Forum menu
Troll. Spanish would be my choice but at a suitable age not 8 months.
Our 2 year old son loves sign language though. Mr Tumble on CBeebies has a lot to answer for!
Spanish, English and Chinese will all he'll need in 10yrs time.
Often found Latin very useful for working out European words but I think Spanish would be a better one to pick.
Spanish or Arabic seem the obvious 'world' choices but as already mentioned by others how the hell do you introduce that?
Surely the point of children picking up language is that it's in their surroundings & they pick up it by default?
I'm an expat with my kids speaking primarily Flemish but also english.
My eldest who is now 5 has french lessons at school 1 afternoon a week already but it's very different to his exposure to English & Flemish
Fluent bullshit?
I reckon if you have English you have to choose another language because you have a connection to it. Like for example, Welsh if you live in Wales, Spanish if you live in the USA or whatever. You don't need either of those to get by, but let you into another culture/society that you wouldn't otherwise be able to participate in.
Isn't Latin a little tricky to learn as a language, being as pronounciation is a guess? I remember being it taught it completely phonetically, which to be fair is how my Italian colleague has told me to read Italian.. so maybe that's not so far off.
Spanish realisitically, an indian dialect (sinhalese? hindi? tamil? marathi? there's quite a choice you know) might be handy but all the ones I work with want to speak English.
Brassneck - the pronunciation in Latin is WAY more straightforward than in our daft language!
Always very impressed with truly bi or multi lingual people. Have a mate who is completely fluent in Spanish, German and Italian and very good at French. Amazing!
txt spk
My three year old speaks Mandarin and English. Her Mum is Taiwanese. As a couple of other posters have said, there needs to be a reason and constant input in any language they learn, so they hear it everyday. Otherwise you're into language classes and tutors. Something for the future maybe.
I do know that when she goes "home" to Taipei with her Mum, she comes back speaking much more Chinese, simply because no-one speaks English.
It's a difficult one! Mrs midgebait is expecting at the end of August and we're not sure whether the 'bump' should learn classical guitar or piano.
I'll have to post for advice closer to the time 😉
Eh? johni, calling me a troll???
Confused I am if you are?
❓
use of the term 'the little one' = middle class OP
they should learn portuguese, Brazil is where it's all at, innit
not a Troll, both myself and my wife are fluent in both languages so he does hear both languages all the time.
As any parent does, we read to him (in our respective languages) and because we are living in China for the next several years, when we do come back to England, I'd like him to be on the same language level as any English child would be.
Also, looking forward to the future, it's going to be hard out there, so I'd like for him to have a skill other children might not.
I'm not going to be a pushy parent, but he WILL do dance class especially if he hates it, and he is no way allowed to go MTB like his dad, as it's way to dangerous (hope he hates dance class, and sneaks out on his bike) otherwise I might have a gay latin speaker for a son 🙁
Seriously though, I'm not going to introduce a 3rd language for a few years yet, but we do have a neighbor whose 4 year old can speak Dutch (Father), Portuguese (Mother), a little English (Kindergarten) and Chinese (Nanny)
I'm not going to be a pushy parent, but he WILL do dance class especially if he hates it
Eh?
Btw picking up a language from someone he knows and spends a lot of time with is a massively different proposition from teaching it to him and making him learn.
no way allowed to go MTB like his dad, as it's way to dangerous
who won't allow him? you or chairwoman mao?
seems like a great troll or quite disturbing insight....
I'd say if you are living in China and want him to have strong English on your return, English should be the stronger language in the home when you get to the point of more complex interaction between the 3 of you. With plenty of exposure to mandarin outside of the home this should come naturally too. I have two English friends (well, one is from Norfolk - does that really count as English?) who live in Spain in a village where they are just about the only English speakers but obviously speak English in the house. Their kids are 100% as fluent in Spanish as they are in English despite this. White European British types like me tend to forget quite how common this set up is in Britain with Asian families who are more than comfortable conversing English outside the house and another language within - a skill I wish I had.
I'm no linguist, but sit on my school's curriculum committee and have sat through numerous meetings regarding the direction for language provision in the future. The school does teach latin but only to a group of gifted linguists who opt to do it. Interestingly the school is now following what seems to be a modern trend of reintroducing it to a wider audience as a lot of recent research indicates that weaker linguists who have been exposed to latin make more progress in romantic languages if they have some latin experience too. It is also obviously is not taught from a conversational perspective so does not require as much curriculum time as say French or Spanish. A bit of "fun" latin games with dad in a few years might be a good thing but I'd leave it at that for a good long while. As for a choice of third or forth MFL, potential choice of future school will have a lot of bearing on this as most have a core MFL that all learn.
