Hellobee Boards

The biggest tip I have is to establish a family language. My husband and I made the mistake of conversing in English, when we should have instead been speaking in his native language. Now, even when I speak that other language, my son knows I speak English and doesn't converse to me in that other language.

Also, regular music is great, we expose our son to music from all over the world and I think it helps with grasping nuances in language.

We have 2 kids, age 3 and 16 months. My husband is white, I am Korean. Our family language is English. I learned French, speak Korean fluently, and Spanish is the dominant second language where we live in California. We had a speech delay with our first child that we're just now getting totally sorted out, so we ditched anything intensive in Korean and just focused on English for a while. But we have always sung Korean children's songs and used the proper Korean words for food items and relatives. My parents exclusively talk to my kids in Korean and while its sorta bewildering to them at first, they get the gist of what's going on and have bonded really well with my side of the family. They also have been exposed to Spanish by their teachers and caretakers, so they use Spanish words for certain things. I think at this age, just tuning their ears to different sounds and pronunciations is what's important.

Right now, our plan is to start our kids in weekly formal Korean school at age 5, which is the youngest they have the classes around here. That will be their foreign language instruction formally until they get to take a foreign language elective at school. I think very soon I am going to start back up with Korean more regularly at home. DH will continue to speak to them in English and I will probably start speaking to them in Korean. DS2 is normal for speech development and DS1 is now on track, so I think they're both ready to have dual language.

For school, we would prefer they choose Spanish as their foreign language elective. If they want French, I wont protest, but I think Spanish is just more useful. If they want to take Spanish sooner than high school through private classes, we are also wholly supportive of that and I think honestly we'd take it together as a family or at least me and the kids, since I personally also want to learn. I would also try to arrange family vacations and trips to places where they can practice the language they are learning. Our expectation is that they will take at least 4 years of foreign language instruction in high school and I will probably make it a requirement that they take 2 more years at the college level in order for me to pay for study abroad (unless they decide to go rogue and learn a completely NEW language and want to study abroad for that fourth language or whatever, in which case COOL!)

I want our kids to know Korean culture too and I have family in Korea, so once they are a little older and can manage the long-distance travel a bit better, our plan is to take them to Korean for an extended visit and return every few years. I visited my grandparents for a month at a time growing up and it helped my language tremendously.