Raising a child bilingually?

Question

My family is German and I want my (future) child to grow up speaking both English and German. My dad speaks German fluently but never spoke it to us growing up. My knowledge of German is poor.

Is it a ridiculous idea to start learning German now (I'm 28) so that when we have kids, I can speak to them in German and dh can speak to them in English? We don't plan to have kids for another 5 years, so I figure that's plenty of time for me to become fluent. There's a great German program nearby that I can attend.

Does anyone have any experience with raising children to speak two languages? What's the best way to do this? Any info would be great. Thanks!

Answer 1

Personally, I think raising a child bilingually is a brilliant idea. Go for it. Anything that can enrich your life, and your future children's life is a thing to go for!  Theres nothing wrong with starting early, only good can come from it!

Good luck!

Answer 2

My parents raised me to be bilingual in English and Spanish. There really wasn't much thought behind it though, they spoke Spanish to me at home and I learned English in school. I also studied abroad in South America for a year so that helped as well.

If you want to learn German to try to speak to it to your child go ahead but it might be difficult if your husband doesn't speak it because then the child will just speak English to his father and when you are together he will speak English as well.

Five years seems like a good amount of time to dedicate to learning German but it would be good if your husband went as well so you both could speak to your child in German!

Answer 3

Generally, the recommendation is for each parent to use one language exclusively with the child so they don't combine the 2 languages.  In your case, that would probably be more difficult and exhausting.  But I'm sure there are other options.

Answer 4

Growing up, I was talking fluently in the Tagalog language. As I got to school, my teacher told my parents to start getting me to learn English. Although, my grandparents were never taught English, so that was their only form of communication.

Now, I have to talk to my grandma in Tagalog, though im fluent in English.

What im trying to get at, is to try to have people in the house fluent in both languages, though the main language should be your dist priority. As your child grows, he or she will develop the understanding of both languages naturally. Having you take a German class is a good idea.

Answer 5

one of my very good friends has a 2 year old who speaks 4 languages its amazing (Creol (her father is from Haiti,) french, English and Spanish) from what i understand she just spoke to her in all 4, and her daughter just picked it up cool thing is now if she says something in Creol that i don't understand i can just ask her to tell me it in English and she does ... i have been living in a Spanish speaking country for 2 years and still don't understand or speak as much as her so im learning a lot now. i am 8 months pregnant with our 1st baby and plan on raising her bilingual Spanish and English (her father would speak to her in Spanish 50% of the time and i would speak to her in the words i know and English)

when children are young they learn a lot faster so if you plan on having your child speak both English and German best start as soon as he or she is born

good luck :)

Answer 6

you should totally do it.

talk to him like in both languages. like say a german word first then after that say the english one

Answer 7

I have a friend who is from Peru, and her husband is American. I'll be honest, my friend is at an advantage - she is fluent in 5 different languages, so I'm sure her child will probably know a few, but her primary language is Spanish, and her husband's is obviously English, but he knows Spanish as well. They actually both use both languages at home. They'll have one conversation in English, one in Spanish, things like that. Their child is only a year old, but he seems to understand both languages so far.

I don't think it's too late to start learning German. Even if you're not fluent by the time you have a child, you'll know enough to teach your child, and that will be a good head start on raising a bilingual child.

Answer 8

If you want your kid to have 2 native languages, that is a great idea and I congratulate you. I will do the same for my kids. It is necesary for him to hear both languages a lot but from different people, so that he doesn't mix them. A kid and even an adult can learn a foreign language afterwards, but it will never be like his primary language. I started learning English when I was 10 and I definitely feel the difference between my native language and English, I will probably never be able to speak English as good.