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Yes. My wife's from Namibia and her mother tongue is Afrikaans (but she speaks English as well as we do). We try to speak mostly Afrikaans to our daughter Maric

by benhoyt 18y ago

Yes. My wife's from Namibia and her mother tongue is Afrikaans (but she speaks English as well as we do). We try to speak mostly Afrikaans to our daughter Marica, who's now two. Our theory is that "she'll learn English anyway", and that's definitely what's happening (we speak mostly English to each other). I've been learning Afrikaans as Marica does -- which is actually a great way to learn, because you start at "kid level" and get tons of practice conversing. Still, I have to resort to English quite a bit. You'd almost think she'd learn half as fast, because she's learning two languages at the same time. But it's pretty much the opposite -- she's significantly ahead of most kids her age in both languages. I'm biased, of course, but what I read in that article really matches up to our experience with Marica. So I rate the bilingual thing. But you really have to use that second language -- plan to speak it 100% of the time, and you'll end up with at least 50%. :-)

sgrove 18y ago
This works well a lot of the time, but there are cases where raising a child to be bi or tri-lingual can cause all sorts of problems due to difficulty in acquiring fluency in at least one language. The problems can eventually manifest themselves as behavioral issues. Working in my field linguistics course, we had to do quite a bit of work with these children. Often times, switching to one primary language at home caused the issue to go away within a few months (for children under a certain age).
secret 18y ago
I can personally vouch for that theory that "she'll learn English anyway." My parents were both raised in the US and speak fluent English, but I was only spoken to in Spanish. At the time I started school, English as a Second Language programs didn't exist and I nonetheless learned English in class without realizing it in probably a few months. As for learning both languages faster, I'm not entirely sure, but I only have one data point, so make of it what you will: my younger brother did not start speaking until a much older age than I did, but when he began, he spoke both languages at the same level a child would if he only knew one. (He had been spoken to in English and Spanish all along).

by benhoyt 18y ago

sgrove 18y ago

This works well a lot of the time, but there are cases where raising a child to be bi or tri-lingual can cause all sorts of problems due to difficulty in acquiring fluency in at least one language. The problems can eventually manifest themselves as behavioral issues. Working in my field linguistics course, we had to do quite a bit of work with these children. Often times, switching to one primary language at home caused the issue to go away within a few months (for children under a certain age).

secret 18y ago

I can personally vouch for that theory that "she'll learn English anyway." My parents were both raised in the US and speak fluent English, but I was only spoken to in Spanish. At the time I started school, English as a Second Language programs didn't exist and I nonetheless learned English in class without realizing it in probably a few months. As for learning both languages faster, I'm not entirely sure, but I only have one data point, so make of it what you will: my younger brother did not start speaking until a much older age than I did, but when he began, he spoke both languages at the same level a child would if he only knew one. (He had been spoken to in English and Spanish all along).