Any Africans here? 4 language plan for our first baby

[pattianne4]

Hi everyone,

I’m new here but it’s exactly the community that I’ve been looking for!

Hubby is from a southern African country where there are 2 local languages (he speaks both fluently) and English as the main language of communication in schools etc.

We speak English together but I have a different native language. We are living in hubby’s country.

We would love to teach our first baby all 4, but all resources I’ve seen so far are focused on EU based languages, and here people just don’t seem to worry about it very much? Kids just pick it up as they go? No one worked on language planning for my hubby and he speaks 3-4 languages natively from birth on. Same for the rest of the family/friends.

Any advice? Anyone in a similar situation? Would love to hear about it!

P.S. I unfortunately can’t speak the 2 local languages.

 

[mayfrancis]

@pattianne4 In countries that are already multilingual there is much less planning because the supports are built in (different people/places speak different languages and kids are exposed organically). In mostly monolingual countries more planning is needed because otherwise baby just won't get the exposure. My guess is that you won't have to do anything to expose baby to English or your husband's 2 native languages, but you will have to work a little extra to make sure that your native language is part of the mix.

 

[grayheavens1]

@mayfrancis Yeah agree. I grew up being exposed to a few languages and simultaneously was also learning how to read and write in two diff languages.

However, I now live in a monolingual country so my husband and I have to plan what to do to teach our kids English plus each other’s native language.

 

[mrdon78]

@pattianne4 No advice really but solidarity. I am in a situation where my partner speaks Afrikaans and we want to teach our child. However outside of South Africa there is virtually NO language community for Afrikaans, and I don't speak the language either. So we are trying to build a language community of DVDs, tv shows, books, audio, anything we can to teach our son the language.

 

[joyfullyobey]

@mrdon78 That is hard. Is your husband an Afrikaner?

 

[mrdon78]

@joyfullyobey He does consider himself that yeah

 

[joyfullyobey]

@mrdon78 Got it. I’m sending you good energy around language acquisition and navigating the cultural integration with Afrikaner part of the family.

 

[mrdon78]

@joyfullyobey Lol thanks that is much appreciated

 

[xrho]

@mrdon78 Hey! We’re a tri-lingual family of which one is Afrikaans. We have found some community. It’s not big, and not always easy - but so far the kids are picking it up well. Let me know if you want to know more. But yes, Netflix doesn’t exactly have na Afrikaans option.

 

[mrdon78]

@xrho Hey that's great, I assume you're not in SA either? Yes please DM me any tips you have that would be helpful thanks

 

[prayerfsh]

@mrdon78 I would disagree that there is no language community for Afrikaans outside of South Africa. There are so many Afrikaans immigrants in various countries, specifically English-speaking countries. Here in Canada we have a large community of Afrikaans-speaking friends - my 2-year old son even has Afrikaans friends his own age.

 

[mrdon78]

@prayerfsh That's very lucky, where I live nobody even knows what Afrikaans is. It isn't even an option for translation at hospitals and community centres, and this country is VERY diverse. I once saw a list of at least 40 language options for translation at my local hospital and Afrikaans was not one of them.

 

[ericav]

@mrdon78 Broadly speaking, about what percentage of Afrikaans speakers are not fluent in English?

 

[poni]

@mrdon78 Use dutch, a lot of the words are similar.
As a dutch person I can follow a conversation in Afrikaans

 

[mrdon78]

@poni I did ask my partner if we should just learn Dutch lol he said he can understand Dutch if the person speaks slower but some words are completely different. Afrikaans is just very old Dutch though right? I have been considering that route

 

[ericav]

@mrdon78

Afrikaans is just very old Dutch though right?

Not really. Afrikaans began diverging from Dutch over a century ago - it remains closely related but its differences go beyond retaining archaisms, including a regularized grammar and heavy influence from Malay as well as Bantu languages.

 

[mrdon78]

@ericav With that in mind do you think it makes sense to learn Dutch alongside Afrikaans to have more exposure to the language?

 

[aldredian]

@pattianne4 I think if it's natural for people to pick up 3 to 4 languages from birth on and you live in your husband's country, then it's probably nothing to worry about. You just worry about your language then.

Talk to your husband and ask him how he acquired his languages and you might have your answer there.

You say they are 2 local languages so I'm assuming the entire community speaks it including his family. So these 2 languages is essentially the community language which will take care of itself.

And since English is the main communication at school, then again, school will handle that.

So you really just need to worry about your language which has the least amount of exposure.

All the other languages will take care of itself. Especially if your husband speaks the 2 local languages to your child. I'm assuming they intertwine and code switch between the 2 naturally? If so, then your husband can just speak those 2 as he feels it's natural for him.

 

[trueform]

@pattianne4 My understanding is that for a language to be a “native” language, it needs to be at least 30% of exposure. So babies can be trilingual, but not quadlingual.

Are you planning on childcare being outside the home in a local language, or will the child be cared for at home?

• if childcare will be happening in the local language, it makes sense to have each of you choose another language to prioritize (English or your native language) and do “one parent, one language”.

• if care is happening inside the home, it makes sense for you to speak your native language, have your partner speak one of his native languages (probably whichever one is less prevalent in the community) and share English.

We read Colin Baker’s “A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism” thanks to a Reddit rec. It’s available on Kindle, and we found it really helpful in understanding different approaches to multilingualism.

Good luck!

Edit; the lovely people below have corrected the 30% number!

 

[zhuru523]

@trueform Where did you get that 30% figure? From my linguistics professor back in uni, I was told that babies are quite malleable in the sense that they can learn any number of languages (not sure if there was a limit), but I don’t believe it was constrained to just 3 languages.

I have a friend who’s parents spoke 4 languages, though not sure if they learned English later on. But I think it’s definitely possible for babies to learn more than 3 languages given the proper linguistic environment.