Language question

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traceimage

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For people who are bilingual...how important is it to you that your children (or future children) speak your ancestral language? If it's important, how do you plan to teach them?

 
On a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 :-) Since we visit our place a lot, I want them to know the language so that they can interact with everyone, and umm.. if they are lost, find their way home! They can't read or write though. Tried forcing them to a community class, but none of us had the energy to keep with that. Would be nice if they could read and write also..

How did we teach them? Webcam, with my grandmother who can barely speak English. My husband and I talk our native language at home, and to understand the private conversation they had to learn the language. I think that was the motivation and driving force :-)
 
interesting question, ive been thinking about this recently since we are are looking to have kids in the near future.  spanish is my first language and i dont think that i will end up teaching them any.  i guess its kind of a shame that i wont.  i grew up in spanish speaking household so during the school day, i just spoke english and at home i just spoke spanish (parents didnt speak english). with friends on evenings and weekends it was some spanish and some english depending on what the other person was more comfortable with.  i wont be able to duplicate that setup, i guess i could speak to them in spanish and have my wife speak to them in english but i doubt i will have the will power to do that on a full time basis.  My situation was forced on me because my parents didnt speak english so i had no choice. I would like for them to speak spanish though. Maybe ill be like the hardcore asian parents and send the kid to spanish school on the weekends, i may do this - TBD. I even think in english now and have stronger command of the english language. I havent spoken spanish on a regular basis for 17 years now.

another alternative would be to buy an investment home in santa ana so i can send my kid to school their and they can pick up spanish  :)
 
its a nice to have but not essential.  my wife and i are both indian but from different parts so our mother tounges are extremely different.  we asked both sets of grandparents to speak to our baby in their respective languages and so far she seems to understand a ton of both.  i figure with the grandparents around, she will learn the 2 mother tounges and english from us
 
rkp said:
its a nice to have but not essential.  my wife and i are both indian but from different parts so our mother tounges are extremely different.  we asked both sets of grandparents to speak to our baby in their respective languages and so far she seems to understand a ton of both.  i figure with the grandparents around, she will learn the 2 mother tounges and english from us
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my nephew has a similar setup where the parents speak in english to him and my parents speak to him in spanish.  he can understand spanish well, but he does not like to speak it, so im not sure what kind of command he has over the language. When he does speak spanish, he has an american accent.
 
qwerty said:
spanish is my first language and i dont think that i will end up teaching them any.  i guess its kind of a shame that i wont.
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From personal experience... your kids will probably wish you did teach them.

I'm still mad at my parents for not teaching me my native language (they felt it was better for my education to have English as my primary language)... the only words I know in German are of the cursing variety.

And in SoCal... Spanish is a VERY useful language to know... not so much in Austria.

Disclaimer: I may or may not be Austrian... it's anti-Trace tactics... but you can replace Austria and German with your country/language of choice.
 
Similar to Qwerty, I spoke Polish at home and English everywhere else.  When I do speak English, I have no accent as I came to the US when I was 5.  I was told by my family in Poland that I have a weird accent when I speak Polish (probably an American accent).  The only time I do speak Polish is with my family.  I will probably try to teach my children Polish but I'm guessing my parents will be more instrumental when it comes to doing that.
 
It is extremely important to be bilingual. Early adaptors have an intellectual advantage. Traveling to homeland allow children to absorb the culture in a million way that inspire them while growing up.  My child speaks 3 other languages: Spanish, French and Deutsch and traveled to all continents..
 
irvinehomeshopper said:
It is extremely important to be bilingual. Early adaptors have an intellectual advantage. Traveling to homeland allow children to absorb the culture in a million way that inspire them while growing up.  My child speaks 3 other languages: Spanish, French and Deutsch and traveled to all continents..
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what did you guys speak at home?  you and your wife speak all 3? 

my wife understands her mother tongue but can't speak it so its her grandparents 100%.  i speak mine at about a 3rd grade level so more than enough for a conversation with the baby

when it comes to which languages i want my child to know, Portuguese, Arabic, and mandarin...
 
I don't speak any of the three at all. My language of choice is BS. My kid always had a fascination for other cultures and travel channels. All the electives taken in school were foreign languages. Currently taking advance AP Spanish.

rkp said:
irvinehomeshopper said:
It is extremely important to be bilingual. Early adaptors have an intellectual advantage. Traveling to homeland allow children to absorb the culture in a million way that inspire them while growing up.  My child speaks 3 other languages: Spanish, French and Deutsch and traveled to all continents..
Click to expand...

what did you guys speak at home?  you and your wife speak all 3? 

my wife understands her mother tongue but can't speak it so its her grandparents 100%.  i speak mine at about a 3rd grade level so more than enough for a conversation with the baby

when it comes to which languages i want my child to know, Portuguese, Arabic, and mandarin...
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I agree totally. I told my kid to master both Mandarin, Spanish and Cantonese. For some reason my kid lately is hooked on Korean drama to learn Korean with the subtitle translation.

irvinehomeowner said:
qwerty said:
spanish is my first language and i dont think that i will end up teaching them any.  i guess its kind of a shame that i wont.
Click to expand...
From personal experience... your kids will probably wish you did teach them.

I'm still mad at my parents for not teaching me my native language (they felt it was better for my education to have English as my primary language)... the only words I know in German are of the cursing variety.

And in SoCal... Spanish is a VERY useful language to know... not so much in Austria.

Disclaimer: I may or may not be Austrian... it's anti-Trace tactics... but you can replace Austria and German with your country/language of choice.
Click to expand...
 
When we have kids we are going to try to teach and speak to them in Cantonese and Mandarin.  My wife and I were both born here so our Chinglish might not survive...
 
homer_simpson said:
When we have kids we are going to try to teach and speak to them in Cantonese and Mandarin.  My wife and I were both born here so our Chinglish might not survive...
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That's pretty hard if both you and your wife are working full time.  My wife and I are pretty fluent in our different native tongues (1.5 generation from my Asian Am class) but speak to each other in American. Older generation parents are perfect for this but having multiple generations under one roof is a no no in my book.  I'll need a wok room with heavy duty ventilation if that ever happens.  Hopefully Irvine will have a Chinese preschool soon.  And no, I don't count the illegal ones where the mainlanders drop off their kids at a house.
 
Yeah I think Mrs. Simpson is going to be a stay at home mommy when we have kids.  I guess they are going to learn broken Mandarin. :-\
 
I knew two languages up until around 6 and a half years of age.  Then, we immigrated to the US and all I knew flew out the window.  I learned English really fast and my parents learned it too and spoke to us in that at home.  I do wish that they spoke to us in our native language more as we were growing up.  Now, I'll understand most things they say to me (when they aren't speaking English), but I wouldn't know how to respond.  My wife knows it a bit better, but her's is still kinda broken and not fluent.  Our parents talk to the kids in the native tongue, but that's no where near enough.  Depending on how much school work they'll have when they start kindergarten, we may put them in after school classes.  Maybe they'll teach us.
 
homer_simpson said:
Yeah I think Mrs. Simpson is going to be a stay at home mommy when we have kids.  I guess they are going to learn broken Mandarin. :-\
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Mrs. Simpson can go to Mommy and Me Mandarin classes and brush up her language too.
 
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