Raising Kids to be Bilingual- part 2 (Concerns and Advantages)

One of the big questions I had when my daughter was little and I was trying to use both English and Portuguese with her was, "When is she going to start talking?" I had read that kids that learn two language tend to be delayed in speech development. The problem is, I could never get any concrete numbers on how much "delayed" meant! Was that by a few months, weeks, or even years? After searching the Internet often and extensively, I finally did come across an article that specified that it could cause a child to be up to a year behind in speech. I can't express how relieved I felt when I read that! My daughter was definitely a late talker. Now that she's older I can say that I think she would have been a little late anyway. She's not the family linguist; that's my youngest. At any rate, I would say she was two and a half years old before she started putting words together in even simple two or three word sentences. There are all kinds of contributing factors as to why this happened, although they all stem from basically the idea that bilingual children have to learn two names for everything instead of just one! In addition, they also have to figure out which set of words to use with whom, and even which words go together as a set! This is challenging! And this is why some sort of pattern should be established for how speech is used, as I mentioned in Part 1.

If both languages are used all the time and parents switch off from one sentence to the next with different languages it makes it a lot harder to figure out what's what. So be sure and maintain some kind of regularity, even if it is a matter of trying to teach what to you is a non-native language. For example, I speak Japanese fairly fluently, and at one point considered trying to introduce some of it to the kids as well. It probably would have come down to designating a day for it, since Portuguese and English were already taken as the two common languages. I did consider doing that, but eventually decided that Portuguese and English would be enough. If you speak a language at only a low level of fluency or even as a non-native and your spouse doesn't speak it either, designating a day might be the way to go. Make Fridays Spanish days and stick with it!

Something else it is important to remember is that speaking more than one language should be begun at birth if you are going to do it! Babies just absorb everything and it is much easier to expose them to two languages from the beginning than to get them set up in one and then at the age of two say, okay, let's try some new words now! Of course a two year old is still more receptive than an adult, or even a ten year old, but there is going to be the problem of having a whole language that they understand and communicate about everyday things under their belt already, and even at the age of two if you start talking to them with new words they will give you a funny look or maybe tell you to stop. Every now and then I will say a few things in German to my kids because we watched a funny video on YouTube that they like but they always want me to stop, and my daughter, who's 5, gets embarrassed if I try to teach her the numbers to ten. If you wait to start until they are older it will become more a process of actually teaching them a language instead of just letting them absorb it.

The other big problem I ran into with my kids was unsolicited advice from detractors. I don't know how many people who know nothing about foreign languages would make comments either to me or about me when my daughter was a baby about how, "She's going to end up so confused she just won't speak anything!" Little do they know she now speaks both, although not at the same level. Her Portuguese level does lag behind a bit just because of lack of a variety of exposure. If you are trying to raise your child to speak two languages and you run into comments like this, or grandparents who worry that they won't be able to talk to their grandchildren, just remind them that one of the languages included is the local/native one!

Raising a child to speak two languages at some level of fluency is a major undertaking! But there are definitely advantages to it. Besides the obvious one of being able to converse in the two languages, there are other factors that make it worth while. Here is a summary of a few that I snagged off this web page.

Bilinguals have a broader grasp of the meaning of words and can better alter their own speech to communicate with a listener if necessary. They are generally  more creative and comprehend abstract concepts more easily than those who speak only one language (monolinguals). They can better figure out how to correct language or grammar problems on their own than monolinguals. If the language is introduced from early childhood the bilingual maintains the ability to become fluent at or above the same level as a monolingual in that language. (This is what I'm keeping in mind with my own kids. Though they won't speak Portuguese like a native, they will speak it well enough to be able to master it if they ever get a chance to spend a significant amount of time in Brazil.) Bilinguals tend to be more open-minded and more accepting toward people of other belief systems and languages.

Basically, kids who grow up bilingual learn to see the world on broader scale. I would like to encourage anyone who is considering it to go through with it! You may doubt at first (when your child is hardly saying anything!) but in the long run you'll see the benefits. Just stick with it, and heck, if you can't do it yourself, put them in a class or find someone to watch them who speaks another language. Don't worry, your child won't become so comfortable with the other language s/he won't speak with you any more! They really can learn both!