Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why does this feel like some grand experiment you've orchestrated? And you want her to speak Spanish so she can help Hispanic kids who don't speak English?! Quite a lot for her little shoulders and hardly 2 years old. I'd say scale back your expectations...and how about learning Spanish yourself so that YOU can help other kids?
There are many bilingual children.....America does not have only one language.....and it's a great life skill to speak more than only English.
Xenophobia has no place in the world....and certainly not this thread.
You're preaching to the choir. I speak more than English.
I married a Greek who didn't speak a word of English (more or less) and my child was spoken to in Greek. I also hired a nanny who was from Switzerland, a Registered Nurse, who was drawing pictures of apples with the words "apple" and "apfel" underneath at 9 months old.
The question is why the PARENTS - who ONLY speak English - should learn Spanish to speak to the kid.
AS IF they're going to have ANY skills as beginners and won't screw it up more.
Are you a parent? Do you have any experience trying to UNLEARN something the kid learned wrong? That challenge takes YEARS.
I guess you haven't been to Walmart lately either. Where all the parents and grandparents are still speaking their native language and the KIDS are speaking to them in English. Something MY husband NEVER did, BTW. He was PROUD to speak his crappy English in public EVERYWHERE.
Alot of this discussion is a pipe dream/stylized view of reality.
The baby is thinking in English. The nanny is only there 40 out of 168 hours per week and her FAMILY is speaking in English. Some day when she needs to, or wants to, for something MEANINGFUL she'll use the Spanish perhaps. It's as simple at that.
Nice job making assumptions, though.
ETA:
Quote:
In Singapore nearly all children come to nursery school at age 3 already able to speak 2 languages. Many can speak 3. A child growing up with only one language is quite rare. The reason for this is that most adults routinely use two or three languages in their daily life, both at home and at work, and switching between languages is the norm for everyone. There are also many ethnic groups in Singapore, associated with many different languages, and people need to know languages which they can speak to people from other communities. Lots of people come from families where language shift has taken place, so that their best language might not be a language their parents spoke at all. Parents are fairly relaxed about their children hearing a rather rich language stew, and expect their children to pick up languages. They do worry (like parents everywhere) about their children being able to develop good skills in reading and writing the languages they have to do at school.
Occasionally people have deliberately introduced a second language into the home even though they are not in a situation that would naturally lead to bilingualism. This is usually because they think it is a good thing to know more than one language. If you want to do this experiment, you won't do any harm, but unless you create a need for the language it's not likely to be successful either. Lots of things are good for children to learn (e.g. swimming, painting, clay modelling, horse riding, music) -- you can't do EVERYTHING, and there is no special magic in bilingualism.
I had a very wise Spanish teacher who told me that to be able to effectively understand & speak a language, that you have to THINK in that language. If other words, you can't consciously translate in your head.
There is so much very rapid brain development in a child that is only 2 years old...she is probably still processing that thinking in whatever language she is spoken to in.
And I don't mean to rag on you, but really...2 years old is just a baby, so let her be a baby, already.
My daughter grew up with German and English, German was her first language and for a long time she would not speak English but she understood everything and at some stage at about 5 she started speaking English as well.
Why in God's name are people telling the OP to learn Spanish and speak it to her AMERICAN CHILD?
Not only is that a ridiculous idea, IMO but a train wreck waiting to happen.
Whatever. I think it is an awesome idea.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
