Globalization is accelerating at a faster pace than ever! Will your kids be ready to face the unique set of challenges in their global future?
I believe that in order to thrive on the world stage, future global citizens will need to speak multiple languages, navigate diverse cultures, and possess a wide range of skills and talents. Here, I will show you how I am raising my 4 kids in 5 languages 🇨🇦 🇫🇷 🇯🇵 🇹🇼 🇲🇽, actively exposing them to several cultures, and encouraging them to learn as many skills and talents as they can.
I hope my videos will help you in your mission to set your kids up for global success! Because a future with more global citizens is a brighter future for all our children.
Tetsu Yung, PhD MBA ・Fluent in English, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish ・Multilingual parenting consultant ・International language conference organizer and speaker ・Author ・Doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology
Children ・Ronnie 2012.07 ・Nika 2013.12 ・Akila 2016.11 ・Nina 2020.04
Any tips for one parent who speaks multiple languages but the other only speaks one? Should I speak to my son in French and German exclusively while my wife speaks English? Cute and interesting ending, by the way.
Great video! I have been searching for information and methods on how to teach our future child our languages. I’m Filipino and my wife is Peruvian. We both live in Australia and we want our future kids to learn Tagalog and Spanish. She is due to give birth early next year. In your interview with Steve Lingo you answered my question, only speaks 1 language when meaningfully talking to kids. Ok to use other languages when talking to wife or other people. I am proabably around B1-2 in Spanish but my wife does not speak Tagalog yet. We both are fluent in English. My wife and I can switch to pure Spanish or Spanglish but I can only communicate describing basic, common contexts and situations and to some degree emotional stuff. My wife talks to me in pure Spanish 30% of the time and I reply to her in English vice versa. I know our baby would learn Spanish as my wife speaks to her family once a week (we also attend a Spanish class in church) but what language do I use when he/she talks to me in an emotional context when my wife in the same space? Do i translate Tagalog to Spanish or Spanglish? And im much more comfortable talking emotional and meaningful things in English than Spanish but could i respond in Tagalog in these times? Or if our child speaks to me in Tagalog i’ll translate it to English to my wife and continue to talk in Tagalog.
Sorry for my late reply. When speaking to your child, the most important thing is communication. That said, it can be either Tagalog or English for you, but I recommend you make one of these the core communication language. You can use other languages when others are around, but you want to make sure you kid knows that it's a "special" situation. All "normal" situations, you speak Tagalog or English, whichever you choose. Even when you wife is around, I would stick to the chosen language when addressing your child directly. Your wife can learn the few words that you use with your child. You are not talking about rocket science with babies. The vocabulary is very limited, so she can learn at the same time as your baby. Hope this helps!
This is incredible!! I'm American and a native English speaker lol but I'm trying to teach him Hindi and ASL. I also expose him to Spanish, Portuguese and other languages and people But we do some quiet/silent/total communication play times. All of our Hindi speaking friends I ask to speak to him in Hindi. I read Hindi to him several times a day. And I use Hindi while playing in or with water right now - baths, water table, and when we are with Indians or at Indian restaurants We read regularly in Spanish. But my Portuguese is much better so we don't really do as much as it's kinda a humble I'm currently learning Italian and working to improve my Hindi so he watches me struggle through the process
impressive!! also be careful about putting your kids in the internet like that, can be very dangerous and kids cant consent to being recorded and uploaded
I'm only 16, but I've already decided that I will have multilingual children. I find the idea fascinating, and I'll probably try to maximize the amount of languages like you have done (if my future partner will be fine with it)
I have a little sister and I'm trying to teach her English but it's so hard! There are a couple problems: one is that I don't spend thaat much time with her and the other is that I'm starting late, she's already 8. If I were to only speak to her in English she wouldn't be able to understand me and that would be very frustrating. I would like an Ask Tetsu video on teaching a language to an older kid.
Thanks for sharing your comment! You are right, it is harder when the kids grow older. Which is why I always advocate going as early as possible, if you are looking for very high end results.For older kids, the risks of turning her off to languages is high if you force it down her throat, so you must take your time and do the best within the constraints that you have, never forcing her, but trying more to "share" the experience of learning languages with her, whether it's reading books, watching videos, etc. Yeah, this is a nice topic to make a video about! Thanks.
