Learning two or more languages at once???

[Collinsky]

*Sorry if this is convoluted... sometimes in trying to be really clear, I end up muddying the waters.*

My kids are learning Spanish, but aren't well-rooted in it yet. (Dh is bilingual, and his whole family is bilingual -- so Spanish is important for our family.)

My Dd1 (7yo) has taken an interest in German and French as well, and Dd2 (5yo) is interested in Chinese and Japanese as well. They've been really consistent in these choices for a long time now. I think it's awesome that they're so interested in language learning, but I'm kind of worried that if they are learning other languages that it will derail their Spanish.

I know that having them exposed to the other languages will only benefit them later on with future lang. learning... so I'm absolutely fine with that. If we didn't have a goal of proficiency in Spanish, I wouldn't be a bit concerned.

Does anyone know if casually playing around with a couple other languages -- particularly a related one like French -- will absolutely interfere with Spanish language acquisition? I was kind of relaxed with them learning German and Japanese in addition to Spanish, because they are dissimilar enough that confusion would be unlikely as they progressed. But Dd1 is still talking about French, and Dd2 has ALWAYS loved Chinese. French doesn't sound a bit like Spanish, but the structure and vocab can be similar, and it can be difficult to learn both at the same time successfully. Besides that, actively learning three languages each seems difficult to say the least -- particularly as they tend to do these things together... meaning that if Dd1 is doing German, Dd2 is at her side playing along. Which is great, but also quite a lot of language to take in.

My thinking at this point is to keep going forward with the more intentional Spanish learning, and let them explore the other languages freely, but without getting additional resources for them. We have the now discontinued Kidspeak 10-in-1 World Pack, so they have access to all the languages they're interested in there.

And part of me thinks, if they want to learn German, why not get a couple German story books, some videos, etc etc... I have such an urge to just feed their interests in this area!! But I also do want to make sure that they are able to learn a second language (Spanish) to proficiency, if not fluency, and don't want to inadvertently make that more difficult by over-saturating the environment with materials for fifty languages. If someone wants to give me the green light for that, though, I'm sold.

[Collinsky]

Bump?

[craft_media_hero]

Well, none of my family is bilingual (or more languages), but I do think that it can be very natural to learn more than one at a time.

Academically, the Waldorf schools usually do two languages at a time. With my daughter, we have (attempted) to do two languages concurrently--I think that our lack of success has been more because we were kind of forcing languages that we didn't have as much of an interest in? than a difficulty learning two or more languages at the same time. JME\

Wanted to add that I think it would be fine to focus on one language more academically and follow their interests on the other languages they seem drawn to---bilingual children's books never hurt anyone, right?

Sounds like fun, go for it!

[Tjej]

Well, I'll take a stab at this. I speak Swedish, and am working on fostering that with the kids. I haven't been good about it, and haven't really known how to integrate it, but now I've bought a number of new children's books in Swedish and we read them amongst our other story books and that really helps me with it. It still isn't enough for them to be proficient/fluent, but it is a step in the right direction.

The kids also like and watch some Kai Lan, and that has Chinese. They do not mix it up. And we have French around us a fair bit, and so the kids get some French here and there too. They don't seem mixed up about it.

I personally learned French before Swedish, and when I was fishing for a word in Swedish I couldn't come up with I'd often pull out the French one. I figured I have language somehow in my head as English or Foreign buckets, and I'd dip into the foreign one and hope for the best. But I wasn't confused about it, and I don't think it hindered my language acquisition.

I think that doing 5 languages (which is what you're saying) is a bit much, but if your kids are really into it then why not see how it goes? Focus on Spanish and one secondary language each, and let the other language for each be explored in their free-er free time.

JMO.

Tjej

[AngelBee]

I am planning on doing a couple languages at once.

[Dar]

Well... my daughter took a year of cc French, and now is doing a year living in Russia doing intensive Russian classes and also studying French on her own (mostly through livemocha).

I've trying to hold onto my Arabic and also learn some French, and my Spanish burbles up at the most inopportune times.... but really, it's all good...

[Nickarolaberry]

Hmmm. This is an interesting question.

For myself, I started French at around age 12 and took it through university (ended up, at that time, fluent). In high school I added Spanish and because I already had the basics of conjugation, etc. down, I whizzed through 1 & 2 in one semester and they kept accelerating me. I ended up with about four years of Spanish -- not proficiency, but recognizability.

I've also always taken Hebrew -- in earlier years, the reading/writing aspect; in university I added the spoken component. I never mixed up the different languages.

That said, after spending a year in Israel and speaking Hebrew all the time, when I went to France backpacking during the summer, I understood all the French but whenever I opened my mouth, Hebrew came out first. It seemed like when my brain went into foreign language mode, that's what emerged (even though I was hearing/comprehending/thinking in French). It took me a good few days to switch over to French.

