"Teaching" Foreign Language if not fluent?

[thomaswhitetw]

Hello!

We are a Mandarin & English household living in Texas, USA.

My child is already 2-1/2 years old.

We have always wanted our child to learn Spanish, and I regrettably hadn't thought about introducing it earlier via media/passive learning. I can speak Spanish conversationally and would have no issues reading a book or identifying common objects. However, I'm certain I have an accent and may not use the most "correct" phrasing. My partner speaks no Spanish.

He has not attended daycare, so no exposure thus far. We did look into the Spanish immersion school for the future, but unfortunately did not like the one near us.

Questions:

1. How would you best approach introducing a 3rd/new language at this point?

2. Is it harmful to his long-term processing of the language if I start speaking to him in Spanish since I am not fluent?

Long-term, we plan to hire a Spanish-speaking nanny for the next child, so hopefully exposure at daycare (very brief), home, and with future sibling will solidify growth/interest in the 3rd language.

Thanks in advance. Love seeing all of the stories/styles of teaching on this subreddit. Inspiring!

 

[dyloss02]

@thomaswhitetw I’m curious about this too, and face a similar conundrum (potentially, should I decide to do something like this).

I might be being stupid, but my thought so far is: well, if you have basic conversational skills, that’s all babies and toddlers need in the beginning; and, as they advance, perhaps they could push you to improve your skills, and parent and child learn together!

I’d hate to instill bad habits and improper grammar early on, though. So, I don’t know.

 

[thomaswhitetw]

@dyloss02 Writing out thoughts helps, and even for me this morning, I'm realizing it's not so much "is this okay?", but rather, I just want to see if people have other ideas or experiences (good or bad). I'm guessing overall something is always better than nothing.

Even now, I've thought of -- maybe I should start taking Spanish classes, plan future vacations in Spanish-speaking countries, etc.

 

[eblemons103]

@thomaswhitetw We are a Japanese/English couple doing OPOL and have a child in a Chinese immersion preschool since birth (in an English speaking country). Our oldest is almost 3 and speaks English and Chinese well for his age. Japanese is his weakest language bc he only speaks with his mom, but in the future he will have lots of opportunities to interact with family and travel there so I’m not worried.

I think nanny/daycare/immersion school is the way to go!

-As for your question of is it harmful? He’s still very young and my two cents are focus on the two languages you both speak until he starts the immersive environment so you can continue OPOL. Even if you start Spanish before 5/6 yo he can become fluent and natural. Very young kids somehow magically understand “with this person I speak X language” and I think it’s better to keep it consistent. But “that’s just like my opinion, man.”

(As far as why Chinese- it was actually just the most convenient day care for us but I’d like to keep it going bc he’s doing well in it!)

 

[seeker112]

@thomaswhitetw We’re English-German OPOL, but both speak/understand passable intermediate Spanish & Mandarin, so we just kinda introduce those as we go, when the context makes sense.

We watch “Coco” in Spanish only and have a few other books, songs, etc. Same in Mandarin. Mostly just for the familiarity.

I don’t think there’s any harm in introducing it early even if it’s not native level. If you can get them into a Spanish-speaking daycare they’ll start from slightly past zero vs zero and correct your mistakes over times. Especially in the U.S. having something early on is still like a 12yr head start on barely learning it in Middle School, so why not?

 

[thomaswhitetw]

@seeker112 Thanks for the chuckle. This is certainly a problem for the United States. I definitely did not feel that foreign languages were emphasized growing up, but luckily I developed an interest. Sadly, have met many people who also took "high school Spanish" but know nearly nothing as adults.

 

[sawyerbrownlive]

@thomaswhitetw HiI highly recommend you not to speak to your child in a language that you don't master. Children should learn languages from high-quality resources. As a language teacher at a multilingual school in Zurich-Switzerland I can tell you that it is very hard to get rid of "learned mistakes". It's much better to use the OSOL method (

) and outsource the task of teaching your child Spanish. Find a nanny or someone that can spend some hours a week interacting and doing things in Spanish. Once she is 4 years old, you could for example start using the free educational app ANTON (here is a video that explains what that is

) and help her with your Spanish knowledge but not using Spanish as a relationship language.

Hope that helps :0)

 

[roberto96]

@thomaswhitetw Just throw whatever you have at them . Kids are very good at sorting out and making sense of data they take in.

 

[rboggio1]

@thomaswhitetw Maybe an immersion school? One of my of coworkers went to a French immersion school and is fluent in Spanish, French, and English when the people around him outside of school only spoke Spanish and English.

But I understand if you want to save the immersion school for one of your other languages. We are an English/Spanish household and we want to send our daughter to Spanish immersion school because English is the main language here so she can read and write in Spanish properly.

 

[gregoryabby16]

@thomaswhitetw Did no one ever respond to your post?? I have a similar question but for different languages. How have things been since you posted this?

 

[thomaswhitetw]

@gregoryabby16 Only just posted this morning before the little one woke up. Let's hope we get responses with some time!

 

[gregoryabby16]

@thomaswhitetw Omg at the time I saw your post it said "18m ago" and I assumed that meant 18 months ago!! Yes let's give it time for people to respond lol

 

[barsomo]

@thomaswhitetw While I don’t have personal experience in introducing a non-native language, I don’t think there’s any harm in introducing such a language. Maybe you have already done it, but if you Google your question I think you’ll be able to find some articles that talk about that.

Books, songs and kids shows in Spanish are ideal for someone your child’s age. I don’t think you should worry about not having the right accent or correct phrasing and there’s no harm if you start speaking Spanish to your child. If you can have a Spanish-speaking nanny at some point that’s great, they can continue where you left off/your expertise ends!

Good luck!