@@AskTetsu Yeah, the problem is that she's not my kid. If she were, I would've talked to her only in English from the beginning, but I was just 12 was she was born. So when I proposed to speak to her in English, it was too late. And now I have a baby sister with whom I do not live, so I can't speak to her in English either. Now, her father speaks Spanish natively and they plan on moving to Spain in 5 years, and both of the parents speak english and they won't speak Spanish or English because "it's tiring". Same goes to his Spanish mother. And of course it's tiring, it's tiring not being understood and having to go out of your way for people to understand you, but it would be so beneficial, you know? And they know it. I'm not too worried about Spanish, because she's gonna learn Spanish once she's there, but both of them knowing English and not using that to their kid's advantage is a waste in my opinion. Because they want their kids to learn English. They just enrolled their 8-year-old in an English course. I tried to make English Sunday a thing, but it doesn't happen when I'm not there with them. How do I motivate them?
Very simple: never talk to your kids in the language that is dominant where you live. Then they will for sure learn the language(s) you speak to them, and living in the environment they will learn the dominant language too.
I have 4 years kid she can speak three languages and now she is going to the kindergarten and she will learn the forthe language the problem that she mixes all these 3 languages together so i feel like she would never be able to speak only in one language without mixinh😢
I love your videos, Tetsu! ❤ I’ve been following your two channels for quite some time now and I feel like the OPOL method is indeed the best way to teach our little ones… With that said, my partner is from the Netherlands, I’m from Brazil and we’re planning to raise our children in both of our languages in the Netherlands. The only problem is that he can’t speak nor understand Brazilian Portuguese and I understand a bit of Dutch (through my knowledge of English, German and French), but can’t fully speak in it yet. So our communication is basically in English, as non-natives. Could you please give us some advice on what to do in that case? I mean, once we’ll have conversations together as a family, wouldn’t our communication in English make “vanish” - in our children's heads - their need to learn our native tongues!?! (Especially Brazilian Portuguese, since we're going to be living in the Netherlands). Should we learn each other’s languages before having babies? haha 😅 What are your thoughts on this matter? Much love to you and your lovely family 🇳🇱☺️🇧🇷
Ok, following up. Personally, I do not see a problem at all for you to speak Portuguese and your husband to speak Dutch, and for you and him to speak English. The key point is for you to build a habit speaking Portuguese with your child. It does not matter what you speak with other people, if you insist on using only Portuguese with him, and daddy using Dutch with him. Keep it consistent, and don't switch around with him. I speak Mandarin with the kids, but they see me speak Japanese with mom and French outside. They have never wanted to speak in anything other than Mandarin with me.
Also, since both parents are non-natives in each other's languages, your kids will see that and should feel more compelled to speak your respective native tongues. Hopefully they speak your native language better than you speak your husband's language. This will make your child feel accomplished and continue to speak Portuguese with you. By the way, be careful not to attract too much attention to your dialogues outside, cuz it may make your child feel self conscious, and possibly reject Portuguese. Good luck with everything!!
@@AskTetsuThank you so much for your quick and helpful reply. Something else that I’ve also already heard and thought might be a good idea is to say that it’s “mommy’s language” and “daddy’s language”, instead of saying that it’s “Dutch” and “Portuguese”, maybe this way it becomes less probable for them to reject either one of the languages. Anyway, I greatly appreciate your guidance and I will keep your tips in mind for when the time to have children comes. In the meantime, I’ll keep watching your videos. Thank you once again for taking the time to answer my message. Wishing you and your family a blessed weekend ahead 😚🌷
@@stefaniezutter Thanks for your kind words! And yes, mommy's language and daddy's language is the way to go to make the language relevant and compelling. We also did that. Cheers.
I am pregnant of a little boy right now, trying to figure out the best method to teach my son multiple languages. My Boyfriend speaks Tagalog and English, and I speak Dutch and English (plus 4 other languages) And we live in Thailand. I want my son to be able to speak both our native languages (Tagalog and Dutch) As well as our communal language (English) And the spoken language here (Thai) You gave some great insights! Thank you.
It simply comes down to how languages are learned between kids vs adults, (search “David Long” on youtube and you’ll find a 1 hour video, that’s been split up and put into a playlist, on him explaining how languages are learned as children, and how we tend to stray from it as we become older) and not whether you can learn a language or not at a later age, as well as time exposed. Kids can spend way more hours surrounded by their L2 language because they have many less responsibilities, vs a grown up who has less time because they have way more responsibilities (mainly jobs/kids). The graph showed on the critical period hypothesis can also be explained by, responsibilities as you get older. However, it mainly just comes down to the method used to try and learn the L2+ language, which is done so completely wrong.
This kids are so lucky. Not only are being upbringing in a household to have privilege to recieve private education in their own household with private teachers and their parents from different nationality but opportunity to travel all over the world and grow in multi-cultural environment.