So, let me get this right, you started this thread to show the world what a great parent you are because you want your kid to be able to speak three languages?
iDave - Memberno way allowed to go MTB like his dad, as it's way to dangerous
who won't allow him? you or chairwoman mao?
seems like a great troll or quite disturbing insight....
Tavis wrote:-...Seriously though,
Dave - your irony detection setting needs turning up a little
Klingon, definitely Klingon.
Or Elvish.
So, let me get this right, you started this thread to show the world what a great parent you are because you want your kid to be able to speak three languages?
Why would you think that?
Seems to me he was just asking what people thought were useful languages.
yep I am.
We speak both languages at home, but when time comes he'll be attending a Chinese language only school, so then the emphasis will change to English at home, and Chinese outside.
I was thinking of Latin as it's a good base for the Romantic languages, and not knowing where we shall be (in the world) in 8 years, maybe it will help him in the future.
I was keen on knowing what other STW think would be a good idea.
I always wanted to study Elvish, so maybe that might be good, we could chat and no-one would know what we are on about 🙂
If he attends a Chinese school, chances are English will be his weaker language. Depending when you come back, there'll be some catching up to do. Not sure on the wisdom of a 3rd language tho. Or the availability and quality of tuition in China. Would have thought it a bit scarce.
We speak both languages at home, but when time comes he'll be attending a Chinese language only school, so then the emphasis will change to English at home, and Chinese outside.
That would give me the fear. I know a lot of Chinese people from Uni, and the Chinese education system seems to produce people who think differently to what's wanted in UK universities. Of course, it's possible to adjust, but it's hassle I wouldn't want.
A friend does the same, he's English and mum is French. Its worked for their two kids - multi-lingual, down to winding up mum and dad in their 2nd languages.
And another friend in the same position only spoke French in their house, consequently the kids only speak French...
tbh I wouldn't worry about a 3rd language at the moment, wait until there is a reason for a particular one.
we do have a neighbor whose 4 year old can speak Dutch (Father), Portuguese (Mother), a little English (Kindergarten) and Chinese (Nanny)
Sounds like a case of trying to keep up with the Jones's
I wouldnt bother teaching him any other languages to be honest, it'll just confuse him.
I only know English and it hasnt been a problem for me when I go on holiday to Fuengirola. I manage by speaking in a raised voice and I can always repeat the sentence a few times till Im understood.
Thankfully in Fuengirola and generally on the sunshine coast of spain, alot of the people speak good English, or are English (even better) so communicating isnt too much bother.
Klingon, definitely Klingon.Or Elvish.
There's a guy works down the chip shop I'd swear he's Elvish.
<tips hat to Kirsty and Terry>
Tron - completely agree. We only want him to do Primary School in the mainstay system, so that he gets a good grounding in the language.
Whilst he's at Primary school, he'll get extra lessons (and the main language at home will be) in English.
When we leave here, his Mum will take over, and he'll get extra lessons in Chinese.
There is no way I'd let him continue with Chinese Education after Primary School. Just way to much pressure on the children.
B r - I'm not worried at the moment, just wondered in the future, which language would be useful. With him speak both Mandarin and English, he's pretty much got the world covered, but I'd like him to have a 3rd string to his bow.
dtf -
As an aside, a mates girlfriend is British-born Chinese. I gave her a lift once (helping to fix her car). She rang her mum and was like
"[i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [b]Halfords [/b][i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [b]locking wheel-nut[/b] [i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [b]the AA[/b]"
Somethings she'd just never learnt the words for. I didn't know she spoke it though so was well confused when she first picked up the phone!
brassneck - very good.
Isn't Latin a little tricky to learn as a language, being as pronounciation is a guess?
WGAF? There's no-one to speak it to!
The languages you really want to learn are the ones of places that are poor now. Why? Because in 20/30 years they will be the ones developing fastest and big business/government/occupying military will need people to speak the language.
So have a crack at Swahili, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi...or Portuguese (Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome & Principe - though the boat may have been missed on that last one) or French (all of Francophone Africa). Spanish should still be good, although there are obviously a lot of Spanish-English bilingual people in the world - although not so many Spanish-Chinese, I'd imagine.
And Arabic, of course - and quite possibly Chinese and Arabic together will be lingui franci (?) coming up the rear of English pretty soon.
Hmmm. I reckon Latin's well worth it for the air of worldliness it bestows upon the speaker, not to mention the sideways door into the Old Boys' Network of ex-public schoolboys jobs club...
8 months old? what about just having some fun, and playing with stuff. You know, kicking a football about or whatever. you worry too much. Even if he doesnt speak another word of english until he is 6 yrs old or whatever, he'll still be fine. he'll pick it up in no time. Everyone in china manages.
And my mum is Chinese, and my Dad is english.
At eight months you'll be having fun getting him to point out the differences between a red cube and a yellow cylinder - let alone learning all the ways of describing them in three languages. But I've said all that up there I suppose.