Bringing up children bilingually

January 20th, 2012
7 comments

By Mirka Moore

I believe that the ability to speak other languages is a gift and if you are able to do so as a child, this gives you a great advantage – learning seems a natural part of growing up. In my opinion, parental encouragement is key!

For me, raising a child bilingually is all about balance. As we live in England, Isabelle’s first language is English but I make sure I speak to her in Czech regularly.

When she was much younger and just starting to speak, we spent a lot of time with my mum and because we spoke Czech to each other, my husband was concerned she wouldn’t learn English properly. However, I made a conscious effort to simultaneously expose her to both languages so she feels comfortable moving between the two.

Isabelle has recently started school and has been learning to read and write in English. We believe we shouldn’t confuse her by introducing reading and writing in Czech before she masters doing so in English. Even though most of the storybooks I read to her are in English, I found a great way to introduce Czech is through Czech television programmes and cartoons that I loved as a child.

Because of this, she has developed a good vocabulary and can talk fluently to her cousins and grandparents in Czech. She also enjoys visiting them and they are proud that she can speak Czech without an accent.

I hope one day Isabelle will be able to express herself as well in Czech as she will in English. Maybe she will study at the famous Charles University in Prague! I will make sure she continues improving her language studies, and hopefully she will also learn other foreign languages just like her mummy did!

Unfortunately not all parents make the effort to teach their children their native language, and I truly believe it is a shame as being able to speak another language is a gift. Being born into a bilingual family means your child has the opportunity to understand and learn languages naturally so why wouldn’t you encourage this skill?

Mirka Moore runs the blog All Baby Advice, regularly rated as one of Wikio’s top twenty parenting blogs.

Books that will help you bring up a bilingual child:

7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child, Naomi Steiner, Susan Hayes

This book helps parents in both monolingual and multilingual families determine and achieve bilingual goals for their children.

Bilingual By Choice: The Family Guide for Raising Kids in Two (or More!) Languages, Virginie Raguenaud

This book deals directly with the obstacles to sustaining a second language, including unsupportive relatives, lack of resources, issues at school, frequent relocations, special needs and discrimination, countering each one with the author's own firsthand experience.

Do you have first-hand experience of reading and writing with your child in more than one language? Share them with our other parents in the comment box below!

Comments

Franz March 17th, 2012 • Report this

I raised my first child speaking both English and Italian to him, but as we live in England, he has picked up only English. He does understand a bit of Italian but can't be bothered to make an effort, really - all his friends speak English only! Videos, trips and games didn't help him much, either. So when I had my second child, I decided to speak only Italian to her, while everybody else spoke English. Now she is four and she understands me perfectly. She is mixing the two languages a bit when she speaks but she has no problems communicating when we go to Italy, while my older son just shouts in English in the hope that someone will understand him! Once children understand that the only way of getting what they want is to speak a particular language, they will use it. If there is an escape, they won't make the effort. After all, language is only meant for survival! LOL Franz
Gill February 2nd, 2012 • Report this

I think it's great to encourage children to learn another language. My husband and I are both English speakers but desperately want to encourage our 2 year old to learn another language. We both wish we had been pushed to do this as children. As we have both have a basic understanding of (school) French we feel this is the basis to start. We're looking around for the best way to do this. Any recommendations? Someone has suggested www.growstorygrow.com, which looks great. Has anyone tried it?
Mirka Moore January 30th, 2012 • Report this

That is fantastic Steve, and am sure that one day she will realise what a great gift it is to speak more languages.
Steve G January 29th, 2012 • Report this

Our daughter has been brought up thus far with Hungarian and English as her mother tongues, myself being English and speaking that language to her, her mother being Hungarian asnd speaking that language to her. As there is German heritage in the family she listened to German children's CDs when younger, now we occassionally watch German kids' TV and speak a little in German to her - she understands and speaks some German. At school she has a little bit of Spanish which she is picking up very easily. And she is only 6 going on 7!
Mirka Moore January 26th, 2012 • Report this

Thank you ladies, I absolutely agree that is is a gift and as we Czechs say: the more languages you speak the more lives you live!
Honest Mum (Vicki) January 26th, 2012 • Report this

I agree that it's wonderful to raise a child bilingual if you can. My 2 year old can speak and understands Greek and English and sadly although my husband is part French, he nor my child have learnt to speak it. Let's hope the little one learns at school. Growing up, I went to Greek Saturday School in Leeds each week and although I complained about it at the time, it became vital in helping me bond with my Greek Cypriot grandparents and connected me to my roots.
Uju January 25th, 2012 • Report this

I think it's brilliant that you're raising Isabelle bilingual. It's one of my pet peeves that neither my husband nor I speak our native languages, so our children have lost out on that advantage. My eldest has started learning a bit of French and even a litle Mandarin at school, so hopefully he'll grow up with an ear for languages and we can all play catch up over the years!