My kids now take Hebrew and do Hebrew studies in an immersion way (when we're doing our religious studies, they speak, read, write, translate in Hebrew -- this includes both study of the language itself as well as textual religious study). In addition, dd1 (she's 9) is starting with Rosetta Stone Spanish, a little bit. She has no difficulty distinguishing or keeping them straight.

Eventually I will add in another language besides Hebrew for all the kids (French, Spanish, whatever they pick) and I may also integrate Latin at some point because we tend toward the Classical model and also because I think it's invaluable for understanding and using language well.

It's one of those things you can try and see how it goes...you can always pull back a bit if it becomes overwhelming. But the kidlet(s) may surprise you with a real facility/love of language and take to it immediately!

[Collinsky]

Thanks, everyone, for feedback!

Originally Posted by Tjej

I think that doing 5 languages (which is what you're saying) is a bit much, but if your kids are really into it then why not see how it goes? Focus on Spanish and one secondary language each, and let the other language for each be explored in their free-er free time.

I think this sounds like the best plan, I think that this approach will work really well!

Originally Posted by Nickarolaberry

It's one of those things you can try and see how it goes...you can always pull back a bit if it becomes overwhelming. But the kidlet(s) may surprise you with a real facility/love of language and take to it immediately!

True! And I hate to put restrictions on their interest, since obviously they're in a heavy "explore language" phase. Who says, "No French today, honey, put it away," ??? LOL Honestly, it will probably even out (or peter out!) before they get far enough to really confuse themselves, *or* they'll turn out to have a dedication/aptitude for lang. learning that will mean they find ways to work out any potential kinks.

I think we'll go with the flow with this and you're right, we can always pull back if it becomes an issue!

[widemouthedfrog]

I've started some French with dd, and I'm hoping to put her in a Mandarin summer camp just for a week this summer, mostly for the general exposure. I love Mandarin and found it very easy to learn if you are into music, which dd and I are. It is so different from French that I'm not too concerned about confusing it.

I'm hoping to go to Costa Rica with her for a while next year, and if we do focus on the French it might mix her up a little. Not sure how much she will pick up on the Spanish.

I find that English has one place in my head, Spanish and French another, Mandarin another. I learned some Tagalog once, and that was different again. When the languages sound similar / have similar patterns, that is when I mix them up. Not that it's a bad thing, just something that causes me to pause before I speak.

[JuniperBCN]

Don't know if this helps because our context is different, but I wanted to address the simulataneous romance language concern. Our house is trilingual (English, Spanish and Catalan) due to where we live and our family makeup and its fascinating to see our little kids' languages take shape. Catalan and Spanish are both romance languages and almost every kid I know here is fluent in both by the time they're five. While it seems that there can be some initial mixing and confusion, as the kids gain in exposure and proficiency, everything just seems to settle down naturally into its proper place. In addition, in the several multi-lingual families I know, the 3rd and 4th languages seem to do the same. I know our level of exposure is quite high, but I think having the resources to play with language helps kids develop what they need to whip it into shape when accuracy of expression becomes important to them. I would say if your kids are interested, let them run with it!

[kittywitty]

We are learning more than 2 here at home. I was taught French starting at a young age by my mother and in junior high I learned a little Latin through self-study and helping a cousin study for his college Latin every day. I also tried (and failed) to teach myself Greek and translated French documents for fun.

My children are learning French and Greek right now. I mostly do immersion with French. We converse and have a phrase or more a day and I'm studying the Gouin method right now. I want to get Rosetta Stone. We are using The Easy French and L'Art de Dire. For Greek, we are using Papaloizos Greek. We have learned a little German. I took a Conversational German class and my 9 year old has German, French, Italian, and Greek podcasts on her ipod she listens to almost every night. We practice counting to ten, etc. in Spanish, French, German, and English almost every day together and even my 2 year old is picking it up. We also do Rummy Roots and English from the Roots Up. Next year we are starting Latin and continuing with more in depth German.

Personally, I don't think you can learn too many languages. Even at once. But that's just always been my (and my children's) love.

[Collinsky]

Originally Posted by kittywitty

Personally, I don't think you can learn too many languages. Even at once. But that's just always been my (and my children's) love.

I tend to agree!

[linguistmama]

We're bilingual English/Spanish and are going to add Portuguese. I would emphasize Spanish while having some things available in the other languages.

DH is from Mexico so that helps alot We focus on as much Spanish at home as we can, music, youtube, books, audiobooks and computer games (Pipo). For Portuguese we are listening to audiobooks each day from librivox.org and some youtube cartoons in Portuguese to start. We will start getting Portuguese kids books from a local university soon. I need to decide about adding the conversation part, will we do part of the day or a 1 specific day? I also don't want the Spanish to suffer. We will treat Spanish and English as native languages and Portuguese and any others as 3rd etc. Our time and resources available will reflect that.