Multi Cultral - Bilingual

Chinese school would be great if the child were interested. The younger the better. They are like little sponges when very young so another language is fine as a 2nd language. English is what's more important...that's what they need to get thru school.

Hi J., I can only say I married a greek man 21 years ago & found all kinds of "reasons" for the kids not to go to Greek School and learn the lanuguage of their heritage and now I am sorry I did that. They are 19,15,13 and so sorry they don't speak the language. Please do all you can to teach your children Chinese. You won't be sorry. I believe my oldest is going to take the language in the fall. He is currently looking into it through the school and the church.

I came from a Bilingual and multicultural family. I have no regrets and am fluent in several languages (a licensed translator in 3 of them). As such I believe that it is extremely important to "train" your children's language ear by starting Chinese as soon as possible. I know that it helped me get the rhythm of the language and a better understanding of the cultures, etc. The final decision rests with you and your husband and how your children react to these influences. Some children appear to soak it up like a sponge. Others fall to peer pressure and fight any language but the primary one spoken with their friends. Good luck!

Have your husband only speak Chinese to your son. You should also learn chinese and definitely look into a school called Language Stars. They start teaching kids at 12mos old. My kids started at 12mos with Spanish at language stars, and i supplemented at home with a cartoon videos called MUZZY, which you can sometimes find at the library. I know there are dual language schools now teaching Chinese, I would look into that as well. My kids attend dual language school in Spanish and my 5th grader is bilingual and biliterate. There is NO spanish spoken in our home. So the kids can do it, you just might have to be forceful and ignore your son when he says no. It is worth the fight. Good Luck.

Hi J.:

My husband is Mexican and I am Canadian. Both my boys, age 4 and 7, are completely bilingual. My husband speaks ONLY Spanish to them. He NEVER speaks a word of English to them, even around other people who don't speak Spanish. I on the onther hand ONLY speak English to them. It helps that I understand Spanish, so when sitting at dinner I am able to understand and participate in the conversation. My husband and I speak English to one another. Interesting enough, both my children spoke Spanish first before English even though I am a stay at home mom and am with them 24-7. My husband puts the boys to bed and reads to them in Spanish. We put Spanish DVD's on for them when possible and we listen to a lot of Spanish music. We do flashcards with them and play games always in Spanish. We especially try to play Mexican cultural games. I also make Mexican foods that encourage interest in the culture and we talk a lot about Mexican history and my husband growing up in Mexico.
If the boys try to speak English to my husband he will tell them that he doesn't understand and makes them answer in Spanish. Sometimes this requires some encouragement and at a young age there is a lot of stubborness, but it has paid off.
My suggestion is put them into the other language as much as possible. Even though we haven't done this, there are Spanish language classes held on the weekend in our community that I know other families have participated in. We ask that our friends and family who speak Spanish ONLY speak and write to our boys in Spanish. We also encourage them to do the same. Research Mom's groups that speak Chinese and get involved, even if you don't speak the language. I've found that it is good for the kids when I make an effort in their language development.
We also have our boys in French Immersion and they are doing exceptionally well because they do have the other langauage. They are able to distinguish sounds that I can't hear and speak with a great French accent.
Good luck and enjoy.
Jenny

As an aside. We also have no family that live close to us, but have managed between my husband and I encourage the language and culture. Our closest family that speaks Spanish is in Vancouver and Mexico. Our closest friends that speak Spanish are in Atlanta.

I'm polish, but am not confident in my speaking it so I have not taught my children. However, my cousin and her husband both speak a different language. My cousin speaks polish, her husband speaks spanish so they decided that she would speak polish to the kids and he would speak spanish to them and they speak english to one another (my cousin and her husband) so the kids hear english as well. Their children speak all three. They speak polish better because her parents babysit them while she's at work. Of course their english is fine as well because of school and t.v.

I have heard in many multi-lingual families that one parent would speak one language to the children and the other something else. So I would try having your husband speak only chinese to your children and you speak english until you learn enough to join in on the chinese conversation.

The more your husband speaks to him in Chinese the better. If it would work for your family, have your husband only speak to him in chinese and you speak to him in English.
When i was young, my parents only spoke to me in their native lang. ONce i went to school, they started speaking to me in english to help me learn for school. I picked up english veryquickly and lost the other lang.
Once your child is the appropriate age, following up w/chinese school would be a great idea!

I would agree with all the other posts -- have your husband continue speaking in Chinese and you focus on the English. I'm an ABC (american born Chinese) to Chinese parents. My mom always spoke to me in Chinese and told me she didn't understand me if I spoke in English (of course, I spoke in Ching-lish...mixture of English and Chinese...when I was growing up). If I didn't know the word in Chinese, I used the English and that was fine...but the majority of what I said had to be in Chinese or my mom would ignore me. My dad didn't want to fight with us so he just used English. So I learned to speak with my parents in English and in Chinese. As a kid, I hated having to learn Chinese (I attended Chinese school every Sat while my friends watched cartoons), but as an adult, I'm so grateful for knowing a second language. A lot of my ABC friends can't speak (or read or write), but I can.

So stick with it. It'll be great for your kids.

Hi J.
My almost 3 year old daughter is half Hispanic and I really want her learn about that side of her heritage. So what we do is try to do things that encourage that (I'll put on the Spanish channels on TV or on the radio, we go Spanish heritage type fests, I find books from the library involving Spanish people, etc). We are also trying to teach her Spanish as well. The way we do it is I speak English to her (I barely know any Spanish) and her father speaks to her primarily in Spanish. It is so easy for children at that age to learn dual languages. I'll do her numbers, colors, etc with her in English and then Daddy does them in Spanish. She's doing pretty good- she can count in Spanish, do her colors, say hello and good-bye, identify family members ins Spanish (Grandma, Aunties, Uncles, etc) I think the key is to keep at it.
I want my daughter to be proud of who she is and where she comes from but also I think that it will help her so much later in life if she's bilingual.
Good luck!