First, based on numerous and exhaustive studies, there is no evidence that learning multiple languages slows down or confuses your child. 

Second, research also shows that there’s no downside for knowledge in multiple language.  Bilingual and monolingual children have the same majority language skills, same school attendance and disciplinary referrals.  On the other hand, bilingual children have a measurable edge when it comes to secondary language skills (obviously), math, academic grade point average and retention rate.

Third, later in life bilingual professionals tend to be more effective at what they do and as a byproduct, tend to earn more.

Forth, language DVDs or TV shows on their own are not effective learning aids.  The only way to make them valuable is to make TV watching an interactive experience

Fifth, research has shown that vocabulary acquisition is directly related to amount a parent reads to a child.  It’s not related to time spent in front of the TV, radio, or computer. ... Read More »

There are a variety of reasons why a child won’t speak your desired minority language.  Perhaps it’s peer pressure at school or from siblings, or it could be that someone poked fun of his/her accent.  Regardless of the reason (which is important to uncover) the ball is now in your court!  How do you respond to this behavior?

Your response typically falls into one of these four categories:

Pretend not to understand and ask your child to repeat in the desired language. Repeat your child’s communication in the appropriate language and ask if that’s what they meant. Ignore the fact that your child communicated in a different language.  Respond to your child in the appropriate language and maintain conversation in two different languages. Respond to your child using the same language s/he began the conversation with to avoid further confusion. All these options... Read More »

Following up on a previous note.. everybody knows it’s beneficial to be multilingual.  But how do we quantify it?  The statistics and research are not all that clear, but you can glean some circumstantial evidence that bilinguals do better than their peers.  See previous note on business executives in Hong Kong.

To addresses the question of how Bilinguals stack up in an academic environment, I caught up with Sophie Prince.  Prince is a professor in the French department at John Abbott college, part of McGill University in Quebec.  McGill is an English speaking university, but is located in the heart of French-speaking Quebec.

“In Quebec,” explains Prince, “80% of the population has French as a first language. Being surrounded by an ocean of English-speakers (we say "anglophones" in Canada), Quebecers feel the need to speak English if they want to do business or have any kind... Read More »

Peer pressure is a powerful force in your child's life.  Even though you may have spent years nurturing a "home language", once they hit school, they become fully exposed to the "community language.  Here's some great advice on how to handle the worse case scenario.

 Everybody knows that it’s beneficial to be multilingual – but it’s a little difficult to quantify it.  I found this little tidbit on The Bilingual Edge, which is the best read I’ve found on this general topic.  It tells us that the vast majority of top executives in major trade hubs in the World are bilingual.  How vast?  The percentage is actually 100% in Hong Kong.  How fluent?  Enough to successfully negotiate business deals with international partners.

Let’s put it another way.  If you’re not multilingual in a small, trade-focused country, you have virtually no chance significantly elevate yourself at a large business enterprise (or create one for that matter.)

Why does the size of the country matter?  In countries with large populations (think France, Germany, Mexico), your business can get by without interacting with other countries and cultures.  Not so in smaller ones.

Knowledge in multiple languages will open more opportunities for your child to be effective at what they do.  And effective people, whether they’re musicians, attorneys, programmers or artists, usually earn a better income than most.

... Read More »

An interesting perspective on Spanish-speaking kids' insecurity when interacting with children at school and the community.

For those of you who exclusively speak a home language that's not the same as the one practiced in the community - do you think your child will face these difficulties?  What are you planning on doing to ease this situation?

From the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Hello and thank you for signing up for the BLINGuals.com facebook page.  As I mentioned to some of you already, I’m looking to get together with a few like-minded parents to share our challenges and successes in raising bilingual children.

So what’s new since I created the page a few weeks ago?

 

I have a number of Introductory notes about myself and my bilingual 2 ½ year-old.  You can access them on facebook or on the BLINGuals.com web site. There’s a fun survey with 12 quick questions.  Sorry – currently it’s only on BLINGuals.com (I’m working on it.) There’s a discussion forum to discuss topics of interests. Illustrated Flash Cards in a variety of language combinations (Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and more to come.)  I originally put these together for my son, and had a great experience with it! So this is the first of (hopefully) many more periodic updates…  Have any questions or bilingual... Read More »