Teaching newborn English/Spanish

[Zerk]

Hi everyone,

My hope joining this forum is that I will be able to teach my daughter both English and Spanish. I believe it will help her greatly in the future and also give me motivation to become fluent in Spanish.

I took Spanish in high school and loved it but the saying "if you don't use it, you lose it" took effect. So...5 years later, I am trying to remember everything I can and more to prepare to teach my daughter once she starts talking(probably 5-6 more months).

I am using Google Translate to help me form sentences but would like to use it less and less, the more I learn. Unfortunately right now it is a crutch since I don't remember very much(Verb conjugation, vocabulary, etc...)

The plan is for my wife to speak English to our daughter and me to speak Spanish to her. The idea came from a co-worker who has a nephew in a bilingual household. He is 3 and is fluent in both English and Portugese, with the dad only speaking Portugese and the mom only speaking English.

We are up for the challenge! Let me know your thoughts on this or if you maybe have done it yourself???

Thanks,

Joe

[Premium]

Originally Posted by Zerk

I am using Google Translate to help me form sentences but would like to use it less and less, the more I learn

Please do yourself a favor and stop using Google Translate. Nothing good comes out of it. You can find excelent online dictionaries that also provide conjugations and more.

I really don't want to discourage you but you should think this over. As long as Spanish isn't your native language or you don't speak it well-nigh perfectly I'd advise against it.
I know former school colleagues who were raised monolingual or bilingual but spoke 3 or more languages before hitting puberty. They were either extremely fascinated by languages or learnt it by other children in nursery.
An old friend of mine spoke only Albanian and German, but during nursery learnt Serbian as he only had friends who spoke Serbian to each other. Just by listening to language a young child can learn tremendously much

[Zerk]

Originally Posted by Premium

Please do yourself a favor and stop using Google Translate. Nothing good comes out of it. You can find excelent online dictionaries that also provide conjugations and more.

Thanks Premium, I will look into using another resource to help translate

Originally Posted by Premium

I really don't want to discourage you but you should think this over. As long as Spanish isn't your native language or you don't speak it well-nigh perfectly I'd advise against it.

Not quite sure if you are still referring to Google Translate here or if you are referring to teaching my daughter Spanish?

If you are referring to teaching my daughter Spanish as she grows up, I would disagree with you. Even if I do not speak Spanish perfectly by the time she is learning to talk, I see multiple advantages of her learning "words" or even having a keen ear to Spanish by the time she starts going to school.

Could you please elaborate on what/why you would advise against it? I don't see a negative to her being exposed to a second language, sooner rather than later.

[chileno]

If Spanish is not the native language spoken by one of the parents, I am afraid your daughter is not going to learn good Spanish.

She can go to Spanish classes as early as she starts speaking English, though. Or, you can get a Spanish nanny that will be most of the day with her, and she can teach your daughter directly.

[Premium]

Originally Posted by Zerk

Not quite sure if you are still referring to Google Translate here or if you are referring to teaching my daughter Spanish

To teaching your daughter Spanish.

Chileno said it clear and simple. Her Spanish would not be as good. Of course her ear will be accustomed to Spanish but she wouldn't necessarily unlearn the things she learnt wrong. Chileno also gave you some great examples. Privat tutoring at a young age can be very efficient.

[Zerk]

Thank you both for the information! I agree with you both to some extent, if Spanish is not taught properly from the beginning she will not learn "good Spanish" and as a result may run the risk of "not being able to undo the bad tendencies". However I must disagree with your first point chileno, I don't believe the person teaching Spanish must be native. For example, when I was learning/speaking Spanish regularly I could keep up a conversation with students who were fluent to a certain extent and I was learning from a teacher who knew Spanish as their second language, English being their first.

I appreciate the concerns however even if she only picked up a foundation for the language, that would still be better than her knowing nothing at all...as long as the foundation was good, to your point.

Has anyone on the forum done this with their children before? I would like to hear some experiences, do's, don't's, progress, what to expect..etc...

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Zerk

Thank you both for the information! I agree with you both to some extent, if Spanish is not taught properly from the beginning she will not learn "good Spanish" and as a result may run the risk of "not being able to undo the bad tendencies". However I must disagree with your first point chileno, I don't believe the person teaching Spanish must be native. For example, when I was learning/speaking Spanish regularly I could keep up a conversation with students who were fluent to a certain extent and I was learning from a teacher who knew Spanish as their second language, English being their first.

I appreciate the concerns however even if she only picked up a foundation for the language, that would still be better than her knowing nothing at all...as long as the foundation was good, to your point.

Has anyone on the forum done this with their children before? I would like to hear some experiences, do's, don't's, progress, what to expect..etc...

Understandable, however, think of the following:

Great that you could follow conversation with other non Spanish speaking people, but who knew if what y'all was saying was OK?

Sure, some will have a better Spanish than others, but all of you are going to be missing stuff, for not being native.

Don't you think so?

Besides, you might pick up some errors here and there, what about the baby?

I know, you will correct them, uh. The blind leading the blind type of situation.

