Bi-lingual

I'm not bi-lingual but my god-sisters husband is Indian and he sings to and speaks to their little girl in Indian and she speaks to their daughter in English.

They started this right from the day she was born and I believe she is picking up both languages already although she is only 14 months old.
I know she definately understands both languages.

Start as you mean to go on I say.

DH is Italian and for the most part speaks italian to DD. We are relocated to Italy this year, so we'll both be learning the lingo.

Once we're there, I will always speak english to her. Friends of ours who speak more than one language to their children have said that the children have gone through stages of mixing up the 2 (or 3) languages but by about 4-5yr they have sorted it out.

Young brains are like sponges! They will pick up languages alot quicker than you or I (as shown by your niece!).

caliandjack wrote: I'd love to know another language other than english, I'd speak to your kids in both languages from the beginning they'll soon work it out. Are you going to improve your own dutch at the same time?

Heck yes I hope so. I have all these "kiddie" booklets that I read, teaching you how to count and stuff, basic words that kids need to know (where is the toilet? May i have a drink? etc etc)

I can pick up enough words to follow the gist of a conversation, or at least know what they are talking about. I just don't have the confidence to speak it yet, getting those "guttural" sounding words out just don't work for me! Must be like at school, we go to the IL's for tea and they are naming everything in Dutch aswell and getting me to copy, hehe... It's working slowly!

Kids are so much more adaptable- Last year when niece came over she was so easily picking it up, but this year (at age 5) she was quite over whelmed cos she realised people were speaking another language, last year she didnt realise so much and took it in her stride. This year she remembered stuff though (eg out on the motorbike picking up cows saying "come on girls! hurry up! move up!")

My Dh is South African so he speaks afrikaans and English. We want Jackson to learn afrikaans so DH sometimes says things in afrikaans to him, although I think sometimes he forgets. I cant speak it so that probably doesnt help with it being used more often.

lol Tassia thats classic. Hopefully we will be able to do that as well

I think you can't start early enough with the second language but I also know that it is not really ever too late to introduce another language to your child, it has always benefits (according to the book I'm just reading).

I am German and my hubby is a Kiwi, I hardly ever speak german as my whole family is over there so i am going to have a hard time to constantly speak german to my little girl in a few days as my german gets a bit rusty from all that english speaking, hehe.

I've decided to speak german to her and hubby english (he doesn't speak german) right from the start.

Actually I'm quite scared of it...........

Hunnybunny - I think you should start right away as it will be easier not just for baby but for you too to stick to the concept. Whould you consider speaking english to baby all day and try speak dutch all together (for you to learn) in the evenings when hubby is home?

My partner is also dutch so he speaks to Keira all the time, which is pretty cool, cos I can learn with her haha (so he doesn't teach her swear words to use against me either!!)

My dad used to speak spanish around me all the time, so I picked up a lot while I was young, but once we moved countries, I lost it, so its much easier to learn while they are still so young than to pick it up later on in life

We speak english at home mainly,but hubby is Irish so speaks to DS in gaelic sometimes.There are certain words like bed ,milk,water etc that we usually say to DS in gaelic.

I am part Maori, DP is Samoan so poor DD is being spoken to in Maori, Samoan and mainly English.

I know a few words in Samoan and a few in Maori, I have a playcentre CD that I play occasionally (not as much as I'd like) that is all the old maori songs we sang at school.

We found with our nephew he understood Samoan but couldn't speak it although that was only picked up because DPs nana came over and she spoke to him and he replied in english lol

start as you mean to go on....

My cousins are chinese and they grew up learning english and being spoken to in mandarin - went to china at age 6 for 8 weeks and was fluent - but now all three have lost it (in their 20s) cause the parents reverted to english speaking mostly in NZ.

Ella is at a dc where they speak afrikaans, mandarin and maori and she is learning a lot from all the languages around her. My BFF speaks to her in cambodian vietnamese and they understand each other well!

I think exposure is great at this age and then continue if you can...dont miss an opportunity to learn yourself either. A friend lived in europe for 6 years and enrolled their kids in english school despite being surrounded by french everything!!! but cause one of the parents refused to absorb the language they stopped the kids from it...shame really!