5 popular strategies for raising bilingual and multilingual kids 

They are so lucky indeed! I try to think about giving them an environment that I would be jealous of! And it's working! Ha ha.

Thanks! It's a tough act to keep up, but we really enjoy it!

Thanks for your comment! Yes, I also only found out recently! 2P2L does sound reasonable to me, if in fact you can satisfy the conditions of having strong bilingual parents who ensure a good balance between the two languages and a good bilingual environment. But just to have a bilingual or a beginner language learner parent try this, it could be quite difficult.

Yeah, it’s an incredible concept though. Would love to see some more case studies on it.

@@AskTetsu ​ AskTetsu - Multilingual Kids I personally would not recommend a 2P2L strategy to parents of very young children as they can better understand the OPOL method: one person one language. The switch of language needs to make sense for the child otherwise he/she would struggle with separating the languages one person is speaking with him/her. In fact, the 2P2L strategy and the T&P strategy are usually going hand in hand and work best with children who are a bit older.

Thank you Luis! And good luck with your language learning journey! Anyone with your interest level and motivation will succeed.

@@AskTetsu Thanks.

Sorry for my late response! And thank you for sharing your unique situation! Your child is blessed!

Thank you for sharing! Best luck to you!

Thanks

Hi VERLAN, thanks so much for your detailed question! Now, I must admit, I am not sure I understand it 100%, but I will try my best to answer based on how I understand it. I will first answer below based on the assumption that the hypothetical kid in your question is 12 years-old, and has been raised in English, French, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish, just like my kids. In this case, I believe that the answer for a), b) and c) will all be "no", i.e., he/she will learn Portuguese well because the kid already speaks Spanish, and knows 4 more languages, so adding Portuguese will be much easier compared to other more different languages (e.g., Arabic). Having au pairs or not is irrelevant. Of course, if in b) the parents spoke Portuguese, that would help the kid, but this seems like a strange scenario to me. Now, if the hypothetical kid had NOT been raised in 5 languages, or had no romance languages, then he/she would have more difficulty learning Portuguese starting at 12. But this difficulty is not related to having au pairs at home or having too many languages, but rather the psychology of the child when put into a brand new environment at 12 years old for the first time in a language he/she does not speak. The personality of the child would play a huge role on the outcome of this life change. In either case, the question of whether the languages already learned would deteriorate.... well, to a certain degree, it can be temporarily forgotten if you stop using completely from 12 years old. But in my experience with Mandarin, which I had used daily until age 13 when I moved to Canada, but stop completely from 13 to age 29, it was all still there and I was able to revive all of what I knew within a few days. This is the reason why I am aiming for at least 10 years old, and really hoping for 12 years old for this intensive language training for my children. So that the languages are fully "acquired", like integrated into their DNA, and not like "learned", which can be lost. I do wonder if I'm answering you question correctly. If not, don't hesitate to ask more!

@@AskTetsu Thank you for answering my question :D You seemed to misunderstand nothing, and answered everything well. I appreciate very much your feedback. I do have two more (unrelated) questions, however: The first question is about accents, and do you think it is a concern or necessary to, say, get people in your target languages for your children of different accents. For example, your English / Spanish au pairs, getting for example an au pair from the Dominican Republic with a Carribean accent, or one from Spain, etc. so your children can understand an array of accents in those target languages. I ask because I've heard stories of heritage language speakers of languages not being able to understand (well) different varieties; more specifically, hearing about some heritage speakers of Brazilian Portuguese struggling to understand European Portuguese. Your kids would not be heritage speakers here, but I just wanted to state the details of where I heard it from And here, my second and last question would be about the approximate age to start OPOL. Sooner the better is definitely best and I don't think there would be any detriments, but I just wonder about would it even be worth the language exposure to, say, a new born, or a near new born (

Hi, thank you for sharing your story and sorry for my delayed response! First, I would simplify the situation down to what languages are the ones that you want your children to speak. Just because you have access to many languages does not necessarily mean your kids need to learn them all. There is a trade-off for every additional language in cost and the expected level that can be achieved. What languages are the most important for you and your children. Separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves. Then focus on the must haves first. This sounds logical, but I understand that in practice, it can get overwhelming. If I were you, I would simply have each parent pick ONE language each (other than English) to speak with the kids. You can continue to speak English with your husband, but use your designated language when addressing the kids. As for Arabic, I would just let them learn it at school and accept that I don't speak it, and THAT'S OK. Hope this is helpful. Best wishes.

