Bi-lingual children

[Anonym bruker]

My experience with teaching a child two languages is that yes, it does delay the development of language, but it's not a bad thing.

 

They are capable of learning several languages at once, and although it will delay some kids, but at the end of the day you are doing them a huge favor as it'll be much easier for them to learn a third (fourth and so on) language later in life.

 

What is important, is if you start speaking English to your child, stick to it, and let your husband take care of the Norwegian part. Makes it a lot easier for the child.

 

A friend of mine learned 5 different languages as a child, and she is now fluent in 7.

Her mother was Norwegian, her father Italian, they spoke English at home, her mother's parents lived in Germany and her father's family lived in France. So they all spoke different languages to her from the beginning. (mother spoke Norwegian to her, father Italian, maternal grandparents German, paternal grandparents French, and her mom and dad spoke English to each other)

It was a fine mix of everything when she first started talking, but then she sorted it all out, and by the time she was 3-4, she were fluent in 5 languages.

Later in life she added Spanish and Russian.

 

Wishing you good luck with your decision.

[Jule1982]

Hei hei.

I'm a german teacher for primaryschool. Learning both languages is absolutely not a problem for kids and you don't have to wait until she speaks one language fluently.The earlier the better! But you are obliged to speak Englisch and your husband is obliged to speak Norwegian to her. You must not switch the language when you or your husband talk to your daughter! If you switch most time or be inconsistent, she'll get problems to keep the to languages apart.

 

But you will do that right!

I would commend, that you educate your daughter bilingually!

 

Bye bye

[starfire]

I've worked with kids who were raised learning two languages, and although someone said that the helsesoester had told them that it's not true that speaking two languages to a child delay the development of the language... my experience tells me it does.

 

On the other hand, the positive side of raising your child bi-lingual, weigh up for the delay. Kids are different though, so even if the kids I have worked with were a little delayed, doesn't mean your kid will be.

 

But if you want my opinion, teach your child both languages from the start.

 

Good luck!

[Puella]

Hi,

Im billingual myself. My mum is actually half english (her mother is british). I first learnt english until I was around 5, then I learnt norwegian in kindergarden.

 

Kids learn much easier than adults, so I guess it wouldnt be any problem. I think that learning new foreign languages is one of my stronger sides today.

 

Ive also read something about this in psychology litterature, and there was some research done which said that billingual children have an advantage with learning and also learning other languages.

[Anonym bruker]

I live in the US, and speaks norwegian to the kids. If we are in public where other americans are with us, or around the dinnertable, we talk american(because my husband doesnt understand norwegian.He wants to learn,but has other things on his mind at the moment).

 

I started right off with the 8 year old, when he was borned. Singing norwegian lullabyes and talking to him in norwegian every day. He showed early he understood, but he didnt want to talk norwegian before he was 5 or 6.

To me it is important that he understand what I say, and has not pushed him to talk norwegian as much. But he CAN talk,if he wants to.

Good thing when my mom visits,because she doesnt speak english =)

The 16 month old already understand norwegian as well as english.

 

You just have to be consequent and never give up.

Kids are fast learners.

 

 

Northernlights

 

 

 

 

[EPCDallas]

As the American parent, I always speak English to our toddlers (and often try to say the same thing afterwards in Norwegian), My husband is Norwegian & fluent in English too, and he speaks English to the children at home (often repeating things in Norwegian) but speaks Norwegian to them elsewhere. As we live outside Bergen, Norway and nearly everyone else only ever speaks Norwegian, I feel this is the only way they will be fluent in both English and Norwegian. If I am the only one speaking English to them, specifically if they dont hear their father also speak English to them, then I feel I see that they learn that my language isn't as important so will soon ignore it except w me, or entirely.

 

I also try to teach them bits and pieces of other languages for now (more later) so they will gradually learn and be able to converse in those too

 

Paige

[noggie]

I called two linguists and was told it was no problem for me to speak both languages with our daughter( broken up then, back together now). He doesn't speak Norwegian and I use both if he is part of the conversation and Norwegian if its just us girls. She uses both freely as well. When in Britain she swaps between the two depending who she talks to (grandparents are so impressed with her ).

When in Belgium (got family there too) I speak what French I remember and they speak English. She now likes to try a few French words (she's 4,5).

Got Australien/ Norwegian friends and their children are trilingual as they got a house in Spain. No problems!

Just try it and see how it goes, if its not natural for you or you see any problems just stop one language. The earlier you start though, the better....

