Work Together – Raise a Bilingual Child
Together is better.
When parents work together toward the same goal you have a team. It is very much like team work on a project, in the office, or at work. You will need to work together.
When you lead at work you have your team on your side to work with you. It is great to have support from your team when you introduce a new language to your child. Teach your child a new language and learn the language at the same time are more fun when your partner is on your team and s/he is a part of the journey.
Time and Place parents
If you are learning Chinese with your child together. Your partner’s interest and enthusiasm can boost the learning bug. Let your child teach your partner a song, a rhyme, a couple of words or expressions that she has learned in Chinese every day. It doesn’t need to be long but it is a time for shared joy with the family.
Your child will feel the positive feedback from both parents and she will be motivated and encouraged to go further and have more fun with the Chinese language the next day. Your child is your first young teammate and you need to carefully take care of this team member of yours from the start.
Adoptive parents
I have seen many parents who have adopted a child from a Chinese speaking location, like China and Taiwan, are dedicated to provide exposure of the Chinese language and the Chinese culture to the precious addition to the family. The cultural connection is more than just with the adopted child but the whole family including the child’s new siblings. Language is part of the culture and as you introduce Chinese to your precious one, you can also involve the siblings on the learning journey so it is a family learning event!
Minority At Home parents
If both parents are native speakers of the same minority language you both can agree to only speak your native language to your children when they are young. What I see sometimes is one parent wants to use the community language with the kids. When children detect that they might turn to the “common” language, that is, the community language, to reply to the parent who speaks the minority language as they grow older.
OPOL parents
If one of the languages is the community language your partner will need to guide the kids to use as much as your language whenever you speak to them. When the kids are young it is a great time to build their foundation and habit of the two family languages. Young children will associate the language you speak with you at an emotional level when you keep speaking your language to them.
Team work makes the journey better. Together is powerful. What are you planning to do in the new year to make it a solid team project?
What Approach or combo approaches would work for your family at this stage?
Time and Place Approach
Minority at Home Approach
One Person One Language Approach
Image by Anna Samoylova
