How do you choose a language?

[Grace and Granola]

I would like to introduce a foreign language at home, and I'm just curious about how you choose which language to start. My boys are familiar with Dora and Diego and have picked up and remember many of the words...and we have talked about how "that's how you say X in spanish." They can both count in spanish, etc. So, my first thought was to start spanish. However, I do not know any more spanish than my kids! I took a few years of french in school, and I am not fluent, but I do understand and remember some of the rules of conjugation, and feel like the vocab would come back easily. So now I'm thinking French. But I don't hear about other kids learning french at home. Will any language really benefit my kids in the future more than another?

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by Heatherb917

Will any language really benefit my kids in the future more than another?

Probably... but you have no real way of determining which at this point in time It'll depend on where they end up living, their future occupation, and whatever twists and turns politics and the global economy take.

Spanish is the most common language after English in the US, so it could be easier to find community support and resources. Latin is not particularly useful as a conversational language, but is helpful for understanding English, and would lay a lot of groundwork for French, Spanish, and other Romance languages. However, the most important thing is laying down the language-learning pathways. People who learn a second language generally find it easier to learn other languages after that, especially related languages. From that standpoint, the best option is the one you feel you can teach best and stick with.

It seems to me that if French is something you feel relatively comfortable with, and neither you nor your kids have a strong preference for something else, it's probably the best for your family. You'll be able to provide a higher level of practice and immersion than if you started with something different, and, since they sound young, you'll have plenty of time to focus on another language later if you decide something else is more practical/desirable.

[skueppers]

Assuming that you don't have a strong cultural connection to a particular language -- for example, in my family we study German, because I'm originally from Germany and we have many relatives living there -- I think there are three main factors to consider:

1) Is there a language your children particularly want to learn? Motivated learners are more successful.

2) Is there a language that would be more practical in later life?

In the absence of a particular career plan that would make a different language more practical, Spanish is likely the default choice here. There are so many jobs where a working knowledge of Spanish is helpful!

3) Is there a language it will be easier to learn?

Here I'm not talking about whether there are features of the language itself that make it easier to learn. I'm talking about availability of resources. In most parts of the US, Spanish resources are the most widely available -- Spanish TV stations, native Spanish speakers, Spanish books and newspapers, etc. Close to the predominantly French-speaking parts of Canada, French resources could be available.

Also, consider where it will be easy to travel to have language and cultural immersion experiences. Travel to Spanish-speaking countries is usually the least expensive option for people living in the US.

If your French were fluent, I think that would be a more important factor.

[StellasMommy]

We have lots of stuff for learning Spanish & German...so, of course, my dd announced that she wanted to learn Chinese! We're studying Mandarin now and she's loving it.

[theretohere]

We started with Latin, but it was a total flop. So we're switching to French. Lots of people in the US speak Spanish- but globally French is still pretty widespread.

[fritz]

The PP gave great advice!

My DS is only 4.5yo. He's also been inspired by Dora and Diego to learn numbers and colors in Spanish. I studied Spanish in high school and college and remember most of it. I use some Spanish phrases during our daily lives; we call my mother "Abuelita" (Granny). So for right now, Spanish is it for us for those two reasons: DS is interested, and I'm very comfortable with it.

When DS is older, if he wants to learn a different language, I'd love to learn it right along with him (but I'm interested in other languages/cultures in general). I wouldn't expect our pronunciation to be perfect without putting in a lot of practice, but I'm comfortable with not being an authority on any given subject (and being able to read a foreign language, even if you can't really speak it, is also knowledge worth having IMO). Teaching myself a little Italian a few years ago was a very humbling experience--the spelling was so close to Spanish, but the pronunciation was so different!

Right now DS knows that other cultures speak/write different languages. He's heard and seen snippets from various movies and library books. So far, though, he's expressed no desire to learn any of them other than Spanish.

I'd ask your boys if they want to learn how to count to ten in French. Or, just casually present the French numbers to them when they're done saying the numbers in Spanish. They might go for it. Or not.

http://www.uptoten.com/kids/uptoten-home.html is a French/English website with lots of gentle, free kids' games. Boowa, the blue dog, sounds Brittish; Kwala, the yellow koala, sounds French (my ear's not good enough to tell if she's supposed to be from France or French-speaking Canada, but I'm guessing she's French). My DS loves the English version website (some of the translations are a little funky), but that's another way to expose your kids to French (if you're okay with screen time).

