Raising trilingual kid. Questions about which languages should I display to her during TV time

[cookthomas]

Hi all, hope you are having a good day. as mentioned we are raising our daughter with OPOL method (Spanish, Mandarin, English). She is now exposed to bilingual in nursery (English and Spanish) and is doing fine understanding almost all at the age of 2, albeit doesn’t speak much yet.

I am quite confident she will turn out OK (albeit slower at the beginning) as most of you experienced parents pointed out that kids are like sponge ! However I am in dilemma which language should I display for her during her screen time for her favorite cartoons. I have options to play in all three languages but I don’t want to confuse him one day Peppa pig is in English and another day in Mandarin. And I also don’t want this to hinder her social ability if I display in minority language then maybe she won’t be able to express it to her toddler friends.

I understand consistency is the key but what would you suggest in your experience? Should I go with OPOL as well e.g. When father turning on the TV then it is in Spanish? Or should we stick to particular cartoon, such as Peppa Pig is always in English; Paw Petrol is always in Spanish?

ps: while we don’t encourage excessive screen time, we do give 2-3 times TV session per week and not more than 30 minutes and hence the questions above.

Thank you!

 

[ruthlenn]

@cookthomas We do minority languages only for Tv. We live in an English speaking country, so there are no English media at home and we are quite strict about it.

We do one language per show, because we find that easier. Not all shows are available in all languages for us. Additionally, I think this will help us to stay consistent later on.

 

[cookthomas]

@ruthlenn Thank you for sharing . I also thought about only minority language for tv session since this will increase her interests in learning that language but I was afraid she won’t be able to tell the cartoon stories with her friends who mostly speak English or Spanish. as for now she doesn’t have friends who speak that minority language so I am imagining she feels lonely nobody understands her. Does your kids facing any challenge on this or maybe i am just overreacted.

 

[ruthlenn]

@cookthomas Mine is not yet 2, so really doesn’t have any meaningful friendships yet. I think we are planning to hold that line of minority languages only quite strictly for as long as we can.

I really want her to learn my language and a bit of social awkwardness (within reason!) is worth it to achieve that.

 

[xushuhua]

@cookthomas At the moment, I can only speak from the child's point of view (I grew up bilingual): one day the Powerpuff Girls were German, the other day they were Hungarian and when the Hungarian dubb glitched, they were even at times in English. Honestly, I barely noticed, since I understood the story one way or the other.

So don't worry about confusing your child Maybe they will develop a preference for a certain version at one point and they will let you know. But for now, I'd just choose a different language every time to expose them to all three equally.

That's also what we plan to do (Portuguese, German, Hungarian) once my son is here

 

[cookthomas]

@xushuhua Thank u for sharing your experience ! So important for me to know that it’s is working for you and others and hopefully the same for my kid. Thank you!

 

[raggedyman]

@cookthomas My 3 y.o. son watches TV in French or Japanese interchangeably and he never was confused, even if it was the same cartoon with the other language. It will sometimes be English as well and he likes it slightly less because now he actually understands what he watches in Fr/Jp, and not so much in English.

In my experience for the target languages the more interchangeability the better. I don't want him to put French in one category and Japanese in another; both languages are equal and capable of doing the same thing.

 

[cookthomas]

@raggedyman Thank you very much. It gives me more assurance now as I didn’t know what to do before. When we were at friend’s house obviously they are playing majority languages , I guess I can’t stop him been exposed 1 same cartons in different languages anyway so perhaps I will try your ways , as long as it’s the target languages.

 

[explosive0]

@cookthomas I grew up trilingual since age 2 (German, Slovenian, English) and we were watching all languages at all times, basically.
Of course, while in Germany, we'd mostly watch German cartoons on TV. While in Slovenia, we'd watch Slovenian cartoons and every morning there were English cartoons on BBC Prime (or was it entertainment, idk, it was CBeeBees anyway or however it is spelled lol). My dad would always record the shows on cassettes (early 2000s) and take them with us to Germany after vacations so we could watch them there, too. My mom really loved Disney Cartoons but she wanted us to watch them in their original language so they tried hard to find the English cassettes of every Disney cartoon.
We also had books in all three languages, though German and Slovenian were read to us mostly.

My brother has neurofibromatosis and also a learning impairment, as well as some kind of issue with language recognition (he understands but can't really give back the word correctly unless specifically targeted, he'll mispronounce the same word for years although hearing it correctly every day) so he actively speaks only German and Slovenian (and even that with issues) but he will still watch English cartoons and even Italian or Croatian ones and seem to understand what it is about, even though he doesn't really understand the language.

I assume that cartoons are visually so clear (exaggerated colours, objects, emotions) that the language often doesn't matter to many children unless they really seek to understand (met this 6yo fluent in English although her parents never taught her, apparently she's got it all from watching cartoons).
It is different from child to child but my point is, as long as you don't first create a consistency just to break it, your little darling is going to be alright. Just keep mixing and mashing and of course, be aware the cartoons are appropriate (stay away from Caillou!!). Good luck!

 

[cookthomas]

@explosive0 Thank you for sharing with me. Really, if I didn’t read all the experiences shared here I would really doubt if it’s ok to have so many different setting of Peppa Pig / Paw Petrol. Good to know now! And your parents are awesome , they are doing their best possible ways for you aren’t they! I just googled Caillou after you mentioned that, thank u for the tips.

 

[explosive0]

@cookthomas You're very most welcome!
And indeed, their parenting (at least in this aspect) has helped me a lot, since I pick up new languages very quickly now. Aside from those three languages I also learned French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Bosnian and I passively also know Dutch quite well. Wish you the best of luck with your child, give her the biggest hug from me

 

[katrina2017]

@cookthomas We let them choose the language (so nice you can do that now!). They usually watch the community language (Korean), but they surprise me pretty frequently and want to watch things in English too.

I find good for things that they’ll see over and over (e.g. Disney movies) to let them watch first in their stronger language so they understand the story and then do the weaker language for subsequent viewings.

 

[cookthomas]

@katrina2017 Yeah I found out amazon prime video started languages options and we are thrilled to show to our daughter. And yes we began with the common language first and then recently I started switching it to minority languages ... and that’s where I started doubting if it was ok.

 

[para]

@cookthomas From what I read on the book Raising multilingual children, it's actually recommended to do these types of activities (singing, reading, watching TV) in different languages. My daughter also has the Spanish, English, Mandarin combo, and it's so easy to find shows in those three languages, especially in Netflix (Peppa, Chip and Potato, Kazoops, World Party)

 

[cookthomas]

@para That’s great to know. Do u remember the titles of the book? If yes I would like to read it. And many thanks for sharing , I feel much clearer in what to show her now.

 

[para]

@cookthomas It's called "Raising Multilingual Children (Parents' and Teachers' Guides Book"

 

[cookthomas]

@para Ahh thank you !!