Language Help

Updated on June 11, 2011
C.W. asks from Saint George, UT
5 answers

I've been wanting to raise my little one bilingual (english and spanish) and she knows her abcs and numbers and little phrases in Spanish. I've heard the more she hears it the more she will understand. Has anyone ever learned with their child to become fluent? I understand spanish and can speak it but am not fluent by far. I would like to multilingual and speak a few languages but its like I can't get over the hump to be fluent. I started wondering, since I would like my little one to know english and spanish, if I should get spanish preschool books and learn with her and talk to each other in simple spanish sentences. Has anyone done anything similar? I would love to get rosetta stone but that stuff is expensive :P

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So What Happened?

Thanks moms. I totally forgot about my library. I will probably try the school's library first b/c the local library has you bring in an arm and a leg of evidence that you are in fact a utah residence lol
I do want her to learn mexican spanish more than spain spanish. I don't have friends around anymore that speak fluent spanish. I'm also nervous about meeting people who speak spanish, I feel like they see a pale white girl and are like "wtf" lol

More Answers

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B.C.

answers from Los Angeles on

I bought Rosetta Stone used on Craig's list and saved 75% to 80%. Its hard to raise children bilingual if they have no one to be bilingual with. I would suggest you wait until 9th or 10th grade and then have them learn the language. I did that with German and emersed myself in the German in Germany. That was 40 years ago and I still remember some. I can hear and translate the war movies, but cannot speak very well because there is no one around to speak with. Although I was at Disneyland several years ago and was able to assist some German tourists find their way to Frontierland and the Golden Horse Shoe Review.

I'm sure you already know there is more difference between Mexican and Spanish than there is between British English and American English. So choose which one you want your kids to learn.

Good luck to you and yours.

1 mom found this helpful

R.R.

answers from Los Angeles on

Good for you, being bilingual opens up a child's future so much!

Why not go to your local library for books, DVD's. etc. to check out? Our library has a great foreign language section in the children's part of the library, and I've found wonderful books there. Talk to a children's librarian and let them know what you'd like to do and ask for their advice. He or she can more than likely steer you in the right direction to learn to speak Spanish, they may have a language teaching system at hand.

My guy watches The Good Night Show on Sprout and is learning words in Spanish from Nina (she also teaches sign language.) Fisher-Price is making toys that teach words in English and Spanish. The world around us is recognizing how beneficial knowing a second language is.

1 mom found this helpful

G.T.

answers from Modesto on

My son and dil are teaching my granddaughter english, tagalog and arabic. She sings lots of songs in tagalog and her Lola only speaks to her in tagalog.
Granddaughter is picking up all three without much trouble. My son leraned arabic in the army.

A.J.

answers from Williamsport on

Yes, good work, the earlier the better for her to learn. I'm trying to do the same with French. I got tons of french children's books cheap from ebay Canada and read the to them, and the Muzzy Language DVDs (also ebay-expensive, but it was my only splurge the year my daughter was born-they have Spanish). Now we meet once a week with a friend who is French to read books and learn a new song that I work on during the week with the kids. It's soooo hard since I don't speak well. I also leave French movies on in the background from netflix all the time, so they HAVE heard a lot of French for having no french speakers in their family. I'm still waiting to win the lottery and move them to a French immersion school or to Canada or France though.
If you use a sitter and can get a spanish speaking one and ask her to speak Spanish with her it's great too. Depending where you live, find Spanish speaking kids at the park and be sure she plays with them.
The workbooks are a great idea, and get some Spanish children's books to read used somewhere. Our library has no foreign language books but some do. The books have helped me learn basic sentences and phrases.

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C.C.

answers from Huntsville on

That's great, I'm also trying to get my twin boys to learn spanish. I let them watch the English version of cartoons on Youtube, and then let them watch the Spanish version. Also, there are loads of videos on youtube about spanish for beginners. It works great for my kids. And yes, the more they listen the more fluent they get.

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