As to which language would most benefit your kids right now, what's the majority of your town's population speaking? What's the next most common language? Do you plan on staying in your current location for the next few years? If you've got a lot of Spanish speakers in your area (and Spanish radio stations and signs and newspapers), go with that. If it's a large group of French, do that instead. It just depends on how you're planning to live your life, and how totally immersed you want your kids to be in a foreign language (would studying French encourage you to take a trip up to VT or Quebec? would studying Spanish inspire you to go to AZ, TX, CA, or Mexico?) Of course, nowadays with the world wide web, it's far easier to gain exposure (for minimal cost) to foreign languages.

Another thing to consider is your ethnic heritage. If my high school had offered German, I would've taken that, since my Grandfather's of German descent. But I could only choose between Spanish and French.

Also, do any of your friends/family speak another language? My mother spoke Spanish; I was living in the Los Angeles area--for me, it was a no-brainer to study Spanish. In middle school we got exposed to Spanish and French, and the Spanish pronunciation was just so much easier for me that I was never interested in learning more French. I admit it's more fun/motivating to learn another language if you've got somebody to practice with.

[Grace and Granola]

Wow! Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies! We haven't started homeschooling (anything) yet, so my mind does not yet go to all the places that you've suggested.

We currently live in Missouri, so there are no dense populations of any other culture immediately near us. I'm sure if I went into the city there might be a little italy or a spanish community. A mom at my son's preschool is spanish and she drives an hour to go to a spanish speaking church....so it's not like there's a huge potential for immersion in our back yard.

I love to travel, so in the future I would love to take my kids to lots of different places. I think spanish speaking countries would definitely be on our list. But learning french might cause me to consider different place, like Quebec, which I might not have thought of.

I like the idea of introducing french 1-10 since they already know spanish 1-10. I'm interested to see what they would say if I asked them which they want to learn (they are 2 and 4!)

If you have taught a language to preschoolers, what types of materials did you start with?

[skueppers]

One thing that's interesting to look at in terms of resources is the selection of children's books available on Amazon.com in different languages.

Amazon lists almost 60,000 children's books in Spanish, but only 4,000 in French.

Of course, today it's possible to order books from other countries, but the shipping costs can be a serious problem!

In terms of how to get started -- I use the immersion method with my kids, which is obviously not so practical for you. If I wanted to teach my kids a language I didn't already know, such as Spanish, I would probably:

1) Do a brief Spanish course myself, to familiarize myself with the pronunciation of the language and get a basic knowledge. For example, I would consider doing level 1 of Rosetta Stone, or a similar program, which is often available through the local library.

2) Get a couple of children's music CD's and books, so we could sing Spanish songs.

3) Figure out how to get Spanish-language children's TV shows, probably on the computer, and watch them regularly.

4) Read Spanish children's books out loud.

I would also consider a curriculum like Muzzy.

[yippityskippity]

I vote for Spanish. It's the most common language in the US after English.

Originally Posted by skueppers

1) Do a brief Spanish course myself, to familiarize myself with the pronunciation of the language and get a basic knowledge. For example, I would consider doing level 1 of Rosetta Stone, or a similar program, which is often available through the local library.

Livemocha is free and you can take as many courses as you want.

2) Get a couple of children's music CD's and books, so we could sing Spanish songs.

De Colores and Other Latin American Folk Songs is great and has a songbook that goes with it. Love it

3) Figure out how to get Spanish-language children's TV shows, probably on the computer, and watch them regularly.

Vme tv

Hope this helps

[MamaMonica]

We went with Spanish. The kids took a Spanish class and loved it and wanted to continue with the language. I've tried unsuccessfully to get them interested in Latin, French or German.

So, I let them decide what they wanted to learn.

[Grace and Granola]

Originally Posted by yippityskippity

I vote for Spanish. It's the most common language in the US after English.



Livemocha is free and you can take as many courses as you want.



De Colores and Other Latin American Folk Songs is great and has a songbook that goes with it. Love it



Vme tv

Hope this helps

Thank you! This is exactly what I needed to feel like I can get started!

