https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 26 Apr 2026 12:14:25 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463513 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:54:10 +0000 erwoo 463513@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I speak Mandarin fluently so our kids, hopefully, will also speak it as well. My oldest sometimes refuses to speak it. He does almost fully understand me though. I plan on sending both of my boys to Chinese school for sure. I was going to enroll my oldest this year but missed the enrollment period and the class was full so I'm going to just wait until next year now. I think it's better since he still naps and classes are usually Sundays from 2-4 PM. Not exactly an ideal time for a 3-year-old! But I think it's awesome they have classes for 3-year-olds though! I can't wait for him to speak more so he can fluently converse with my parents. My husband speaks Cantonese. Maybe our kids will pick up some from him. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463464 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:58:36 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 463464@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsmate: Exactly. If you don't get the tonality for tonal languages in your first 5 years, it's sooo much harder. I wish we had a Mandarin immersion pre-school here. I could work on the Spanish and let preschool teach Mandarin! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463456 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:49:52 +0000 mrsmate 463456@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Jacks: thanks!</p> <p>Btw the goal is not fluency in all 3 languages (except English of course) but to lay the groundwork for future study. The brain before age 5 is the most receptive to language. I rarely spoke Korean before DD was born but I forced myself once she arrived, and I couldn't believe how much I remembered from my childhood. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463406 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 21:00:19 +0000 Anagram 463406@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We'll see....we have good intentions, but realistically, they may not be very fluent. Dh's first language is Tamil, so I'm sure he'll speak to the kids in Tamil, but I only speak English so we speak English at home. Dh's niece and nephew have 2 Tamil speaking parents who speak Tamil at home, and they still don't speak it(although they do understand a lot). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463405 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:59:36 +0000 yin 463405@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Right now we're only teaching him English. Both DH and I speak other languages with our parents, but we're not very fluent. I'm hoping that my LO will pick up Cantonese from my parents. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463403 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:53:29 +0000 twinmama 463403@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>definitely english &amp; khmer</p> <p>probably some basic spanish and russian too </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463391 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:37:23 +0000 mrskc 463391@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, my DH speaks mandarin to DS. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463338 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 20:03:01 +0000 Baby Boy Mom 463338@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes they will be at least trilingual and we will encourage a fourth in school. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463332 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:48:01 +0000 Arden 463332@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes. We mainly speak two languages in our conversation at home on a daily basis, so we'll speak those two, English and Albanian, to them from birth. We'll introduce Serbian/Croatian and Arabic when they are a little older.<br /> If they show any interest in another language, we'll put them in classes. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463326 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:40:03 +0000 chopsuey 463326@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yep. They'll know Korean English and a whatever else they decide to take in school </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463306 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:29:59 +0000 Grace 463306@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We might send our LO to french immersion, so he/she may know at least 2. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463305 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:29:04 +0000 knittylady 463305@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I went to an english/spanish bilingual school from k-8 so language learning is special and important to me. my IL's speak Swedish (his dad came here when he was a pre-teen) and I would love it if he spoke that to LO. They have a lot of family still in Sweden so I can see visiting there a fair amount.. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463302 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:27:08 +0000 DigAPony 463302@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My MIL is from Mexico and a lot of my husband's fam (and my husband) are fluent in Spanish, so we plan on speaking that to our kids. I only know a little, so hopefully I'll get better at it too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463296 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:25:00 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 463296@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsmate: So awesome! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463289 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:22:56 +0000 mrsmate 463289@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are a trilingual family (English, Korean, Spanish). If we end up going the Montessori route the cheapest one in our area is French immersion, so she may end up with a fourth language. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463276 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:13:32 +0000 prettylizy 463276@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>She will be going to a french school from jk-8th grade for sure, and hopefully right up to 12th grade. I would love is she picked up spanish too, though we will focus on French. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463271 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:11:10 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 463271@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're going to try to get them to learn as many languages as possible. Right now we're in a Spanish immersion preschool, but I'm hoping they get interested in other languages as well.</p> <p>I try to use what I know of different languages in the home setting so that at least they know the words for things in various languages.</p> <p>Lala seems to have an ear for language, and I'm hoping M. does too :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463236 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 18:14:04 +0000 sera_87 463236@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>yep, English &amp; French - but not from home (although I do know French), rather they'll be in a French school from kindergarten. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463166 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 16:31:30 +0000 MediaNaranja 463166@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes. DH is Ecuadorian and we speak Spanish at home, so any lo will too. The plan is for me to onlyspeak English and DH only Spanish also that they grow up fluent in both. I will also make sure that they can read and write in both. I used to teach esl in a high school and was always surprised that kids could speak two languages fluently, but were completely illiterate in the language they spoke at home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463150 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:48:08 +0000 lemong 463150@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hopefully! My parents speak to her in Mandarin and hopefully she can pick up some Spanish from daycare and my sister and BIL. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463129 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:15:33 +0000 London Mama 463129@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yep, DH and I both speak foreign languages to LO so he'll have two non-English languages </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463119 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:10:10 +0000 MrsBrewer 463119@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Probably not, unless they take a language in school DH only speak and know English </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463114 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 15:07:52 +0000 Sammyfab 463114@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>He will definitely learn French in school and hopefully learn some Cantonese from my parents (key phrases from me!). I loved learning languages in school and hopefully LO will love it too! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463103 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:59:06 +0000 wheres_c 463103@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>SO is Peruvian so he is going to teach LO spanish. Hopefully LO will be bilingual. Once he grasps english and spanish i plan on teaching him French. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463075 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 14:26:16 +0000 Andrea 463075@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DD will know Mandarin for sure. I also want her to speak French. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-463003 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 12:52:33 +0000 blackbird 463003@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrs bird, so cool! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-462998 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 12:47:43 +0000 mrs. bird 462998@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My ILs speak Igbo (they're Nigerian) and they'll speak that to our LOs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-462996 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 12:45:36 +0000 autumnlove 462996@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>MIL will probably teach her some Japanese. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/will-your-lo-know-more-than-one-language#post-462977 Sun, 23 Dec 2012 12:29:30 +0000 Bao 462977@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My LO most likely won't because we don't know any other languages. I do not a tiny bit of Spanish and may teach her a few words and numbers but that will probably be the extent of it. </p>