What Languages Do You Know?

[Michelle]

and do you teach them to your day care kids?
how about your own kids?

I just spent the last 10 days in San Diego and had quite the cultural experience!
I met a lot of people from China and Mexico and one family from England at Sea world.... and I learned that one parent only talked to their kids in their home language and the other parent talked to them in English.

I thought this was very smart to do so that the kids don't get confused...

I only know sign language and most of my kids are fluent.

[CedarCreek]

I know about 85% English. ::

I also know quite a bit of sign language. I do teach the kids signs.

[Blackcat31]

I have had several bi-lingual children enrolled.

Studies have shown that learning a secondary language during early childhood is much easier to do than later in life.

The kids I've had in care don't mix the two languages up and never appeared to have issues switching back and forth.

With my one family, the dad spoke only English to the child (age 2) while Mom spoke her native language. The child would speak with both parents in the same conversation switching between the two languages without missing a beat.

I wish I had learned another language previously but I haven't.

I know a few misc words from different languages but noting fluent enough to carry on a conversation.

Maybe someday. It IS on my bucket list.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Sign language and German.
I just speak German to them, then repeat what i just said in English.
Sign language.....necessity here, when conditions are noisy. (Hard of hearing). They all know a few basic signs. Again, just use it and speak while signing. The older ones are tricky and will purposely whisper or turn their back to me. Little rascals.::

[Heidi]

Sign language and German.
I just speak German to them, then repeat what i just said in English.
Sign language.....necessity here, when conditions are noisy. (Hard of hearing). They all know a few basic signs. Again, just use it and speak while signing. The older ones are tricky and will purposely whisper or turn their back to me. Little rascals.::

German was my first language. We moved here when I was 3. I still speak it fluently, read it ok, write poorly.

My niece moved here from Germany at exactly the same age I was when I came over. It was interesting to watch her transition. Only difference was that with me NO ONE spoke English at first (my parents and all their friends had to learn it). With my niece, EVERYONE spoke English, and hardly anyone other than my sis and I spoke German with her. So, she learned English a lot faster. I didn't actually learn English until the summer before kindergarten when we moved to a neighborhood with lots of children.

[Heidi]

Some friends of ours growing up had a TRI lingual household. Mom spoke Spanish at home (but knew German and English), Dad spoke German at home, and outside the house, they spoke English.

[craftymissbeth]

My husband and his family are Hispanic so I know quite a bit of Spanish, although I get too self-conscious and try not to have to use it

[Maria2013]

I'm Italian but I only teach a few words for fun to the daycare kids

[Michelle]

wow!
A lot of German!
My kids have a lot of German in them from my dh side and some of them are taking German in college.
My 18 year old even yells at her loud parrot in German and she is going to regret that when he starts to yell it back! He is only 3 months old and still learning to talk
::::::

I think it's neat for you guys to teach your kids different languages.
It opens up so many doors.
I know what you mean about feeling self conscious though after I tried my very broken spanish to a group of relatives and they laughed at me... I never tried it again.

[Michelle]

I know about 85% English. ::

I also know quite a bit of sign language. I do teach the kids signs.

::::::
let me guess...
on Saturday and Sunday you can speak 100% English?

by Friday, I am down to 60 % English and 40% sighs and shaking my head.

[MarinaVanessa]

English of course
Very fluent in Spanish (My first language but I don't have an accent when I speak English)
I know some simple ASL signs which I teach to the babies and toddlers (I teach it to my children also)

[jokalima]

Spanish and English. I do 50/50 during Day Care hours. I want my child to be fully bilingual and to speak my language in the correct and appropriate way so i only speak Spanish to him, and English to Day Care kids. What has happened is that he has learned English from my conversations with other kids and the other kids learned Spanish from my conversations with my son. I can say that all of my DC kids are bilingual because of the 2 languages spoken here.

[Lavender]

I took Spanish in HS and college, but I'm not as good at it as I should be. My in-laws are deaf so I do know some sign language. I utilize a few signs with my babies. More is the big one, otherwise they stare at me and shriek when they want more food. ::

[Angelsj]

*I* speak English, Spanish and French, but mostly English and Spanish with the kids. All of my kids (my own) are varying levels of fluent in Spanish and speak some French as well.
They all sign, though I just use baby signs with the day care kids.

I do have a dd that also speaks Italian and Latin conversationally, and a couple of kids that can banter in Sindarin, and insult you in Klingon...
Yeah, my kids are nerds. ::

[Sugar Magnolia]

German was my first language. We moved here when I was 3. I still speak it fluently, read it ok, write poorly.

My niece moved here from Germany at exactly the same age I was when I came over. It was interesting to watch her transition. Only difference was that with me NO ONE spoke English at first (my parents and all their friends had to learn it). With my niece, EVERYONE spoke English, and hardly anyone other than my sis and I spoke German with her. So, she learned English a lot faster. I didn't actually learn English until the summer before kindergarten when we moved to a neighborhood with lots of children.

Usually comes down to "setze auf, bitte" and "was ist los?"