Okay, so I'm looking a little to the future here, our little one is only 8months old, but we run a strict dual language in the house.
I only speak English, and his Mum only speaks Chinese in front of him.

I'm thinking of a 3rd language for him to learn, I was thinking of dusting off my old Latin books, it would give him a good basis of other European languages for the future.

What do you think?

😆

Surely French or Spanish as that will cover the three most common languages in the world.

I was thinking of dusting off my old Latin books, it would give him a good basis of other European languages for the future.

I would just pick a European language rather than have him learn a dead language. I believe Eddie Izzard had some thoughts on the subject.

Edit: If you want them to speak the languages of both of the new economic superpowers then Indian to compliment the Chinese.

Spanish according to Radio 4. As it's Latin based it'll be an intro to French, Italian etc. and he can practise with Dora the Explorer 🙂

Mark Datz?

ignore French – it's dying.

English is the lingua franca of the world now 😉

Maybe Spanish or Portugese?

How about Welsh?

I suspect if you try to get a kid to learn three languages simultaneously, you stand a strong chance of them doing badly at all of them. Do badly at English and you'll struggle through your education.

But I'm not a speech therapist.

He's 8 months old and you're choosing his options at school?

Get his marriage arranged too this week, why don't ya?

There are good reasons to study Latin – I did a few years of it – but not sure I'd push a kid into it. I'd say French but mostly leave it to the school.

Maybe you could teach the kid 'troll' 😉

norwegian. birds are well hot in norway innit.

Have you thought of names for his kids yet?

Mum only speaks Chinese in front of him.

Is that Mandarin or Satsuma?

Sign Language.

Children can develop the capacity to express themselves through sign language before they can communicate verbally.

Is that Mandarin or Satsuma?

hehe

how about a bit of boxing?

Thats ace, so you and your wife will never have a conversation in front of him? Unless you have a conversation where you are speaking english and she replies in chinese which surely is going to confuse the little fella.

classic, 8 months old… and already getting lumbered with latin.. poor little sod!

latin. you get french, italian, spanish, bits of several other european languages and english for free.

kids who are multilingual from an early age tend to do well on it.

Is that Mandarin or Satsuma?

hehe

+1

This thread reeks of child one-upmanship, but then I'm only jealous as I can barely speak English.

Glaswegian.
The three combined with the kick boxing will be a winning combination.

..where you are speaking english and she replies in chinese

It worked for Chewy and Han Solo (except not English and Chinese).

Han Solo 😆

Not latin. You get some of French spanish etc but you might as well learn one of those languages directly and get some use out of it. Latin is not useful on its own anywhere, and it's dead hard. Why bother ramming home the finer points of a grammar that no-one cares about?

I'd say French or Spanish. French mainly because out of all the European countries I can think of that's the place you're least likely to meet an English speaker.

It's hard though for an English speaker, since it's intonation and subtleties of inflexion are hard for Anglophones to manage. German and Scandinavian etc are much easier from this point of view, but if you learn how to listen and pronounce French properly you've had practise in a difficult skill (that is, understanding subtleties that aren't in your language). Learning German won't teach you this.

Gerard Depardoo (Alan Partridge content) at 2:40 in. Or you could listen to the whole sketch cos it's genius 🙂

essex, innit

How exactly are you going to teach them another language? My kids speak two but we live in another country. Going to employ à foreign nanny as it is pointless teaching them that young. Swedish nanny, mumsfillibaba.

Spanish or arabic. ignore the detractors, the younger he is, the easier it is to learn languages. I hated my parents forcing languages on me, and I'm by no means fluent, but lessons from 5 onwards in French did me very well and also get by in German/Dutch, Spanish, italian and some Greek. I like the idea of Latin to form a basis of understanding, perhaps it is the common rules of Latin that help me with other European languages?

I hated my parents forcing languages on me, and I'm by no means fluent

Hmmmm…

Klingon.

C#

You're in China, aren't you? How about Japanese then 😆

C# is old hat. F# is what you want – get ahead of the curve 🙂

trolling or the ultimate middle class dilemma. Not sure yet.

He'll know the word for a boy chicken in lots of languages…

He'll know the word for a boy chicken in lots of languages…

I spoke English at home and Welsh everywhere else form the age of 5 to 11. By the end of it I could speek welsh better than English and couln't tell the difference unless I concentrated on what I/the other pweron/the book was saying!

I'd leave it for school, trying a third language with no context is just going to confuse him, at the moment I guess he barely registers that mum speeks one and dad the other, if they both start speeking a third lot of jibberish he's going to be confused entirely!

Aged 5 it took me about a term to pick up almost fluent Welsh, so if it bothers you find a private school that will teach him in a 3rd langage at that point.

Be careful tho. I know a few English families that moved to Wales with the result that their kids are fluent in a language that the parents don't understand. Has a few interesting discipline issues 🙂

Swedish. The Swedish girls are HOT!!!!

I found this out after a 3 week trip round Sweden a few weeks back. He'll love you for it 😉

If you're not trolling, then I'd suggest relaxing a little.

Latin will give you the structure and basis for all of Europe's romantic languages, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan, Corsican, Lombard, Occitan, Gascon, Aromanian, Sardinian, Sicilian, Venetian, Galician, Neapolitan and Friulian amongst others.

Or just not bother and let him sort it out himself when he cares. A friend's son is Dutch/Chinese and has learned to speak Dutch/English/Cantonese without having to allocate specific adults/rooms or times of day to any partiucular language or dialect.