Search results

@ptrnoy777 Reading kids books in two languages will do the job! There’s so much more that you can talk to him about when reading a book than with flashcards, it will also deepen his interest in books and reading. You’re doing a great job momma!

@frustratedhusband This!!

@seekertruth72 The best strategy is to speak it them exclusively. Of course, doing the switch later on will be met with more resistance but it can still be done. The onus is on yourself though, you need to commit to only speaking Italian to them and not get discouraged even when it seems like...

@pattianne4 Fellow 4 language parent here 🙂 If your hubby grew up in his home country with no extra language planning then chances are your kids will grow up in a similar way! Of course there might be individual differences in how kids learn but your husband is a living example of the success...

@christianguy2121 You cannot and absolutely shouldn’t force your kids to speak a language and you will have no say in which language they speak between themselves. You can only choose what you speak to them and if you want them to be bilingual, it’s probably best to exclusively speak Vietnamese...

@trueform Of course it would depend on your definition of trilingual or quadrilingual (because it doesn’t necessarily mean full fluency and identical vocabulary across all languages) but it’s certainly possible to be quadrilingual and I know a couple of people who grew up exposed to 5 languages...

@holgate86 My 5-year-old daughter also speaks 4 languages and she has been SO shy with the community language (which we don’t speak to her or never speak at home) although she has gone to daycare where they speak that language almost exclusively since she was 1. She just started school that’s...

@exsdonchance My daughter was also mega shy at 4, I was a bit worried. But now at 5y a totally different story!

@k8e Sounds like MLAH would be a good option for you and keep the exposure balanced. On the other hand, we have been doing OPOL with our kids since the beginning where I speak Finnish and my husband Portuguese, we speak English between us parents and French is the community language. Our dinner...

@exsdonchance How old is your son? My daughter definitely takes some time to warm up as well, she also speaks 4

@wrrydmom Hi! We are also both doing OPOL with my husband and we have two community languages on top of that so our girls speak 4 languages, or rather my 5-year-old does and my 1,5yo says words in all the languages. What we did and found useful was to not correct per se, but to repeat the word...

@mamckay41 That’s awesome 🤩

@mamckay41 Same thing happened to my daughter around 5, also 4 languages. Good to hear she’s not the only one!

@alenharry My kids have been exposed to 4 languages more or less since birth and we haven’t had any issues. As far as the scientific research about multilingualism goes, there’s no need to wait until the other languages consolidate. The advice is rather that earlier is better. Of course, there’s...

@seanh43 That’s a good question. My older child is 5,5y right now and when she and my husband talk between themselves I can understand everything. Every now and then I hear them using a new verb or a word that I don’t know and I always ask my husband right away what it means. So basically I’m at...

@seanh43 We’ve had the complete opposite experience. I’ve been able to learn Portuguese and my husband Finnish by doing OPOL without any prior knowledge or additional studying. In the beginning it’s more translating (yet simpler language) but the longer we’ve done it the easier it has gotten...

@matt11confused Nothing wrong with having a bit of fun! Most likely he already understands that you are speaking a language that you normally don’t speak, and he finds it hilarious. If you want to do OPOL, then it’s better to stick to your own languages as speaking a language that you’re not...

@pollyton My kids are being raised with 4 languages and we don’t have a family language that everyone speaks together. I’m Finnish, my husband is Brazilian, we live in French speaking Canada and us parents speak English between us. We didn’t know each other’s languages at all in the beginning...

@brittanyolee No, they only hear English passively at home because that’s what me and hubby speak between us and that’s one of the majority languages where we live. I agree that it becomes trickier to keep things in balance when it’s minority vs majority language at home

@brittanyolee I’ve been doing OPOL with two kids (2 and 5) and at least for us, following their interests has been the best language strategy. We do listen to a lot of music and watch some tv, we read books in both mine has my husband’s languages every night, we try to hang out with other...