Which language to speak with the kid?

Hi,

I speak to my children in both my mother tongue (tamil) and English. Mostly we converse in Tamil. They never had a problem in school. Infact kids learn better when they know an other language.

Infact, teachers in USA encourage us to speak in our own mother tongue at home.

Personally, it will be best if we speak in our own mother tongue mostly.

This brings in better bonding and closeness with our children.

Thanks,
Jithiks

 

Hello,

Everyone are right. As you all say, ofcourse kids are fast learners who can learn multi-language at a time. Eventhough, we live in Europe where there is more 3 languages to be spoken in Schools, we still speak with our 3 kids in our mother tongue and at school they speak European language.

Cheers,
Suni.

 

Hi Nalini,
It is absolutely important to teach your child your mother tongue. My baby is 16 months old. I speak to him in sindhi mostly. but also speak to him in english , hindi and Bengali.Young children have the capability of picking up languages fast . Dont be confused. They wont learn the mother tongue in school so dont be worried about it.

 

Kids and Languages

Hey all

I have read that kids have the ability to grasp different languages when introduced to it early.
I know that most of us do English and Tamil (mother tongue), but wanted a perspective of whether speaking 2-3 languages at home will confuse the kid ?

 

Re: Kids and Languages

Ramya, They will not, I would say Thats an advantage There is some other thread on this, i read from the sticky list I guess. Search for it. My mother tongue - Telugu, DH's Tamil. But we thought we would confuse the kid, never spoke Telugu, only Tamil and English to her, now she knows only 2. But her other cousin, is 3.6yrs, fluent in English, Tamil and Telugu )))
Now I sigh, for not introducing her Telugu earlier Now DS gets a toast of all three, even a bit of Hindi too. I am sure by 4-5yrs, any no of languages the kids get to hear, they would eventually master it. Esp, the first 1yr, whatever they listen, they store it, when they start speaking, they dont learn new words, but they start talking from the words already in their store ))) My funda )

 

Re: Kids and Languages

Hi

Kids have an innate ability to pick languages from about 6 mths to 4 yrs. That being said using a few languages at home can help the child grasp words but may delay speech until the child is confident of speaking. However in the long run it will prove to be beneficial to the child.

There is scientific proof that children when exposed to and taught multiple languages one at a time between 3 and 5 yrs ( spoken and written) can pick it up fairly quickly than when introduced later. It also promotes brain development and improves their cognitive abilities.

Just my 2 cents.

 

The down side to raising bilingual kids is that language development can slowdown. Not will, before people pounce on me, but can. If that is not an issue, there is nothing better talking to your kid in more than two languages.

 

Tikka/Pon - In my case, it is not a choice to use one language or the other (like Pon could avoid Telugu). DH's family speaks 3 languages (including Tamil) at home and English is an addition. I can probably speak Tamil with my kid, but others around her will speak in their own languages.
I was only worried that she may start using words in different languages and be confused. DH disagrees as says that he was also exposed to 3 languages at home as a child and he never had a problem.
Most non-Tamil families in TN will have one language at home and another outside. Those kid do manage it right?

 

ahhh my favourite topic.. we talk three languages - Tamil(DH), Telugu(me), english(we).. Tamil and telugu was from his baby days.. when he was 1.2 yrs old, an experienced person in this speech field told me to completly stop one of the languages else he is sure to have a speech delay.. but I didnt have a choice, my mom was sure not able to speak in Tamil with her own grand son and my inlaws could not manage telugu so I left it the way it was.. thankfully now he speaks both so fluently.. and he knows he has to speak Tamil at inlaws place and can speak telugu with my people..

if my DH speaks Telugu for fun, my DS smiles shyly and asks him to speak in Tamil only.. as if saying daddy pls dont spoil Telugu.. sometimes for fun sake, DS mixes up the words from both languages but we know he is only making fun so ignore it. He corrects himself. We started English recently and he likes to answer in one word.. it is fun to see him respond in English with correct responses.. he says 'amma, this' 'amma that' 'No' 'yes'.. I hope he catches up with english soon.