You are not alone raising multilingual kids, I have 2 of my own, they are 6 and 3 yo and they can pick up more than 3 languages while the eldest one start the fourth one slowly . I have found no difficulties in raising them in even 3 languages, what I feel the success keys are all start at home. Me and my husband, we are communicating in English, me and my kids are Bahasa Indonesia, and kids to dad in Urdu (native language of Pakistani), Initial they r still (and still is) using some words in English or in Urdu to the words they couldn't get in bahasa, I don't think it's a big deal, because every kids will develop their vocabulary accordingly.
With all the myth spread which makes most parents hesitate to teach their kids the second language, third or even more, such as giving confusion to the kids, slow to speak, or ended up with mixing both the language... Honestly the first two reasons I have found no issues in both of my kids, they even faster and more talkative than other kids (which I can't bear it)... and for the other reason that they will end up with mixing all languages... I absolutely didn't mind at all, since my self start bilingual myself I often use English words in my Bahasa, or even I use Bahasa in my English when I replied my husband before the word are not in English... Nowadays, (I'm talking about Indonesia) many of us found many adults did it... not only in English words, but we found them talking using many local languages in whole conversation... Sundanese, Javanese, Betawise, I guess he have no offense on these things.
If you asked me about their academic result, I just only can praise God how much I'm lucky to have them, they both doing a great job in their study.
Basically Both of my kids has a strong Urdu, that's the main thing. Some friends here found their kids are reluctant to be bilingual multilingual and cos of their mothers are not Urdu speaking, with worst Urdu ever and even me, made monolingual kids (Urdu speaking) themselves don't speak Urdu properly, some words they got from non-Urdu speaking mother who tried to communicate in urdu are totally have different sound or even giving different meaning to the essence of the conversation... That's really bad.
As for third language of my kids, initially they just understand the sentences from me and my husband conversation, which they really picked up so easily, soon after they entered the school which is English medium school they start using it in their own world while they are playing alone and playing role, I didnt emphasized them to use English, but kids love it cos they are happy with their fun school.
The elder one have started fourth language which is Arabic in schol, again I won't pushed him to be good in Arabic, I let him explore the language, let him practicing by his own will. So let see how many languages he will end up with... Languages are treasure we have to dig up every time... no limit in learning language...
With all the myth spread which makes most parents hesitate to teach their kids the second language, third or even more, such as giving confusion to the kids, slow to speak, or ended up with mixing both the language... Honestly the first two reasons I have found no issues in both of my kids, they even faster and more talkative than other kids (which I can't bear it)... and for the other reason that they will end up with mixing all languages... I absolutely didn't mind at all, since my self start bilingual myself I often use English words in my Bahasa, or even I use Bahasa in my English when I replied my husband before the word are not in English... Nowadays, (I'm talking about Indonesia) many of us found many adults did it... not only in English words, but we found them talking using many local languages in whole conversation... Sundanese, Javanese, Betawise, I guess he have no offense on these things.
If you asked me about their academic result, I just only can praise God how much I'm lucky to have them, they both doing a great job in their study.
Basically Both of my kids has a strong Urdu, that's the main thing. Some friends here found their kids are reluctant to be bilingual multilingual and cos of their mothers are not Urdu speaking, with worst Urdu ever and even me, made monolingual kids (Urdu speaking) themselves don't speak Urdu properly, some words they got from non-Urdu speaking mother who tried to communicate in urdu are totally have different sound or even giving different meaning to the essence of the conversation... That's really bad.
As for third language of my kids, initially they just understand the sentences from me and my husband conversation, which they really picked up so easily, soon after they entered the school which is English medium school they start using it in their own world while they are playing alone and playing role, I didnt emphasized them to use English, but kids love it cos they are happy with their fun school.
The elder one have started fourth language which is Arabic in schol, again I won't pushed him to be good in Arabic, I let him explore the language, let him practicing by his own will. So let see how many languages he will end up with... Languages are treasure we have to dig up every time... no limit in learning language...
No comments:
Post a Comment