Raising children in multilingual families

Discussion in 'General Language' started by Jana G, Mar 3, 2002.

  1. Jana G

    Jana G New Member

    I am Czech, my husband an American. We are about to start a family, and I really want to teach our child 'some' czech. I am looking for childrens czech books. If you know a good source/sights please let me know.

    Thanks a bunch,
    Jana
     
  2. Veronika

    Veronika Member

    Hello Jana,

    I realy don't recomened you to start teaching your children to soon to Czech. My son is now 22 months and he has a problem with speech, because we speak at home 4 languages and he is very confused by it. I suggest it is better to teach them english first and later about 4 years some czech.

    I have some books from Czech for my children - Krtek, Pohadky Bozeny Nemcove, Devatero pohadek atd. And I also have a small very good books Rikej, co to je. There are pictures of things and names in czech. It is good to learn normal english plus you get extra that Czech.

    I do sing to them in Czech and because my parents don't speak in english, they talk to him in czech on the computer, but as I said, it realy confused him and now I'm getting worried.

    Well, good like with starting your family. By the way, from part of Czech are you? I'm fron okres Novy Jicin.
     
  3. Jana G

    Jana G New Member

    Hello Veronica,

    Thanks for your reply. It's something to think about. I plan on only working with the two languages, so I hope it won't be as confusing as you say it is for your son. Of course the primary language would be english. I would be content if my child understood some czech also. Thanks for the book titles, I'm going to try to look some of them up over the net, and see if I have any luck with that.
    By the way, I was born in Chomutov, but most of my family comes from around Kadan. Were you born in Canada/or how long have you lived there? Are your parents in the Czech Republic or also in Canada?

    -Jana <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Veronika:
    <B>Hello Jana,

    I realy don't recomened you to start teaching your children to soon to Czech. My son is now 22 months and he has a problem with speech, because we speak at home 4 languages and he is very confused by it. I suggest it is better to teach them english first and later about 4 years some czech.

    I have some books from Czech for my children - Krtek, Pohadky Bozeny Nemcove, Devatero pohadek atd. And I also have a small very good books Rikej, co to je. There are pictures of things and names in czech. It is good to learn normal english plus you get extra that Czech.

    I do sing to them in Czech and because my parents don't speak in english, they talk to him in czech on the computer, but as I said, it realy confused him and now I'm getting worried.

    Well, good like with starting your family. By the way, from part of Czech are you? I'm fron okres Novy Jicin.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    hello Jana,
    My husband is Czech and I am American. My son has been spoken to in both languages since birth. He is 3 years old. He is above average in language as compared to other boys in his daycare. I think you should speak as much Czech to him as possible as soon as possible. It is much easier to learn a language from birth than to learn it later on.
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I agree-- try teaching Czech as soon as possible. Crikey... it's a heck of a lot easier than waiting until later. It shouldn't be confusing, just introduce objects in Czech and English at the same time. Be careful when introducing two languages, and be on the lookout for confusion and problems.
    -Nick :)
     
  7. Jana G

    Jana G New Member

    Don Antonio Soprano;

    Thanks so much! One of those sites is great. I'm getting ready to order several books. I think my grandmother ( Czech, now living with my parents in CA) will enjoy getting her hands on some Czech books or movies. I am very excited [​IMG] Jana
     
  8. Dana

    Dana Well-Known Member

    How should parents who each speak a different language go about making their children bilingual? E.g. if the father is American and the mother is Czech, should the father always speak English with the child, whereas the mother should always speak Czech? I've heard that it's very important that each parent ALWAYS speak in his/her own language with the child and that the child shouldn't even know that for instance his Czech mom can also speak English. I don't know how that's possible since the parents would normally speak in one language (e.g. English) with each other, even in front of the child. Does it confuse the child if mom speaks Czech with him but English with his father?
     
  9. Mirek

    Mirek New Member

  10. Mirek

    Mirek New Member

    We are Czechs living in the US. Our son is 24 months old. He speaks Czech at home (we use a few English words that he adopted and prefers over Czech ones) and English in a daycare. When my wife or I are in the room, he speaks Czech to everyone, even other children or teachers. What cracks you up is when his pal hears a sirene from the outside and goes running to the window screaming "hasici". Or a teacher is trying to say "tata" and another child corrects her, "no data, taaaata".

    So far, it has worked out fine for our son. It takes some assertivity from our side when we speak Czech with him in social settings, in the bookstore, at parties, etc. We apologize to other people and explain why we are doing this -- we practice and do not want him to realize that English will do just fine.

    We sing Czech songs, read CZech books, etc. No TV yet. We also sing English songs and read English books but try to pick the Czech ones.

    I believe that starting early with a second language is best for your child. The reason is that he/she will learn (to listen to) the music of the language. Every language has its own music, stress, pitch, etc., and if they learn it early they will remember. Words are not so essential, they can expand their vocabulary later.

    What is your experience? How do you cope with the cultural side of living in the US. How (if) do you keep in touch with the Czech (European) culture? Do you want your child(ren) to be Czech, American, European, Euro-American?

    M.
     