[Zerk]

Originally Posted by chileno

Understandable, however, think of the following:

Great that you could follow conversation with other non Spanish speaking people, but who knew if what y'all was saying was OK?

Sure, some will have a better Spanish than others, but all of you are going to be missing stuff, for not being native.

Don't you think so?

Besides, you might pick up some errors here and there, what about the baby?

I know, you will correct them, uh. The blind leading the blind type of situation.

That's true . I agree

But I would like to point out I'm not trying to raise a Spanish expert, just try and teach her enough to be able to conversate.

Also, that is why "I'm learning how to see" if you will... . So the blind isn't leading the blind. I think 5-6 months is plenty of time for me to sharpen my skill set enough with the help of you all to be able to teach her little by little how to conversate in Spanish.

Don't you agree?

[Villa]

Zerk, I got to watch my native Spanish speaking wife teach our
two kids Spanish starting from when they were babies and I got
to learn Spanish right along with them. One of the many things she
did was to sing to them in Spanish every day a lot.
For example: Este niño lindo que nació de noche quiere que
le llevo a pasar en coche.
I can get you more lyrics to Spanish children songs
if you like. It's just something you can do amoung
others to teach your baby and yourself Spanish.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Zerk

That's true . I agree

But I would like to point out I'm not trying to raise a Spanish expert, just try and teach her enough to be able to conversate.

Also, that is why "I'm learning how to see" if you will... . So the blind isn't leading the blind. I think 5-6 months is plenty of time for me to sharpen my skill set enough with the help of you all to be able to teach her little by little how to conversate in Spanish.

Don't you agree?

If you is OK with grammatical errors that most likely you are not going to catch, so most likely you are going to embrace them as "good Spanish" for her. Sure, why not.

Now, I will correct what Villa's wife must have said:

Este niño lindo que nació de noche quiere que le/lo llevo a pasear en coche.

My two daughters were taught Spanish at home, and that was their first language, as we knew once they would start school, they would catch up quickly. As things really worked out, they went into school with a lot of English, because they used to watch cartoons in English.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

*"lo lleve/lo lleven", depending on the region where the nursery rhyme is sung.

[Rusty]

'Conversate' is a non-standard word, my friend. The commonly-used word is 'converse'.

Language acquisition begins with listening to those who raise us. After a good deal of listening, we utter our first syllables and then our first words. The words we learn at first are almost always the objects we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell.
Our first words will always be what our most constant guardian will teach us.

Teaching a child two words for every object encountered is impossible, unless the same moment, encouragement and recognition are ever present. Don't get me wrong, each language can be taught, but they will seldom be taught at the same time. The connection made when an English word is learned will almost never be the same connection made when the Spanish equivalent is learned.

For example, if your wife is at home when your baby sees a ball in the room, she might pick the ball up and hold it in her hand while saying "Do you see the ball?" Then she might isolate the word "ball" and point at it or wiggle it so that the baby is focused on just the ball. She may repeat the question several times. She might sit down in front of the baby and ask, "Can you roll the ball?" She will push the ball towards the baby. After this exercise is repeated several times, the child might say ball.
During this exercise the parent taught several mini-lessons in English grammar while trying to get the child to focus on and learn a single word.
To teach the same concepts in Spanish, the same kind of mini-lessons need to repeated, in Spanish, before your child can be expected to learn the word pelota. If you can't provide a very similar learning environment to the one already experienced in English, your baby will not make the right connection. It's just that simple. The child must learn the Spanish word in much the same way as she learned the English word. You can't simply provide the word in Spanish after the English word has been taught. We don't learn that way.

As was suggested, you'll need to hire a Spanish-speaking nanny if you want your child to learn both languages equally well. You should realize, however, that your child will not have the same English and Spanish lessons each day because the teaching environments will seldom be the same. One day the child will speak about the stars and Elmo playing with a kite y el próximo dirá que el cielo es celeste y que oyó cómo cantan los pájaros en los árboles.

I did not teach, nor would I try to teach, a language that weren't my mother tongue. There's little point in it, since you will not always speak in the foreign language you're trying to teach.

I know several families with bilingual children. Not one of those children acquired both languages at the same time. They spoke one language at first, and then the other as the need arose. The mother tongue of the one who spoke to the children the most was always the first language acquired. The second language, although it was also used in the home and heard through electronic media, was not learned until it was needed for communication of basic needs. The need for bilingualism has to exist before it can happen.
Think about it.

[Zerk]

Originally Posted by Rusty

'Conversate' is a non-standard word, my friend. The commonly-used word is 'converse'.

Language acquisition begins with listening to those who raise us. After a good deal of listening, we utter our first syllables and then our first words. The words we learn at first are almost always the objects we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell.
Our first words will always be what our most constant guardian will teach us.

Teaching a child two words for every object encountered is impossible, unless the same moment, encouragement and recognition are ever present. Don't get me wrong, each language can be taught, but they will seldom be taught at the same time. The connection made when an English word is learned will almost never be the same connection made when the Spanish equivalent is learned.