Hi Appletini, thank you for your nice words. I definitely don't think the child will be confused, and if done right, I think she still has a great chance to learn all 3 languages to high levels. Here's what I would do in your situation. I assume you speak Spanish better than Korean, so you can speak Spanish with her. Living in Korea, this is the community language and will not be an issue. Then your spouse can take supplement either English or Spanish if possible. Oh, as for language delay, there is no definitive answer on whether multilingualism actually causes it. So even IF it were to happen to your child, it doesn't mean it was automatically caused by multilingualism. A certain portion of monolingual kids also have language delays, and there is no statistical difference between the incidence of speech delays among monolinguals vs multilinguals. In fact, my daughter actually had some delays until about age 5, but quickly caught up after. I talk about it a little bit in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rcwsI2Mt0b0.html Hope this helps! Good luck.

@@AskTetsu Thank you so much for your answer and advice!

Hi, thank you for your comment. Don't you worry. Because: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Vh0UplryXVE.htmlsi=Ols3sZhAui6Md2KG

Hi! Thanks for sharing your situation! Personally, in your situation, I'm not sure I would switch to English. I understand your concern that he will struggle when he gets to daycare/kindergarten, but I think it will be very shortlived and his English will quickly overtake his Chinese. I would want to build up so much reserve in Chinese, as it is a much harder language to learn and maintain, and, as you say, eventually he may resist speaking it one day. So the higher the level you get him to by then, the better. My two cents. ;) It's a tough one though.

Oh, and I forgot another element. If you switch to English and he gets used to it, switching back to Chinese may be much harder for the reasons started above. Also it's not so easy to change habits.

@@AskTetsu Thanks for the reply! Yes, it is hard to change habits! I've found it quite difficult to get used to speaking to him in English, and I've found that lately I will sometimes start speaking to him in Chinese without realizing it! Up until recently, I had been thinking the same as what you said: that he could just learn English while living in this environment and especially after starting school. It was only after hearing input from several different people that I was persuaded that he should learn English earlier. But after hearing your input, I'm actually considering taking your advice. Or what if I just speak to him in English one day a week? I definitely don't want his English to be stronger than his Chinese by the time he starts school. So far he's just begun to understand some words and sometimes repeat them, and understand the concept that it is a different language. Maybe I can monitor his progress and make sure he doesn't progress too quickly! Maybe once a week would be about right. I guess I'm also still concerned that he won't be able to socialize with non-Chinese-speaking kids. But luckily, there are a lot of kids who speak Chinese here, but what about the ones who don't? He won't be able to communicate with them for the first couple years. I know what you mean when you say the higher the level he can get to before school, the better. But if he learns some English, do you think that will affect the level that his Chinese will reach by then? Do bilingual 5 year olds tend to have a lower level of language proficiency than monolingual ones?

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!

@@AskTetsu I appreciate your time to reply. Keep up the good work! I’ll try to share some updates and progress next year. Thanks for the advice Tetsu!

Thank you for your comment and for sharing your situation. I think for 2P2L to really work, the kids need to be immersed extensively in BOTH of the languages. This is why I think it works very well for French and English in Montreal, as both languages can be heard consistently. To do this with Hindi in the mix may reduce the effectiveness, leading to the child preferring English, and potentially rejecting Hindi, unless you can really make it as relevant as English in his life. Hope this helps in assessing the risk/reward profile of this strategy. Best wishes.

