Job Discussion Forums

[ontoit]

bilingual, that is!

Just wondering about those of you with children old enough to speak or couples with children you might know or know about: what's the norm? Do your/their kids speak both English and Spanish, or is it more common for the kids to speak Spanish only?

[dixie]

[TheLongWayHome]

My son is 2 and he's just starting to speak both English and Spanish. We speak English only in the house as he hears Spanish everywhere else, especially in the guarder�a where he also gets French classes. Just yesterday in the supermarket he said, 'Mira, (un) velo!' Luckily my wife and I both speak French so we can help him with that too. He also mixes English and Spanish but I think that it's perfectly normal for his age.

There is also the one parent, one language 'rule' which means one of the parents could introduce a third language and the kid would pick up Spanish outside the house.

A friend of mine raised her kids in French until they went to school where they learnt both Spanish and English as they didn't have any relatives here to speak Spanish to the kids.

[notamiss]

My kids were aged 5, 8 & 10 when we moved here. They knew some Spanish but did not have much confidence to speak it. It didn't take long after arriving in Mexico (11 years ago) before they became totally bilingual (or bilingual-plus now, because they've all studied at least two additional languages at school). We speak English among ourselves, and they still speak English to each other 98%.

Edited to add: Me: English Canadian. Him: Mexican.

[ontoit]

For those of you who are married and raising children together, is your spouse a native or non-native speaker of English? (Sorry, I'm assuming that the main traffic on this board is ex-pat native English speaking folk.)

[dixie]

[ontoit]

Every bunny's welcome!

[NinaNina]

We're two native English-speakers (though I'm bilingual) who moved our kids to Oaxaca 1 1/2 years ago. We enrolled our 6-year-old in 1st grade and our toddler in maternal. The first grader had been in dual immersion bilingual in the U.S., but still was not using Spanish outside of schoolwork. By the end of the first week in Mexico, he was playground proficient. By December, he was academically proficient (for first grade, that is). The toddler has had a tougher time, because she was not speaking discernible English when we left the U.S. (she was 2). She now speaks isolated words and phrases in English, Spanish and Spanglish, but I would say she's about a year behind in her speech development.

We're visiting California right now, and my eldest has only been around English while we've been up here. But, yesterday, we went to a Mexican restaurant and he automatically switched to Spanish when speaking to the waiter. Watching children become bilingual is a fascinating process, especially for a language teacher. It has also been interesting watching the linguistic and social struggles of the children of other expats that arrive at the school. Most of them are miserable until around Day of the Dead and then undergo some kind of acceptance that, at Christmas, turns into a love for new friends and situations (unless they visit the U.S. for winter break).

[Guy Courchesne]

NinaX2, may I ask what type of school system your children are in? Just curious as I'll be in a position to choose such things in the coming years.

[NinaNina]

Hey, Guy.

My kids are in a full-on Spanish colegio. It's a private school, but on the cheapo/relaxed end of the spectrum. It's (relatively) project-based, artsy, creative, which is what I wanted. There is a half hour of English instruction per day. Almost all of the students are Mexicanos, but there is the odd one or two expat families with kids enrolled, typically one or two per grade.

My only concern, language-wise, is making sure they have the academic English proficient for taking college entrance exams someday, but I don't think I'll worry about that now. I'll just make sure they keep reading in English in addition to doing their Spanish coursework. Someday, we'll have to enroll in some online SAT preparation course or something.

[MELEE]

I have 4 year old twins.
Their dad is Mexican and I consider them Mexican, though of course they are bi-national.
I've been fairly relaxed about their language development, but it's working out just fine.
I took a year sabbatical after maternity leave, and I spoke English to them all durning that year. Husband and I spoke mostly Spanish to each other durning that time, and Mother-in-law and sisters-in-law spoke spanish to the kids and me. MIL also speaks Mixteco, but she sometimes feels uncomfortable about it still even though its come into vogue. But during her childhood it wasn't something to be proud of so she still has those issues.
After I went back to work they were in day care and we had a live in, who didn't speak English so I was rarely alone with them to speak English to them. Their first words were actually cognates or near cognates, mama, ba (for bath or bano). They had some things that they always said in English and some that they always said in Spanish and some words that they knew both in.
But between 2 and 3 their Spanish really took off. They came to realize which words were English that they couldn't use at school. Soon they were able to speak flawless Spanish and while they understood my instructions to them in English and books in English (I even overheard Bianca translating one into Spanish for her dolls on day) their English use wasn't developing. So, I took a half year sabbatical and we came to the US, we will be here 3 1/2 months total. And their English is really good now---though not like a native speaking 4 year old.

[ontoit]

[dixie]

What do people think about the label Third Culture Kids?

http://www.tckid.com/what-is-a-tck.html

I never heard the term until orientation for my current job.

Also, do you think the foreigners who have babies/raise children here (married or not to a national spouse) put more pressure/have more expectations for their child to learn languages (I mean more than just Spanish and English)? It seems to me like a lot of people here have kids who speak at least three languages, and I have to admit I have the same goals for my own baby. Do you think that pressure/expectation is because the children grow up in an environment that makes it more conducive to language learning, that the personality of said parents tend to have high expectations or what?

[scottmx81]

What do people think about the label Third Culture Kids?

I never heard the term until orientation for my current job.

I've come across the term when reading up on culture shock, and have found the websites regarding them very enlightening.

[ontoit]