Unschooling a language you don't speak fluently yourself?

[sapphire_chan]

Ideally, I'd be able to afford a babysitter/mother's helper who speaks the target language and just get dd X amount of exposure a day.

Since that's not a possibility just yet, any ideas?

Good resources?

[Picard]

For his third language (which DH and I don't speak fluently) we use local radio in that language, internet radio and we joined a library with books in that language. Just surrounding him with the rhythm, sound, and music is all we do now (DS is still very young).

[littlemizflava]

i find movies are amazing. my kids watch movies over and over and pick up what they say at a time then when it is swiched to spanish they know what is being said at that time. my dd even did it one day when she seen shrek in french on tv.

[sapphire_chan]

I wish they had Signing Time in more languages. Dd picked up so much spoken language from that. (well, really it just helped me to know what she was trying to say because I'd heard her repeating the words).

it's really hard to find stuff that equates word to the concept and not to the English.

[pinky]

Is there a particular language you're interested in?

[sapphire_chan]

Japanese. Which is a mixed blessing. OToneH, Japanese stuff is hugely popular and incredibly easy to find, on the other hand it's all aimed at either college students or businessmen. The vast majority of material I'm finding consists of "OMG, Japanese TV is the weirdest cool thing EVAH!" or drills in how to ask where the toilet is.

The best one I've found so far is Animals and Food


I'm also interested in dd getting a basic grasp of Spanish, but I'm not feeling as urgent about getting her exposure to that one because there are a billion more resources and searches for "spanish children's video" are far more likely to get the sort of juvenile vocabulary building videos I want. Plus, we know at least one fluent family

What I can't figure out is how to search for the equivalent of these ESL videos.

[MaWhit]

Does your library offer Mango? Free language lessons (online) and so far they're great!

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by MaWhit

Does your library offer Mango? Free language lessons (online) and so far they're great!

That does look awesome for grown ups. My real problem is that I have the basic sentence structures that work well for communicating with toddlers, but not all the vocab for sticking in the blanks. "where is the __?" "do you like ___?" "let's ____!"

So I'm going to make up my own videos at some point. DD might not learn from videos alone, but I do and she learns from seeing videos with me.

[sapphire_chan]

To follow on to this topic, I've come to the conclusion that true bilingualism is impossible in a monolingual household living in a country that speaks the same language. There are intricacies of grammar that you simply cannot convey correctly and frequently enough for kids to learn through modeling.

But you can get the basics and a LOT of vocabulary. Which will be an excellent foundation for any future travel and/or language study.

Meanwhile, I'll be expanding my own vocabulary so that the grammar I do know has more power and utility. (note to self: prior to speaking to someone of a higher rank in Japanese, learn phrase "I apologize for using informal speech, I am still learning Japanese and have a long way to go." )

[moominmamma]

We're learning some Japanese basics here. My dd is 7. Combination of a kazillion resources, not aiming for fluency, just hoping to open our ears up together to the language and learn some basic vocabulary and grammar. We're using Rosetta Stone, Pimsleuer audio CDs, Manga University books, Japanese from Zero textbooks, some flashcards and posters we found somewhere, the free Slime Forest Adventure RPG for reading, and some folks around town who are native speakers and occasionally indulge us.

Miranda

[sapphire_chan]

Well, if your 7 year old is cool with kind of babyish stuff, check out the playlist I've started compiling of Japanese learning videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/MomOfLV?...2DCEB7BCFD4965 (that should work )

And if I ever get around to making any videos, they'll end up there.

The arigatou one with the rabbits has a background of kids in a Japanese kindergarten and has some interesting cultural features like bentos and the kindergarten hats.

OMG. You have a 7 year old. Have you seen Yotsuba&?? And you can get the Japanese language versions off Amazon for ~$15 each. And one of the characters speaks mostly in hiragana.

[Arduinna]

My dd is learning Japanese too, but she didn't become interested until she was a teen and we sought out a bunch of varied resources for her to learn because she didn't want a tutor or to take a class.

[sapphire_chan]

Cool! I just learned about http://www.language-exchanges.org/ which lets you find language partners for skype chatting.

[demetria]

We use Rosetta stone. We lived in Switzerland for 3 years and that was a great help. We also try to speak in the house. My husband I are learning the language too.

[AllyRae]

We're not unschoolers, so maybe my opinion isn't too valid here (although unschoolers can take lessons, right? If that's what they show interest in?). But, we are home-preschooling my 3 1/2 year old. She was born in and adopted from Vietnam and has a strong desire to learn Vietnamese. Obviously, as someone who can only say a handful of words in Vietnamese, I'm not the one to teach her. We contacted our local college to see if there was a native Vietnamese speaker that was interested in tutoring Jocelyn (and by tutoring, I mean reading children's books in Vietnamese, singing songs, introducing the language/basic conversational skills and then eventually lead into formal lessons). We found someone who was actually from a city in Vietnam that was very close to where DD was born and she is ecstatic to have the opportunity to tutor DD in the Vietnamese language.

So, maybe try a local college and find a native speaker who is interested in a part time job as a language tutor?

[Japanmamma]

I'm here in Indy too, I have some resources that I could share with you, plus Japanese language play dates. I'll PM you with my contact info.
Katherine

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by AllyRae

So, maybe try a local college and find a native speaker who is interested in a part time job as a language tutor?

I did consider that, and I'm glad it's working well for you guys! (Love it when I have an idea an it turns out someone else already tested it for me. )

The logistics wouldn't work currently, but we might be moving near a university in the coming year. So thank you very much for putting that idea back in my mind.

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by Japanmamma

I'm here in Indy too, I have some resources that I could share with you, plus Japanese language play dates. I'll PM you with my contact info.
Katherine

Ooo! Lucky!

[Kidzaplenty]

[sapphire_chan]

I thought anyone following this thread would find this amusing. DD won't let me speak Japanese. (Or Spanish). She'll happily listen to songs in any language and will request that I sing various songs, but if I try expanding from the song she corrects me.

For instance, there's a song that just goes (in Japanese) "panda, rabbit, koala" a few times with hand motions. She loves it, and asks for me to sing it as well as singing it by herself. She'll also point out rabbits and say "rabbit". But if I try to say something like"here is a rabbit" or "where is the rabbit" or "do you like rabbit(s)?" she tells me "Nooooo no is rabbit is bunny!!"

Sings along happily with the color video, gets mad at me if I point out her cup is blue.

So I think a tutor is going to be the way to go. Someone she's willing to have speak another language.