@@AskTetsu Thanks fro your input :)

Hi Laure, thank you for your comment. Clearly, I cannot speak on behalf of you with regard to the specific level you are aiming for for each of your child's languages. What I can say is that French is a harder language to master than English. And since she already has plenty of English at school, I would emphasize French much more if I were in your position. Furthermore, it is your mother tongue.

@@AskTetsu thank you for your time it's just a little frustrating when you pay a great deal of money to a British school and your child comes back with a different language that is thought 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️ I know Spanish is the main language as we are in Spain but still 😁😁

@@AskTetsu good morning. A year on from that message, we are now in a situation that I need your input please. My daughter has finished her second year at a British school. She's fluent and her school report came back very positive. The school she had been going isn't meeting my standards anymore and I have 2 options... 1) another British school 2) a French school. Updates on my daughter: I speak English and French to her, she replies in English to me, when my parents or her dad speak to her in French or in Roumania from her dad she replies in Spanish. I really think if putting her at the French school because I don't know where to start with the French it's so complicated, so I thought she can learn the French correctly at school and I can carry on the English studies at home as it's so much easier for me. And I spoke to her last teacher and offered her to come twice a month to have a private lesson with my daughter to evaluate her English and work on the weakest points. Thank you very much for your opinion.

@@pugscaniche7866 Sorry I missed this comment. It's actually a coincidence that I saw it! Anyway, as I mentioned in my previous comment, putting emphasis on French would be my priority if I were you. So from that perspective, putting her in a French school will definitely help. That said, it does seem peculiar to me that you say you want her to learn French "correctly" at school, rather than with you. Personally, if French is your native tongue, I don't see why you couldn't simply continue to speak French with her. There is no need at all to "teach her grammar" or any "correct French" per se. It just about talking to her and connecting with her in that language. Also, if you consistently spoke French with her, rather than switching between English and French, she will likely end up speaking with you in French, rather than answering in English. Not sue if this helps of gives you more dilemmas... ;) Anyway, good luck! All the best.

@@AskTetsu hi, I'm glad you saw the message and took the time to answer. Obviously my French is 100% with the speaking aspect but as far as my writing it's a disaster and always has been and as you mentioned English is much easier than French and that I can teach her English without any difficult as I consider it has my first language now. Speaking French is one thing but I also want her to be able to write it and understand the importance of doing correctly like she does with the English. She's turning 5 in September and is at a perfect age to integrate the French school to get the proper foundation to be as good as her English is. She will also receive an hour of Spanish which won't hurt as she's speaking that with her school mate already 😁👏🏻. I'll keep you posted and will let you know what happened in a year time lol.

Hi Aswad, thank you for your comment! I am not sure if I fully understand your question, but assuming it means you are considering to hire a Japanese or Chinese-speaking babysitter to watch your kid once a week for 1 hr? My answer to that would be, no, I don't think that will be enough. If once a week is all you can manage, then I think you need at least a good 5-6 hrs. But even then, I don't think it will be enough considering that Japanese and Chinese are SO DIFFERENT from the languages you already speak. If it were Norwegian, then I would say, yes, you have a better chance. That said, of course, it also depends on what level you are aiming for. At 1h/wk over 10 years, you child will be able to say the minimum necessary, like "where is the station" or "how much does this cost", etc. But it's not something that she can't learn very quickly as an adult later in life if she wants to. I think the main advantage of getting children to learn languages early is so that they can have massive exposure without too much effort or mental resistance like adults. And through this period, they can learn will very good accent and normal syntax. Hope this helps! Best wishes.

@@AskTetsu Hello again and thank you for answering my question :) Yes, that is exactly what I meant, so how many hours per month do you recommend? I would like her to be able to communicate, hold a conversation and be able to understand her babysitter fully after a while.

​ @Aswad For languages that are so far from English like Japanese and Chinese, I would recommend at least 1h a day min. But many factors come into play, e.g., how well does your child get along with her babysitter? How is the babysitter? Does she speak a lot to the child or nor, etc.

I like www.aupairworld.com

@@AskTetsu Thanks Tetsu. Your kids are very lucky to have you as their father ❤️

@@JojoNY1980 Thanks for your kind words!