[earthmama369]

When children are young, any other languages -- specifically, phonemes -- they hear will prompt their brains to lay down extra neural pathways and make later learning much easier. I would say that if you have any background in a language, go with that one first. It's amazing what comes back to you once you get into it, and that will give you a huge advantage in teaching it to your children. My mother took a couple years of French when she was in high school. She never used it after that. I ended up doing a study abroad in Paris during college and she came to visit me. It only took three days before she was parsing out street signs and menus and speaking basic French to people we met, despite not having used any French for nearly 20 years. She said it just came back to her.

If you don't have another language, I would pick one that you can find spoken within your community so that your children will have a chance to hear it from a native speaker and have that reinforcement of why learning a foreign language can be useful and desirable.

[dotnetdiva]

We're going with Spanish! (At first I thought we would start with Latin, but that will wait for a few years now.) It is probably a bit handy that I have a Spanish degree, but I will still need to learn along with her as a refresher. We'll be using La Clase Divertida program.

My little mountain town had a Spanish program for children 0-5 to just get used to the language. So DD knows a few words/phrases already.

DH also wants us to learn Mandarin Chinese, but that is also going to wait, probably until 3-4 grade-ish.

[Collinsky]

We're doing Spanish, kind of without question -- Dh is bilingual, and his family is all fully bilingual and often speaks Spanish. Sometimes half the conversation will be in English, and the other half in Spanish -- we only see them a couple/few times a year, but having the kids have that connection to their extended family, as well as to the larger culture, is important for me.

Other than that, my one Dd has taken an interest in German - which I am all for as my heritage is partly German, and I've always loved the language and would love to visit Germany someday. My other Dd has always been drawn to Chinese or Japanese. I'm guilty of pushing her towards Japanese - I find Japanese to be FAR easier to learn, speak, and write. Plus Dh and I have several Japanese friends from our college days, and traveling to Japan someday has been something we've dreamed of doing. There are some languages that are tougher than others to learn, and that is something to consider when choosing a language.

We're focusing on Spanish (and ASL) for now, and after they're pretty well rooted in it, then I'll help them start finding resources to study another language as they want. In the meantime, I have no problems with them watching cartoons or movies in other languages, and they're informally learning to count to ten and say hello/good-bye/thank you/I love you in French, German, Chinese, and Japanese as well as Spanish.

I think that if there isn't compelling heritage or culture to consider, then what I would look at is:
-interest of the child (first and foremost!)
-difficulty of the language
-ease of finding resources, materials, books in that language
-IRL access to native speakers
-and lastly, and with very little weight on this, future usefulness of the language -- because it can only be guessed at. It varies, as the world market may shift over the next 20 years, and with what your child's future ends up being. Learning Swedish might not be THE most helpful language for world-wide business success, but it sure would come in handy for a child who had business (or other) interest in Sweden. That can't be predicted with any guarantee.

[devilish_fetish]

Thought I'd give a slightly different take on the foreign language discussion. My sons are 18 months old and they're both doing a foreign language. We're teaching them ASL (sign language). Since one of my sons is special needs, has some hearing loss and is non-verbal, and two of their friends are hearing impaired, we figured it was a GREAT second language that is 1) very useful and 2) they could begin using immediately. We first started learning just using videos off of youtube. We then discovered Signing Time. My boys LOVE it. My friends with hearing impaired children also use Signing Time. I've also been using Asl University which is a *FREE* asl website by a deaf college professor that teaches college asl. Alot of colleges and deaf schools have asl classes, and I just saw a "my first signs" book at walmart a few days ago. It's been pretty easy for me to learn, and easy for the boys to pick up. It's something they both use every day. It's been a godsend for us.

[Savoir Faire]

I have an elementary knowledge of SPanish....though when I'm with native speakers, I'm typically able to hold a conversation with them (if they speak slowly).

I am, however, teaching my children German. I got the Muzzy videos for Christmas and will be learning right along side them. They're really little still, so we'll be working on numbers, alphabet, colors, etc. They already know colors and numbers in Spanish and some "dora" words as well.

German is also spoken worldwide and I believe it will be a help to them-- not to mention that English is a Germanic language and I see tons of similarities between them.

After three or so years of German, they will have the choice to move on to either French or Spanish...or something else, if they so desire. They'll also study Latin, but that's just more for testing purposes if anything.

I think if YOU have a strong desire, it can happen!! Never forget the possibility of getting a tutor to help all of you along.

[skueppers]

Originally Posted by yippityskippity

Livemocha is free and you can take as many courses as you want.

