The second part of my friend Sijen's question was requesting tips and suggestions for raising a bilingual kid. I'll take a stab at addressing this with a few "Things to really try to do" and a couple of "Things you don't really have to do."
Sijen speaks Chinese, but like me, she was raised in the US. Our families are 100% Chinese, meaning that we were raised speaking strictly Chinese at home and English everywhere else. I think she would agree with me that we both feel Chinese is our secondary language in that our mastery of English is superior. However, the biggest hurdle we face is that both of our husbands are not Chinese nor do they speak Chinese, so trying to raise our children to be bilingual in a multi-racial household is not going to be easy without a conscious effort.
I'm sure I will need to revisit this as time goes by because there is so much I am still trying and learning for myself. This list is based off of my own experience being raised bilingual and also what I have observed trying to teach my daughter two languages.
Things to really try to do:
1. Speak the secondary language often yourself. It does not need to be spoken to your baby, necessarily, just around him is sufficient. Talk to your friends or family often in the language and allow your baby to hear it spoken. He needs to be familiar with the sound, tone, and rhythm of the language.
2. When a baby is learning any language, nouns are the first and easiest to be taught. As you teach each object, teach in both languages.
3. Speak in complete sentences. It's easy to just interject words here and there of the secondary language, but you need to expose him to the differences in sentence structure and grammar, not just the vocabulary.
4. Understand your ultimate goal. Do you really need to have your child be able to speak and read and know all the proverbial idioms of the language or do you want him to be comfortable enough to speak the language to some degree, knowing he can learn to read and memorize those idioms at a later time? For me, I just want my daughter to speak the language to some degree with little or no American accent. I'm still trying to figure out how to effectively achieve that, but just coming to terms with this goal means I can create attainable objectives with my immediate resources. The other alternative - which was a dream at some point - would require so many more resources and external involvement because it's beyond what I am capable of myself.
5. Encourage any means of communication. As Abigail started to speak, she would choose words from whichever language was easiest for her to say. I was tempted to insist on the corresponding word in the other language every time she spoke, but realized I would probably confuse her and hinder her language development rather than helping. Sure enough, she is actually picking up both languages. Encourage your baby to communicate in whichever language he wants to so long as you're also giving him a chance to hear the other.
6. Exaggerate your tones and inflections. This is true for teaching any language to a baby, but especially important for a tonal language like Chinese. English is a very flat sounding language and because that is my main language, I tend to speak fairly flat. My inflections are subtle and that's just due to the nature of how I speak. This is not good for teaching my daughter tones because she has a hard time hearing the differences. As a result, her Chinese sounds like she's speaking English until I over exaggerate the tones and inflections for her.
Things you don't really have to do:
1. Trying to remember to speak in both languages all the time and starting at infancy. When the language explosion happens - you'll know when it hits - your baby will pick up language, no matter what it is, so fast you won't be able to keep up. At this time, you only need to say something once or twice and he'll learn it and remember it for weeks, if not more. This is why it's pretty important that he has been exposed to the sound and rhythm of the language. It will make it easier for him to figure out how to properly say the words you try to teach.
2. Buy DVDs, tapes, books, flashcards, CDs, etc. in the secondary language as teaching aids for a baby. My parents gave me several books in Chinese for me to read to my daughter. I was secretly hoping that I would overcome my illiteracy and learn to read as I teach my daughter, but trying to learn and teach at the same time is exhausting and more trouble that it's worth at this point, making me abandon the effort for the time being. I thought having Chinese television, movies, or music on in the background would actually provide good exposure for my daughter to hear the language, but I did not realize how different the language sounds from normal, every day speech. For a toddler just learning to talk, this was completely useless. I can imagine, though, that these teaching aids would be useful as the child gets older, but for now, normal conversation is the best.
Sijen speaks Chinese, but like me, she was raised in the US. Our families are 100% Chinese, meaning that we were raised speaking strictly Chinese at home and English everywhere else. I think she would agree with me that we both feel Chinese is our secondary language in that our mastery of English is superior. However, the biggest hurdle we face is that both of our husbands are not Chinese nor do they speak Chinese, so trying to raise our children to be bilingual in a multi-racial household is not going to be easy without a conscious effort.
I'm sure I will need to revisit this as time goes by because there is so much I am still trying and learning for myself. This list is based off of my own experience being raised bilingual and also what I have observed trying to teach my daughter two languages.
Things to really try to do:
1. Speak the secondary language often yourself. It does not need to be spoken to your baby, necessarily, just around him is sufficient. Talk to your friends or family often in the language and allow your baby to hear it spoken. He needs to be familiar with the sound, tone, and rhythm of the language.
2. When a baby is learning any language, nouns are the first and easiest to be taught. As you teach each object, teach in both languages.
3. Speak in complete sentences. It's easy to just interject words here and there of the secondary language, but you need to expose him to the differences in sentence structure and grammar, not just the vocabulary.
4. Understand your ultimate goal. Do you really need to have your child be able to speak and read and know all the proverbial idioms of the language or do you want him to be comfortable enough to speak the language to some degree, knowing he can learn to read and memorize those idioms at a later time? For me, I just want my daughter to speak the language to some degree with little or no American accent. I'm still trying to figure out how to effectively achieve that, but just coming to terms with this goal means I can create attainable objectives with my immediate resources. The other alternative - which was a dream at some point - would require so many more resources and external involvement because it's beyond what I am capable of myself.
5. Encourage any means of communication. As Abigail started to speak, she would choose words from whichever language was easiest for her to say. I was tempted to insist on the corresponding word in the other language every time she spoke, but realized I would probably confuse her and hinder her language development rather than helping. Sure enough, she is actually picking up both languages. Encourage your baby to communicate in whichever language he wants to so long as you're also giving him a chance to hear the other.
6. Exaggerate your tones and inflections. This is true for teaching any language to a baby, but especially important for a tonal language like Chinese. English is a very flat sounding language and because that is my main language, I tend to speak fairly flat. My inflections are subtle and that's just due to the nature of how I speak. This is not good for teaching my daughter tones because she has a hard time hearing the differences. As a result, her Chinese sounds like she's speaking English until I over exaggerate the tones and inflections for her.
Things you don't really have to do:
1. Trying to remember to speak in both languages all the time and starting at infancy. When the language explosion happens - you'll know when it hits - your baby will pick up language, no matter what it is, so fast you won't be able to keep up. At this time, you only need to say something once or twice and he'll learn it and remember it for weeks, if not more. This is why it's pretty important that he has been exposed to the sound and rhythm of the language. It will make it easier for him to figure out how to properly say the words you try to teach.
2. Buy DVDs, tapes, books, flashcards, CDs, etc. in the secondary language as teaching aids for a baby. My parents gave me several books in Chinese for me to read to my daughter. I was secretly hoping that I would overcome my illiteracy and learn to read as I teach my daughter, but trying to learn and teach at the same time is exhausting and more trouble that it's worth at this point, making me abandon the effort for the time being. I thought having Chinese television, movies, or music on in the background would actually provide good exposure for my daughter to hear the language, but I did not realize how different the language sounds from normal, every day speech. For a toddler just learning to talk, this was completely useless. I can imagine, though, that these teaching aids would be useful as the child gets older, but for now, normal conversation is the best.
Comments (1)
You should write a book on this Cecilia! :) I need to tell my hubby to start speaking in sentences. He usually just says nouns. I'm so glad I read this! YAY!