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Message board > Do you speak English with your own children at home?
Do you speak English with your own children at home?
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abba
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Do you speak English with your own children at home?
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Hello. Are you having a nice day? It �s really hot today here. Anyway, I was wondering if those of you who are not native speakers, but speak English, use English at home. I mean, when my daughters were born, I always felt reluctant to speak English to them because it was not my native language and I thought that it would be much more difficult to express affection and love in a language that was not mine. Now, they �re 5 and 2 years old, English is not an strange language for them because a friend of mine who is South African comes once a week, and they can listen to us speaking in English. I have decided to speak English to them but they get very angry because I suppose they can �t understand the whole information or every single word I say. I don �t know, I just would like to know if you have had the same experience, the fact is that I wouldn �t like them to reject English as a language just because now they don �t want me to speak English to them. Moreover, I teach teenagers and perhaps my apporach is not the correct one. Maybe, those of you who teach children have many more skills to deal with children. Anyway, I just wanted to know your opinion. Thanks. |
16 Jun 2011
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gloriawpai
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My children are fluent in English because of my husband. Even though he just had a few hours a week at home, he managed to make them speak to him only in English. Now, they are grown ups and they continue speaking only in English with the father. They say " good night" to him and " boa noite" to me, as an example. |
16 Jun 2011
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ironik
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I think it �s OK to speak English to your children but there may be some circumstances. I have a student, for example, whose mum is an English teacher as well. The student, Yağız- aged 7, was very unattracted to English at first lessons. Later when I spoke to his mum, she said that she made him speak to her several times, like simple things such as mum instead of "anne" in Turkish. I think that she forced him sometimes. That �s why it never worked and Yağız wasn �t motivated for English at all for the first couple of months. Just be careful of the amount and make sure that your children enjoy it, I think it will work out :)
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16 Jun 2011
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abba
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That �s the situation I want to avoid ironik. That �s why I was asking how children �s teachers start the first lessons, because it �s not a problem of material, there are flashcards, memory games... the problem is the apporach, as I said I don �t want them to reject a language just because they listen to it forced somehow. As far as gloria �s situation is concerned, I think it �s quite different owing to her husband, in my case my husband doesn �t speak a word in English. Anyway, thanks a lot for your posts and your opinions. |
16 Jun 2011
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languageleader88
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It is nice! I speak English with them, and my husband speaks Spanish with them, so they �ve got 2 native languages and then, with my parents (which are from Germany) they speak German! So.... |
16 Jun 2011
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aidamour
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i sometimes speak English with my husband at home |
16 Jun 2011
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Yolandaprieto
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I tried hard but he rejected being spoken in a language nobody spoke except me. He even got to hate English. So I gave up and simply try to help him with some new things and he also has a native speaker twice a week for himself. They have a good time and he is learning a lot. I think that when you are not a native speaker you don �t seem natural doing it, at least it was my case. I have another example: my sister in law in Brazilian and speaks to their children in Spanish and she makes mistakes and uses expressions which are not Spanish and the children aren �t learning the language properly. They live in Italy and my brother is Spanish and they thought that three languages were too many. In my opinion, they are making a big mistake.
Yolanda |
16 Jun 2011
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lumpicha79
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I also speak English with my children at home but this is only fun and I try to teach them words (this is fridge for example).....I don �t force them to learn, they �ll remeber that or not....but it was funny when my daughter saw an animal and said in Polish : look this is...hm..(and in English) elephant....I was so proud of her...she �s two :-) so speak as much as possible and you �ll be successful |
16 Jun 2011
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deaniko
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I have two daughters, aged 8 and 6. Three years ago, I was asked to teach English at the local kindergarden, I said yes, and started to collect nursery songs and games, flashcards and my daughters attended these �lessons �. They really enjoyed it! Since my elder daughter is at primary school, they have an English lesson (one lesson a week) with me at home, where there are some other children, too (actually, there are 4 children in the group altogether).
Otherwise, after 3 years, when I start to talk to them in English, they switch to English immediately, of course at a very-very simple level, but they can switch, it is not strange for them and they take it for fun.
The only problem is now, that my younger daughter cannot read or write yet, but the other children in the group can read and write and she feels a bit out when there is a small reading or writing exercise! I hope this problem will get solved as soon as she learns to read and write! |
16 Jun 2011
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Zora
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Actually, I think the idea is a very good one. You shouldn �t be afraid of alienating your children just because they have a few temper-tantrums at first. Perhaps, you could buy a few DVDs from Amazon UK that are only in English, ones you know that they �ll love and say something like... "Oh, but this only comes in English... and you don �t understand it, so I guess that I �ll need to watch it by myself." - I bet you dimes to doughnuts (as us Canadians like to say) that they will probably be like, "Oh, no we really do understand. Can we watch it too?!" lol
A little reverse psychology and Little Red Hen (fairy tale) can go along way with kids!!
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16 Jun 2011
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GIOVANNI
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When my children were young we spoke French and English to them and they had no problem adjusting to either language and are fluently bilingual in both languages. My grandchildren speak mostly French becasue their parents speak French to each other. When I �m with them I speak both languages, sometimes English and sometimes French. I bought them Sesame Street dvds which is fantastic for young children. They learn English and other values in life from the program and aren �t even aware they are learning another language. |
16 Jun 2011
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