Hellobee Boards

We are raising our son bilingual, my husband and I each speak one language exculsively with our son, but the "family language" is English.

My son speaks mostly English, but what I have noticed is when we have introduced concepts in German, he uses those words. As an example, my husband taught him the concept of light/dark using the german words. So, he'll often say things, like "it's dunkel, time for sleeping!"

DS is 7 months so I can't tell what he comprehends/understands better, but I speak to him mainly in Chinese (maybe 90/10 chinese to english). DH speaks English to him mainly even though I wish he would speak to him in Khmer so that's another language he'll learn. I'm interested to see which language he'll speak in first!

LO didn't start 'learning' French until he went to daycare at a year old (he's now 18 months). His receptive language skills in both are good; (for example if you ask for a bisou he'll give you a kiss) but he's a bit slow in his expressive language, unfortunately.

@locavore_mama: I don't, personally. I'm with someone who is half Francophone who occasionally speaks to him in French and then I live in a Francophone community with him attending daycare 100% in French. He'll also be going to a French school when the time comes.

DH and I spoke to DD in Chinese 95% of the time from when she was born plus my parents (her caretakers during the work week) speak to her in Chinese exclusively. I did read her books in English since she was young but only conversed in Chinese. She now converses 95% in Chinese too but since she hears DH and I converse in English and we read in English, she has picked up quite a few words too. I was worried she would be confused with the two languages but she seems already to know which English and Chinese words correspond with one another - it's quite fascinating! She also knows to ask for certain items in Chinese with my parents and in English with us. This morning she said "Mommy, ngon ngon is eyes!" Kids are pretty quick in picking up and distinguishing multiple languages. Wish I had the same power...

My LO seems to pick up whatever is easier for her to say. We aren't really good about speaking to her in a 2nd language. I would say I speak about 10% in Chinese with her. However, she won't say "doggy" but she will say "wo wo" (kind of like baby talk in chinese). I wasn't sure she knew they corresponded until the other day when we were playing a repeating game and I said "doggy" and she answered with "wo wo"!