Ooh, thank you! I had no idea this existed!

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by Heatherb917

I took a few years of french in school, and I am not fluent, but I do understand and remember some of the rules of conjugation, and feel like the vocab would come back easily. So now I'm thinking French. But I don't hear about other kids learning french at home. Will any language really benefit my kids in the future more than another?

It's not as common as Spanish, but plenty of kids learn French and there are immersion schools around the country for French education all day.

We are doing French. I had 5 years of it in high school (as an immersion class with a native-speaking instructor) and I picked it up really well. I was absolutely fluent: I would meet people from France and Canada that couldn't believe I learned French in an American public school without family speaking it at home.

Fast forward 20 years.

I. STRUGGLE. But here are my points:

1) I can regain it easier than learning a new language. That being the case, my kids have the opportunity to learn it better than if I were new to the language completely.

2) Because of the pronunciation with French, I would rather my kids learn this romance language first because it is easier to then do Spanish and Italian--which are less complicated in terms of pronunciation and reading (because of the pronunciation). I was able to follow conversations of my inlaws (who speak Italian) because I spoke French; but they were unable to follow my conversations in French--all because of the pronunciation. Because I was able to read French, I knew a lot of their words--because they pronounced letters that I normally wouldn't pronounce in French. Definitely not fool-proof, but I absolutely followed enough that they couldn't talk about me and I could respond (and laugh in the right places).

3) (and people can certainly challenge this--I realize it may not come to pass) I did a lot of international business classes and studying of Africa--where the educated classes speak French. Because they finally have two countries breaking the corruption barriers, I honestly see hope for Africa being an emergent market... much the way China has become. So many people are playing "catch-up" with Mandarin. I'd rather my kids have that edge. It's also spoken in other parts of the world (parts of Canada and the area near Turkey/slovak nations, southeast asia).


Yes... definitely harder to get stuff, but not impossible.

I started with basic "commands" in our day-to-day living... put on your shoes, give me a kiss, would you like something to drink?, etc. It helped ease me back into it. I focused on a new phrase/day and I carry a small, but extensive, dictionary with me at all times because it makes me nuts. I am also working on a workbook to help me regain fluency with conjugating verbs--because then, the verb I see in the dictionary is immediately able to be conjugated and used appropriately.

My son watches the "Bonjour Les Amis" lesson series on DVD. We really just hated Muzzy, but we love this one. And he really tolerates it and picks it up. It intermittently teaches songs, and he totally picks that up. This is an aspect of the language (small childrens songs) that I was never exposed to... but I have a book that lists them out with the lyrics and then I bought the CDs through Amazon.

And I got a totally score through Freecycle with barely used French books for varying age levels. The younger ones I use with him and the older ones I use to help myself.

I believe any language CAN be useful. If nothing else, it opens different neural pathways... just like music or sports.

[Grace and Granola]

Thank you Heather! Alot of great info to consider.

I was leaning towards french. We just started reading Alice in Wonderland and a character said, "Ou est ma chatte?" And I was so excited I knew what it meant and I knew exactly how to pronounce it!

The one thing keeping me from committing is that when I asked for my dh's opinion, he told me that hearing french "makes him want to vomit!" Ugh...well I certainly don't want that!

Maybe I can talk him into starting with french as a basis to lead into more pleasant sounding languages in the future!

[momofmine]

This is all interesting to read. I was also wondering about this, and was leaning towards what seems the most *useful* or practical language right now. Where I live, that's Spanish. We have a huge Spanish-speaking population in our city, and it would greatly benefit me in my job if I could speak Spanish. So I thought we'd all learn it together. But, my older son has been taking beginner level classes (just because where we live there are many opportunities like this for kids), but none of them ever went beyond 1 to 20, colors, and how are you. And then we had a couple of introductions to French, and they got excited about learning French, and really wanted to do French. I took four years of French in high school and two in college, and it does come back to me easier, so we are going with French for now. And they are liking it a lot. I am looking forward to speaking French at home, and I think it will be fun. I am not going to worry about what is most practical now, and so now I agree with the PPs who said to look at (1) the child's interest and (2) what I already know. We can always learn Spanish later.

We bought the Rosetta Stone, and plan to supplement with some CDs and maybe some DVDs. I am going to look up "Bonjour Les Amis" right now. Thanks!