  11. E

    E New Member

    Knowing a few families with bi-lingual children, there doesn't seem to be a problem with using more than one language. The claim that it leads to speech problems has been largely dismissed. www.czech-books.com ship books for adults as well as children, and you may be able to find more through a search engine (please share any others that you find!). www.alik.cz is a nice web site for children with a limited number of e-Books, but they do have a pen pal look-up.
    Regards,
    E
     
  12. Jana

    Jana Well-Known Member

    Mozna vas bude zajimat i moje osobni zkusenost. Jsem Ceska, vychovana bilingvalne (cesky a francouzsky). Od malicka na mne mluvili oba rodice cesky a tatinek take francouzsky, hlavne kdyz me mel sam na starosti. Dnes je mi 54, krome cestiny, francouzstiny, slovenstiny a rustiny mluvim i anglicky (muj nynejsi manzel je American), ovladam latinu a starorectinu, domluvim se i nemecky a ctu a rozumim srbochorvatsky, italsky a spanelsky. Nikdy jsem nemela problemy s prechazenim z cestiny do francouzstiny a naopak, spise si myslim, ze znalost dvou jazyku od mladi mi pomohla pri studiu dalsich jazyku. Sve tri deti z prveho manzelstvi (s Cechem) jsem od mala ucila anglicky formou pohadek, rikanek, pisnicek a pozdeji bezne denni konverzace. Vzdycky se na to tesili - byla to pro ne spise odmena nez uceni - a dnes (uz jsou vsichni dospeli) jsou mi za to vdecni. Podle mych zkusenosti je skutecne nejlepe zacit co nejdriv. Preji vam hodne rodicovskych radosti a verim, ze dite v pohodove rodine nema zadne "zmateni jazyku", byt by jich bylo sebevic.
     
  13. Kikko

    Kikko Well-Known Member

    <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jana:
    <B>Mozna vas bude zajimat i moje osobni...
    ..jich bylo sebevic</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

    [​IMG]

    Where are the subtitles? [​IMG]

    [This message has been edited by Kikko (edited November 18, 2002).]
     
  14. Halef

    Halef Well-Known Member

    Please excuse (and correct [​IMG] ) my mistakes.

    You might be interested in my personal experience. I am a Czech, grown up bilingually (czech and french). My parents always talked to me czech and my father also french, especially when he was alone with me. Today I am 54; except of Czech, French, Slovak and Russian I can speak English (my current husband is an American), I can use Latin and Old Hellenic, can speak German and read and understand Serb-Croatian, Italian and Spanish. I never had trouble with switching from Czech to French and vice versa, I think that the knowledge of two languages since my childhood has helped me later in learning other languages. My three children from the first marriage (with a Czech) have I tought English since their childhood using tales, songs, rhymes and later also normal conversation. They were always looking forward for this - it was more a reward than learning for them - and today(they are all adults already) they are very thankful. According to my experience, it is starting early is really the best possibility. I wish you many parental pleasures and I believe that no child in a well-being family would be confused of languages, even if there were plenties of them. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Jana:
    Mozna vas bude zajimat i moje osobni zkusenost. Jsem Ceska, vychovana bilingvalne (cesky a francouzsky). Od malicka na mne mluvili oba rodice cesky a tatinek take francouzsky, hlavne kdyz me mel sam na starosti. Dnes je mi 54, krome cestiny, francouzstiny, slovenstiny a rustiny mluvim i anglicky (muj nynejsi manzel je American), ovladam latinu a starorectinu, domluvim se i nemecky a ctu a rozumim srbochorvatsky, italsky a spanelsky. Nikdy jsem nemela problemy s prechazenim z cestiny do francouzstiny a naopak, spise si myslim, ze znalost dvou jazyku od mladi mi pomohla pri studiu dalsich jazyku. Sve tri deti z prveho manzelstvi (s Cechem) jsem od mala ucila anglicky formou pohadek, rikanek, pisnicek a pozdeji bezne denni konverzace. Vzdycky se na to tesili - byla to pro ne spise odmena nez uceni - a dnes (uz jsou vsichni dospeli) jsou mi za to vdecni. Podle mych zkusenosti je skutecne nejlepe zacit co nejdriv. Preji vam hodne rodicovskych radosti a verim, ze dite v pohodove rodine nema zadne "zmateni jazyku", byt by jich bylo sebevic.</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
     
  15. Jana

    Jana Well-Known Member

    Hi Halef,
    Thank you very much for the translation. I sent the message to Jana G, so I thought she would understand Czech, and I also guessed the others might like some exercise in Czech. I apologize to all who did not understand; next time, I will write my message both in English and Czech.
     
  16. Paulfiodorek

    Paulfiodorek New Member

    I'm new to this site,and am sorry if I drag up an old subject,that of bilingualism.
    My grandparents were Czech,came to UK in 1949,my father spoke the language with them,but my mum wasn't Czech so the little I learned was from my grandparents.
    I feel parents should teach their children both parental languages at the same time.A child learning to speak will easily know the difference,the grammar will sort itself out simply by usage;one should not underestimate a child's ability to pick up the nuances of language or structure.,after all a child is usually fluent in its native tongue by 4 years of age.
    Bi/multi-lingualism cannot but be of benefit to everyone,and I regret that my Czach is that of a 4 year-old.It also helps if the parents can at least know the basics of eachothers' language too!,which mine did not.
     

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