The upside (and downside) of raising bilingual children

Having been raised bilingual and knowing a lot of bilingual people and
children I disagree with just about everything the Canadian researcher
infers about the downside of bilingualism (it's actually blatantly
strange when you think about Canada being a bilingual country). However,
all the positive sides of raising bilingual children seem to me to be
right on target.


Enjoy the reading.


From the New York Times:

August 18, 2010
Looking for babysitters: foreign language a must.

Looking for babysitters: foreign language a must.

(click on the link)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/nyregion/19bilingual.html?src=me&ref=homepage

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Replies

  • I think any and all attempts to help a child be bilingual or even to just expose the child to a second or third language is wonderful. Having grown up speaking English as that was the only common language of my parents who spoke Greek and Yiddish, and later having some exposure to Spanish in elementary school, I became familiar with all of the above. As an adult I am now fluent in French and Spanish and learning Italian because I was interested. I am sorry I did not learn more Greek but I do have a basic understanding. In answer to your question of a babysitter who speaks another language, I think it is fine and perhaps desirable as long as she/he also understands English so the child is not too frustrated. P.S. I am also a child therapist.
  • The article is well written.

    I agree with Liz's comment.

    I grew up on Long Island in a bilingual home. French was the main language. When I started school I was behind in English. My father was American and spoke both languages well. My mother is French. In those days she did not speak English well.

    It's a very good thing to be able to speak more than one language.
  • Very well put, Liz

    Liz de Nesnera said:
    I just don't get the controversy of bilingualism.
    I grew up in a multilingual family: I am native in English & French, conversational in Russian and know enough German & Hungarian to find the nearest bar! ;-)

    I also make my living as a bilingual English/French voiceover talent. My livelihood depends on my bilingualism. It's a gift that my parents gave me, for which I will be forever grateful.

    I also take issue with this quote in the article:

    In other words, children have to work harder to access the right word in the right language, which can slow them down — by milliseconds, but slower nonetheless.


    It's not that kids are struggling to find the right word, it's that they're trying to find the right word that fits the context in the right language.
    As a kid I used to mix up my languages NOT because I was CONFUSED but because I would use just the RIGHT word for the context...whether that word was in English or French...until of course my parents insisted that I finish a sentence in the same language I started it in!

    How can anyone say that being bilingual - or even better - trilingual (my father actually spoke 8 languages and my mother 4) is a hnderance. I know that I can pretty much travel around the world and make myself understood.

    Peace!

    Liz de Nesnera
    The upside (and downside) of raising bilingual children
    Having been raised bilingual and knowing a lot of bilingual people and children I disagree with just about everything the Canadian researcher infers…
  • Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's children are learning French.
    Angelina said: "Right now they're in the French program and they're doing very well. We want them to learn French and speak French because of our heritage."
    Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/articles/2010/08/17/20100817ange...
  • I just don't get the controversy of bilingualism.
    I grew up in a multilingual family: I am native in English & French, conversational in Russian and know enough German & Hungarian to find the nearest bar! ;-)

    I also make my living as a bilingual English/French voiceover talent. My livelihood depends on my bilingualism. It's a gift that my parents gave me, for which I will be forever grateful.

    I also take issue with this quote in the article:

    In other words, children have to work harder to access the right word in the right language, which can slow them down — by milliseconds, but slower nonetheless.


    It's not that kids are struggling to find the right word, it's that they're trying to find the right word that fits the context in the right language.
    As a kid I used to mix up my languages NOT because I was CONFUSED but because I would use just the RIGHT word for the context...whether that word was in English or French...until of course my parents insisted that I finish a sentence in the same language I started it in!

    How can anyone say that being bilingual - or even better - trilingual (my father actually spoke 8 languages and my mother 4) is a hnderance. I know that I can pretty much travel around the world and make myself understood.

    Peace!

    Liz de Nesnera
  • The degree of difficulty involved in learning two languages simultaneously in childhood depends to a degree on the closeness of the languages. French and English share a lot of vocabulary though English's grammatical base is teutonic rather than romance. That shared/similar vocabulary between English and French makes the burden of bilingualism a lot lighter.
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