 

 

[mommy3]

Oh ladies! I totally agree with everything that has been discussed here (although this thread started two years ago!)! I have a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old and a baby due any day now. They only get English from me (OPOL - One Parent, One Language)!

 

Here's a tip for any parent raising a bilingual kid: http://www.multilingualchildren.org/

 

It has helped me sooo much!

 

Enjoy

 

From Ameri-wegian Krissy (I'm not a norskamerikaner - I'm an American living in Norway. Been here since I was 13)

[karebear]

just to add my two cents, here: i did a course in sociolinguistics as part of my degree at a university in england, and since i grew up in a dual- language household myself, i decided to focus on bilingual families. i studied a wide variety of material, some dealing with so-called "french immersion" schools in canada (where children in english-speaking parts of the country attend french-only kindergarten and school), others with multi-language immigrant families in new york, and so on. the overwhelming consensus is that bilingual children do not suffer any negative consequences from being taught two or more languages simultaneously. indeed, the opposite is the case: in layman's terms, we have only one language centre in the brain, and so our brain does not compartmentalise and differentiate between languages the way we think it does. in other words, the more languages we learn, the more we insight we gain about language in general, and the more sophisticated our language skill become. the idea that learning more than one language at a time is somehow detrimental to a child's linguistic development (a theory bandied about in linguistic circles in the 1950s and 60s) has been widely disproved in recent years. thus when it comes to what researchers call "code switching" (i,e., where a person switches from one language to another and back again within a single sentence), this is not a sign of poor language skills, but requires, rather, a beyond average understanding of both languages.

 

my children will definitely be growing up bilingually, not least because my partner is english. and if at all possible, i hope to give them the opportunity to learn a third language as early as possible as well.

 

 

 

[karebear]

* language skillS

 

[FutureTrilingualFamily]

Hi

I am from Lithuania and live with my German boyfriend here in Norway. We are thinking to have baby next year - so bilingualism (in our case, possible trilingualism) is and will be a big part of our lifes. So this forum and possibility to relate to other families that deals with issues related to bilingual family, childrearing are quite important to me, us.

 

I am also student in Oslo Universitet. I am writting my Master Thesis about bilingualism in family. So I would like to ask all the mothers and fathers who have bilingual family would they like to participate in my research. If you are interested - I invite you to send me e-mail to

 

[email protected]

 

- so I could send you further information about research.

 

Thank you in advance

[fluidjess]

I have a 2 year old boy. I am english speaking while my husband is norwegian. We speak english together only. I can speak good norwegian now as I have been here 5 years. I have only spoken english to my son since he was born. It is of course the most natural thing to do to speak your own language to your own child. Our boy is very good at translating back and forth to us. I will say something to him in english and he will translate for pappa. It is quite amazing to watch. The brain just switches and it is completely natural for him. He is more advanced than most of the other children his age including full norwegian children. I have read that the brain learns more with 2 languages so if anything it is a benefit. The most important thing is to be consistant. Mummy speaks english, pappa speaks norwegian, while mummy and pappa speak norwegian together and the rest of norway speaks norwegian to him so I think it is quite a decent balance.

[Anonym bruker]

My 2 year old son started learning Norwegian for the first time when he started barnehage at the age of 1 as both me (British) and my husband (Norwegian) speak English at home in Oslo. We met and lived together in the UK for many years before we came to Norway so that is what feels most natural to us.

 

What I would say is that compared to similar couples/families that practise One Parent One Language (I guess we are using Minority Language In The Home), I think our son appears to be more advanced with speaking. My personal assumption is that it is more mentally tiring and confusing for a child who has to have two languages running in his brain simultaneously e.g. at home with both parents presetn but using different languages, as opposed to those who can switch one language off totally and focus all energy on the other one for a period as they go home from daycare, or whatever.

 

There is no right or wrong way to do it, but they learn a different way and with slightly different skills according to the setting. The kids with one parent speaking each language at home will just take slightly longer as it's harder work in the beginning. He will probably have more equal ability in both languages in the long run though.

 

My son's English is more advanced than his Norwegian as obvisouly he doesn't get parent-style one-on-one attention in Norwegian as he has to share the stage with 8 other kids in barnehage avdeling.

 

He has started initiating all three of us switching over to speaking Norwegian for 15 minutes or so each evening, which isn't part of the strict academic theory but seems to be working for the time being in pulling his Norwegian up to a similar standard to his English.

 

There are pros and cons to both. It's best to do whatever is natural and be consistent as much as you can without getting hung up on it.