For example, if your wife is at home when your baby sees a ball in the room, she might pick the ball up and hold it in her hand while saying "Do you see the ball?" Then she might isolate the word "ball" and point at it or wiggle it so that the baby is focused on just the ball. She may repeat the question several times. She might sit down in front of the baby and ask, "Can you roll the ball?" She will push the ball towards the baby. After this exercise is repeated several times, the child might say ball.
During this exercise the parent taught several mini-lessons in English grammar while trying to get the child to focus on and learn a single word.
To teach the same concepts in Spanish, the same kind of mini-lessons need to repeated, in Spanish, before your child can be expected to learn the word pelota. If you can't provide a very similar learning environment to the one already experienced in English, your baby will not make the right connection. It's just that simple. The child must learn the Spanish word in much the same way as she learned the English word. You can't simply provide the word in Spanish after the English word has been taught. We don't learn that way.

As was suggested, you'll need to hire a Spanish-speaking nanny if you want your child to learn both languages equally well. You should realize, however, that your child will not have the same English and Spanish lessons each day because the teaching environments will seldom be the same. One day the child will speak about the stars and Elmo playing with a kite y el próximo dirá que el cielo es celeste y que oyó cómo cantan los pájaros en los árboles.

I did not teach, nor would I try to teach, a language that weren't my mother tongue. There's little point in it, since you will not always speak in the foreign language you're trying to teach.

I know several families with bilingual children. Not one of those children acquired both languages at the same time. They spoke one language at first, and then the other as the need arose. The mother tongue of the one who spoke to the children the most was always the first language acquired. The second language, although it was also used in the home and heard through electronic media, was not learned until it was needed for communication of basic needs. The need for bilingualism has to exist before it can happen.
Think about it.

Thanks for the videos Villa!

Chileno, during conversations...are you really concerned about grammar? How often have you stopped in the middle of a conversation to correct someone before you moved on to the next topic? Now writing is certainly different but learning how to communicate for basic needs, I'm pretty sure if you conjugated incorrectly during a casual conversation you would still be able to get your point across...used las instead of los...etc. These are also all things you can improve in time, I used to have horrible grammar before hanging around people who spoke correctly. Being immersed in people who used proper grammar made me realize how bad mine was and want to correct it

That makes a lot of sense Rusty, thanks for the input.

That is definitely something I was still trying to figure out...how/when to teach her. Do I wait until she has learned some words in English, then try and teach her the Spanish equivalent? You're exactly right, we don't learn that way so more often than not it's going to be confusing rather than helpful. I have also heard that same point many times, unless you are dependent on speaking the other language than most likely you will not become fluent.

Maybe the better goal would just be to focus on vocabulary and let her develop grammatical skills when she starts learning in school?

Thanks for the input everyone, I hope I'm coming off as accepting..it's hard to tell without tone but I really am taking these points into consideration.

[zuma022]

I admire what you want to do Zerk, but I also don't think it's going to work. Aside from the points made, you would have to speak Spanish 100% to her and unless you're a native speaker or have a near native command of the language that is just not going to happen. Think about it, if the baby or later on toddler does something let's say dangerous, I can guarantee you, you won't call out in Spanish to not do that. That's an extreme example of course, but even complementing a child or asking to do something, etc etc. If Spanish isn't like a mother tongue to you, you won't be able to keep it up, no matter what.

I have friends where the husband is perfectly bilingual and speaks mostly Spanish to their two year old and while she does understand a lot, she never replies in Spanish. As Rusty said above, there is simply no need for her. She will likely have the basics down if he keeps it up, but she's not bilingual. Another couple I know where the mom is Chinese, but not fluent herself have just decided to let her watch educational programs in Cantonese. She also has games and books in Cantonese and the plan is to put her into early immersion classes as a day care option. That to me is the best approach if you yourself are not fluent.

[Zerk]

Gotcha, well thank you all for your input. Maybe my wife and I will look into getting her into special programs or something as she gets older where she can learn and become fluent in Spanish. As for now...maybe I will just stick to learning it myself

I really appreciate all the responses and concerns with this. It's always good to get other peoples perspective

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Children do discriminate what is not right if they can compare; you can always speak to your child in the foreign language, but it's necessary that she also has native speakers nearby to talk to her too, so the risk of flawed input is minimized.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by Zerk

I would like to hear some experiences, do's, don't's, progress, what to expect..etc...

Get a copy of http://www.cambridge.org/es/elt/cata...e_locale=es_ES . It condenses a lot more experiences than you'll hear from a handful of people on a forum.

[Zerk]

Thanks pjt33! I will look into it

[Villa]

There was a study done about how a 6 year old child could learn
a whole new language in 6 months and at the same time lose
their first language. Seems it was a linguist from Spain who adopted
a child from another country. So if you teach your child Spanish you
have to continue to do so. Here in California we have these double
immersion programs that teach the subjects in Spanish and English.

[chileno]

In my case, we, my wife and I, came from Chile and our two daughters were born in the US. We made the commitment to just speak Spanish at home, so their first language was Spanish and we always speak at home, even today. They know that when they are at home they have to converse with us in Spanish only. Today they are 32 and 26 y.o. respectively.