https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 16 May 2026 13:30:24 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103571 Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:31:38 +0000 Andrea 103571@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: I know a lot of my friends were sent to Chinese school and they hated it as well. But everyone ended up learning Chinese so at least they became better people for it?</p> <p>Anyway, I am interested to gain further insight on this as well since I am planning on sending the LO to Chinese school in the fall. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103566 Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:05:45 +0000 looch 103566@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am curious to hear more about the language specific schools for later....I never attended language lessons other than those given in school, but friends of mine went (Hebrew, Ukranian) and HATED it. I would love to send DS to a German school so he learns how to read and write, but I don't want him to hate it and then have the language be lost out of stubbornness. </p> <p>Any insights? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103473 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:02:20 +0000 mrs. wagon 103473@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My Korean sucks so we speak all English. The grandparents sometimes speak Korean to him but we don't mind... it's nice for him to learn Korean words here and there. We'll stick to English at home anyway, and send our kids to Korean school when they get older. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103453 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:17:27 +0000 mynoahbear 103453@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We speak to her in english but my mom and everyone else speak to her in Japanese. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103345 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:39:57 +0000 heffalump 103345@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We don't. But my niece was brought up with a mother who speaks spanish to her regularly, and she didn't have any issues. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103307 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:14:00 +0000 Migena 103307@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We'll be raising ours to speak English, Shqip, and Sign from the start. I'll speak English, DH will speak Shqip.<br /> Once they have those mastered, probably at age 4-5, we'll throw a little Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian in there as well.</p> <p>We know that learning multiple languages from such a young age might affect how long it takes them to talk, but I think it's worth it. They'll gain so much from being multi-lingual! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103298 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:08:37 +0000 joyjoy 103298@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@regberadaisy: My family speaks Fujianese, and I've never met anyone else who has spoken it before! Whenever I tell people that's my family's dialect, they usually act surprised. Sorry, totally not on topic. I was just excited. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103279 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:36:14 +0000 regberadaisy 103279@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@banana:<br /> She can only speak Cantonese but she can understand Fujianese and Taijanese (???) it's the other really common dialect. My mom is the one that speaks Fujianese and she pretty much raised her so I think that's why she can understand Fujianese so well.<br /> The other one is from her mom's side so whenever she's at my SILs parents everyone (her mom, aunts, grandparents, etc) speaks that, so she's been exposed to all of them from the get go. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103271 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:26:09 +0000 banana 103271@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@regberadaisy: WOwzers, she can speak all those different dialects and she's 8? That's awesome! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103264 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:20:42 +0000 regberadaisy 103264@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our LO is not here yet but I absolutely plan to speak Chinese AND English to her at home. Otherwise she will never be able to communicate with my mom!</p> <p>My brothers both spoke multiple languages to my nieces and nephews as they were growing up. I will say there was a slight delay in their speech when they were younger. My niece needed a speech therapist for about a year because she had some problem with proper pronunciation. But I'm not convinced it's 100% to do with the multiple languages.<br /> My older nephew was a bit confused in his speech.</p> <p>My brother #1 kept up with speaking with my niece in Chinese whereas my brother #2 did not with my nephew. Now my nephew has lost pretty much ALL his Chinese. But my niece can speak Chinese very fluently, understands everything we say in Chinese. She can even understand my mom in Fujianese and her grandma in that other dialect spoken in Canton. Forget the English name for it. She's 8. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103252 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:05:03 +0000 banana 103252@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I just had a long conversation with my best friend about this. She speaks chinese and english to both her kids and they both had speech delays. But she mentioned that all of a sudden, they just exploded and started talking almost at some sort of advanced level. Her suggestion to me was just to keep speaking in both languages because her daughter (who is now 5) speaks both very fluently and can switch back and forth between the two languages very easily.</p> <p>I agree with @grace. I think a speech delay would be worth teaching our children two languages. So we will stick with it! Forget what the books say! He can only say a few words at 2 years but oh well! lol </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103243 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:45:05 +0000 Grace 103243@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would kill to be bilungual. I think any speech delay is worth it, if the end result is fluency in more than one language. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103236 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:20:29 +0000 yoursilverlining 103236@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We don’t, but my co-worker and his wife speak English, Japanese and German in their home (English is his primary language, Japanese is hers, and German is their most fluent common language). He hasn’t said anything about speech delays, but said that his kids seem to favor certain languages while fully understanding them all. For instance – his son hardly speaks any Japanese but understands it completely; he just will usually answer a question posed by mom in Japanese in English. His daughter prefers to converse in Japanese and English, and will hardly ever respond in German, although she understands a question asked in German. His kids are like 1.5 and just over 3 years old. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103235 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:15:53 +0000 mamimami 103235@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Also our pediatrician said it's OK if we speak Spanish as a couple and then I speak English to the baby. She said until age 3 it will be normal for him to mix up the languages, but starting around 3, he will know what's mommy's language and what's daddy's language. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103232 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:13:18 +0000 mamimami 103232@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I speak English and my husband and the nanny and most other people in his life speak Spanish. He's 15 months old and doesn't really say any words with any consistency at least. I think this is normal for a bilingual household and the pedi doesn't seem concerned.</p> <p>Like @looch, my husband "reads" him English books in Spanish which is hilarious to overhear because he basically just makes stuff up. When he got to the Snort in "Are You My Mother" he had no idea what to call it so I think he called it a Snort. I'm sure my baby is soooo confused. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103227 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:08:52 +0000 chopsuey 103227@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I speak Korean adn English. Need to speak all Korean and have DH speak english to her though </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103222 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:02:25 +0000 Baby Boy Mom 103222@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO hears 3 different languages. I'm not concerned about a delay. DH and I both grew up bilingual and wouldn't trade it for anything, so we'll be sticking with it regardless. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103119 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:36:46 +0000 looch 103119@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I speak English, my husband German, but we speak English as our family language. We have books in English that my husband "reads" in German . </p> <p>I think consistency is key. A delay is common in bilingual kids, according to my research, so we are sticking with it. Most moms of kids with speech delays said that their kid has had a speech explosion that was very sudden. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103114 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:33:08 +0000 banana 103114@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: Do you try to stick with one language when you speak directly to your LO? Or do you mix and match? I think what's confusing him is that we all speak one language to him (korean), but my DH and I speak english to each other. Plus all of his books and TV shows are in english. I'm wondering if this is confusing him! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103112 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:30:05 +0000 banana 103112@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: I hope so! At his age, most kids are speaking 20, 30, 40 words. He barely says 10! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103101 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:23:09 +0000 looch 103101@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We do and I do think this is causing a slight delay, but the payoff will be huge for him later in life.</p> <p>He's 15 months and understands fully, but only has two words, one on each language. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-speak-multiple-languages-to-your-lo-at-home#post-103098 Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:20:53 +0000 banana 103098@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm afraid that my LO may have a slight speech delay due to using multiple languages at home. I'm not 100% sure if that's the problem but I could totally see why he would be confused. We have 2 words for everything and that would probably confuse most kids.</p> <p>Do you speak multiple languages to your LO at home? Has that affected (or do you think it will affect) language development in your LO? </p>