English Thai or both ?

Anybody out there have children brought up by parents who speak two languages ? how do you teach them one at a time or do you just bombared them with both, in my case English and Thai i live in thailand so thai will be easy for him any idears ?

 

When I was in training with the Parents As Teachers program, they told us that in a bilingal household one parent should speak to the child exclusively in one language and the other parent exclusively in the other language. They said that the child will pick up both languages and will instinctively know which language to use with anyone who is speaking to them. They did say that there may be some delays in spoken language as the child processes everything but once they start talking, they will be equally fluent in both languages.

My son heard Spanish all day in day care and English at night at home. He also heard nothing but Spanish for the first 5 1/2 months of his life before we adopted him. He was a little slower at talking that other kids his age. When he started to talk he used a mixture of both languages and his own made up language. He hasn't been in a Spanish speaking environment for two years now and he no longer uses Spanish at all. So its' important to keep up both languages.

Kathi

 

I'd say it also depends on what language they'll be speaking at school... I learned English at home but when I went to Kindergarden at 4 years old my mom put me into French immersion (all French schooling) and it was really good for me. Admittedly I stopped in grade 5 to go to a different kind of schooling, but I still have my accent and if I were immersed in French again I don't doubt that I could pick it up in a fairly short period of time.

 

Thanks kathi that all makes sense, i think i will always speak to him in English cos thats what my brain does first convert thai into english. Had not even thought about a mixture of the two which is stairing me in the face because its how me and his mum communicate ! nature is amazing it always finds away.

 

The one thing is that if you want to teach your kids to speak another language, it's better to start young. In school, they didn't put us into another language until 7th grade, and none of us learned crap. But my little cousins, who are from Florida, are taught Spanish in grade school, and they are almost fluent.