Comments on: Bilingual education http://claritaslux.com/blog/bilingual-education/ Learning, languages, EU, citizenship Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:11:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: geeez http://claritaslux.com/blog/bilingual-education/comment-page-1/#comment-64561 geeez Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:36:39 +0000 http://www.claritaslux.com/blog/?p=1206#comment-64561 My son is a little less than 2 years old. The main language at home is Portuguese, but sometimes I speak English with my wife. What I have noticed lately is that when I speak only Portuguese with everyone at my house, I get more of a reaction out of my son. My fear is NOT that he will never learn English, but I think that I'm going to wait until he is speaking Portuguese first, to start speaking mostly English to him. That way at least I can request that he speak English back to me. I've seen several cases where parents say their children are bilingual while living in other countries. But if you look very closely, the children can UNDERSTAND their parent, but actually speaking like a native speaker is another story. I've seen this for German, Swahili, Portuguese, you name it. I think actually "speaking" is the key, even for kids. My son is a little less than 2 years old. The main language at home is Portuguese, but sometimes I speak English with my wife. What I have noticed lately is that when I speak only Portuguese with everyone at my house, I get more of a reaction out of my son.

My fear is NOT that he will never learn English, but I think that I’m going to wait until he is speaking Portuguese first, to start speaking mostly English to him. That way at least I can request that he speak English back to me.

I’ve seen several cases where parents say their children are bilingual while living in other countries. But if you look very closely, the children can UNDERSTAND their parent, but actually speaking like a native speaker is another story. I’ve seen this for German, Swahili, Portuguese, you name it. I think actually “speaking” is the key, even for kids.

]]> By: markbiernat http://claritaslux.com/blog/bilingual-education/comment-page-1/#comment-52786 markbiernat Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:48:39 +0000 http://www.claritaslux.com/blog/?p=1206#comment-52786 Darius, agreed but if you start early they do not even know they are bilingual or learning another language. Youtube is a great place to start as are kids movies and music of course, it should be just natural rather then lessons at first. Darius, agreed but if you start early they do not even know they are bilingual or learning another language. Youtube is a great place to start as are kids movies and music of course, it should be just natural rather then lessons at first.

]]> By: Darius Peczek http://claritaslux.com/blog/bilingual-education/comment-page-1/#comment-52777 Darius Peczek Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:30:27 +0000 http://www.claritaslux.com/blog/?p=1206#comment-52777 The hard part is to convince the kids to learn few languages. The hard part is to convince the kids to learn few languages.

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