to speak French and English first. I think I will teach them English as their first language and French at about age 7 -8.

I once babysat for two sisters who were half German, half Japanese -- both of them spoke English as their main language, but one chose to learn German like her mom and the other chose to learn Japanese with her father. It was cute 3nodding  

[PiercedPixie2]

I speak English and Spanish, a little French.

And my fiancee, who i will bare kids with, speaks English and French with a little Spanish xd


So English will be first, and then when they can speak, move in on Spanish.
I hope they will take French at their school, maybe high school?

Im scared 3 languages will be over whelming as a child surprised  

[Nyxiaus`]

Hmm. I think I will definitely teach my children more than one language probably two (so as not to overwhelm them before they go to School), even though by the time I will have children I will know at least Three.

I know they will speak English, and Arabic for (potential) religious reasons, as well as French.  

[Henneth Annun]

I knew some kids who were Japanese-English, English was their first langauge and they were learning Japanese at Japanese school downtown. I know half Thai people who go to Thai school, half French people who go to French school, and the same for Spanish and German. It's so cute. 3nodding I just wish my parents had sent me to one of those schools, but then I'd have to decide between at least five langauges....I'd have been so confused. xd

If I ever do have kids, probably not, but if I do:

I want my children to learn 3 langauges.
1. English
2. Mandarin Chinese or Japanese
3. French, Spanish, or German.
(If I end up moving to Sweden then they'll be learning Swedish too. smile )

I believe these combinations will help them be successful in the world. smile I know they will learn English first, but I don't know which other langauges I should start them on first. I'll give them a choice I guess....I also hope that along with learning the langauges they will gain an important understanding/respect for other cultures. It will also let them communicate with more people around the world, and I think it'd be kinda cool for them to be able to talk with eachother in Japanese when no one else understands. wink  

[lili of the lamplight]

I'm not sure if I plan on kids or not, but if I do, I will definately want them to grow up speaking at least two languages. I also have a cousin who has informed me that once she has kids, she'll ship them off to me every summer to teach them German or ASL or something.  

[Daionii]

I'd love for my children to be able to speak Welsh and Breton or Cornish. I'm planning to marry a Breton or a Cornish person apparently >D
I know I'm too young to be thinking about marriage and kids, but yeah.. I'd plan to speak to them in Welsh, and have my significant other speak to them in their language. They'd pick up English (or French) very easily so I wouldn't need to teach them.

 

[Einllikoach]

The only language I feel absolutely comfort with is Hebrew, so I would probably speak Hebrew to them. It is pretty much neglected, but at least might give them a good basis if they would ever like to learn Arabic in their future, for example.
And since there is almost no chance I will keep living in Israel in my future, I assume my husband-to-be would speak to them his own native tongue or the local language, and we would either speak to each other in English or in the local language, so the children would be raised at least bilingual.  

[apiyo]

English will be their first language and I want my kids to know Spanish because it's a useful language to know right now. Spanish was really irritating to have to learn as a teenager so I want them to be polyglots as early as possible. Hopefully my husband will know some spanish too.  

[Tweezle]

I'm on the other end of childbearing (my oldest will be 20 this year, and my youngest will be 4... and that's the end of it for me...) and I had intended to raise them with another language, but it just didn't work out that way. They are all monolingual. (To say that the rest of my family wasn't supportive of the idea would be an understatement.)

The youngest knows a smattering of words in Spanish and Mandarin from watching Dora/Diego and Kai-Lan on TV. neutral She's still little enough that I could probably work something into her routine to at least get her conversational in another language.  

[arenwaru]

I guess it depends on where I live, but in any case, English is a must. Mandarin would perhaps be good for him/her/them to know as well. But I'm going to keep the extra languages thing optional, because I don't want to force them to learn something they don't want to. I just hope they won't go into show business when they grow up, that's all I ask. smile  

[I Feel Toast]

I'd like to make it fun and natural for them, so I wouldn't be forcing them to study the languages, I just want to use them enough that they pick them up. So it looks like English, Spanish, and ASL for my kids. It'd be cool to make them native Esperantists, but I don't even have enough devotion to that language to do that :B  

[The_Brightest_Moon]

Hm... if I ever have kids I'll make sure they know at least 3 languages, their native, and two others. I suddenly have an interest in living in South Korea (it's probably just a phase but I REALLY want to go to Seoul and learn Korean and I heard that the pay for an English teacher is good there too...... and korean guys are HAWT ^^ Well, some xD) so perhaps they'll learn English, Japanese, and possibly Korean or French. Or maybe I'll let them choose.

Though, I think that anyone in the united states should now learn Spanish. I don't know spanish and I don't plan on learning it soon (i'm a huge hypocrite xD) but it IS very important so I think learning it should be enforced (unfortunately most kids in my middle school, when choosing languages, chose spanish because it was "easy" and they didn't want to learn a language..... stressed

I probably drive my parents nuts, being like obsessed with linguistics. If I find something interesting, I'll be at dinner and suddenly blurt out "DID YOU KNOW THAT _______" lol poor poor them....  

[Kalathma]

Well, I'd liiiiike to be with the current guy I'm with for a long time, however unlikely I think that is. (xD I'm 16 and rather realistic about relationships in general. He's 20.) He's pretty interested in languages, thanks to me. mrgreen Mainly Tagalog (he's Filipino), German, and Japanese. He knows a good deal of Spanish and is taking Tagalog in college. I've been teaching him some random words in Swedish, Lithuanian, Mandarin, Russian, French, and a few other languages as well.

I don't really want kids, but he does, so I'd probably have one with him. Definitely raising the kid at least bilingually- English and Tagalog. However, I'll end up using a multitude of other languages around it, so it'll definitely pick up some Spanish, French, Swedish, German (I'm going to learn soon), and Japanese.  

[Pistil]

I would like my children (if I have any) to at least be bilingual. Right now I only speak English, as does my bf, so that's obvious going to be their native language (I'm probably going to start taking French classes next year). I'll probably start teaching them French at around 2 or 3 and have them go to French immersion when they're in school. If they ever want to take up another language I'll 100% support whatever they choose, but I'd probably lean them towards Swedish, German, or Spanish.  

[Liv Qorri]

I don't want children, but if I did have some I would definately raise them from birth with at least two languages. Most likely Spanish or French, as they are my best foreign languages so far and I plan on one day living in either Spain or France. I'd send them to an immersion school if possible, too. Anyway, I intend on working with foreign languages the rest of my life, so even I didn't deliberately teach my kids a foreign language they'd be bound to pick some up.