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119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 02 February 2011 - 13:52

had no idea you can find nurseries here that would have arabic speaking staff. anybody know of any? DD is too young at the moment, but something i'd like to look into.

200

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 02 February 2011 - 08:32

Best thing to do is to stick to the language you're confortable with and comes naturallly, and to always speak int hat language. You're DH should speak in another language of your choice. One parent, one langauge.

740

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 02 February 2011 - 08:30

Think it is much easier to pick up another language if its being spoken around you. Always thought it was wrong that in the UK we didn't start learning until age 11... By then it is all from a textbook, whereas, other countries start teaching a second language fron nursery/infant school and it becomes second nature.

5400

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 02 February 2011 - 08:00

I really think you are all marvelous being able to speak numerous languages. Envy you. xx Here, we have the advantage to not speak english as mother tongue. When you speak english as mother tongue, your language is spoken all over the planet...much more difficult to get the interest in learning a new language ! Hmmmm.... But i think it makes us lazy.! Still really admire all of you who speak more than one language. Accident of birth. The only reason I speak good-ish French is because Papa was French and my mother spoke French, so I heard it spoken at home for all of my childhood, and we went on hols to the depths of the French countryside for a month every year (no other tourists around). I didn't have to open a text book to learn French till I got to A level stage as I was lucky, all the grammar came naturally to me.

740

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 02 February 2011 - 06:10

I really think you are all marvelous being able to speak numerous languages. Envy you. xx Here, we have the advantage to not speak english as mother tongue. When you speak english as mother tongue, your language is spoken all over the planet...much more difficult to get the interest in learning a new language ! Hmmmm.... But i think it makes us lazy.! Still really admire all of you who speak more than one language.

904

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 23:59

I'm a native arabic speaker & English is my second language. DS is now 14.5 months old & he understands both languages. He speaks very well for his age (Arabic, English & baby talk). I read & sing for him in English & I use simple English words when I talk to him, but I use arabic in daily conversation as it's more difficult to learn than English. We use English with our maid so he's exposed to both languages on daily basis. I'm planning (Inshallah)to send him to a nursery with native English tutors when he's 2.5 years old as I want him to pick up a good English accent at an early age. When he goes to school, I'm planning to choose an English school that teaches a second language (French or Spanish).

1987

Posts

EW EXPERT

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 22:08

1. I'm a native English speaker who speaks Urdu as a second language (v useful in GCC!), high school Spanish, and some Arabic. 2. With DS1, I spoke to him exclusively in Classical Arabic and read to him picture books in Arabic until he was about 8 months old. DH remembered a few Arabic rhymes and I made up this crazy little song about the Knight riding his horse up a mountain to fetch some water. At that same time, we hired a maid who only spoke Saudi Arabic, so it worked out well. Now I pick out Arabic story books for DH to read with DS1, and often DS1 will expect me to be able to read the same bloomin' story to him! It puts me "on the spot" but 45 min later, Mama has read him the story and has a basic idea of what she's just read!

204

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 19:59

when my husband and I have a child (inshallah), I want to speak Japanese to our child, while he will speak Arabic.. then when we speak to each other (my husband and I) we will speak English so our child will hopefully learn all three :)

119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 18:45

Ok, thats it then - I'll need to find and take a taster/trial course in Arabic and or Spanish. See what suits me, what I find easy. I'll get DH on board too. Then we'll just try with the little one as suggested - cartoons, tv, dvd's, music etc. wish me luck!! btw - do those Rosetta Stone Language DVD's work? anybody tried them with good results?

425

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 18:32

I really think you are all marvelous being able to speak numerous languages. Envy you. xx Here, we have the advantage to not speak english as mother tongue. When you speak english as mother tongue, your language is spoken all over the planet...much more difficult to get the interest in learning a new language !

5400

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 18:04

Get a teach yourself basic Spanish course with a DVD which only has Spanish spoken on it; find children's DVDs in Spanish (Pingu is universal, of course;) ) and have that on so your baby is hearing the language regularly, IYSWIM.

SarkySue6236658

212

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:53

Realisically it will be very hard to teach a child in your family anotehr language unless you or your DH are a native speaker. Stick with something simple that you have a basic grasp of like French.

740

Posts

EW GURU

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:50

I really think you are all marvelous being able to speak numerous languages. Envy you. xx

425

Posts

EW EXPLORER

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:47

We are trilingual : French (mother tongue), English and Spanish (both taught as mother tongue level to children). Then DH speaks German (I tok, except even though I understand, only Spanish words come out of my mouth...). We are all learning Arabic, and I am learning Hindi. We are are planing to have the kids learn Mandarin (but the first try wasn't very successful...it's a very difficult language). If you are looking for an other language that will be helpful for your child future job, I would suggest Mandarin, Arabic and then Spanish and Hindi. They are the country that are blooming now, and will be leading the market when your child will be on the market. Mandarin is very difficult to learn, so I would pick this one first, as it will need many years before being able to work speaking this language. Arabic will come second, as economically, also because it's a bit difficult to speak for a westerner (the accent is not very easy to get, and a child gets them much easier) + there is the alphabet to learn and reading is difficult. Unfortunately, compare to the English/American way of teaching (lost of pedagogy, games, etc...) the way arabic is still taught (and therefore the books available) are very old fashion and boring for children. But if you find an good teacher, and if you don't let your child listen to much to his/her friends (I don't know one child in Dubai who likes his Arabic class at school...). Then, I'll go to Spanish as it's the third most spoken language in the world and it's spread all over the planet. It's also an easy language to learn as same alphabet as English, and all letters are pronounced (so writing is not that difficult and reading quite easy). If you need to tutor a little, Spanish will be the easiest.

119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:25

maybe my post wasn't clear - sorry. I don't speak anything ?? got GCSE French lol - (can't say one word of it now though). Yes- very worried about it, I want her to speak 2 languages and want to make sure I do it the best way.

5400

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:23

Why not one Asian and one European language? I believe children are like sponges and they will soak languages up if they hear them spoken before they can talk themselves, but I also think immersion, or as much immersion as possible, is the way it works best, hence my suggestion of someone who would talk to and play with your baby only in the language(s) you decide on.

232

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:22

Why don't you just teach her one of the languages you know? it really sounds like you are worrying about it too much. There's no way now you can know if she is likely to need Arabic/Madarin/Japanese/whatever and I don't see how you can teach her something you don't know if you don't have outside help to do it.

119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:22

how comes?

5452

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:14

I speak French as a second language but I am not planning on teaching it to my children.

119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:11

Gosh, seems so hard, I just hope I don't want to give up on trying just because we only speak English. It doesn't mean I can't make an effort for her right. Hmm never thought about an au-pair just for language. I'm someone who doesn't have a maid let a lone an au-pair but I see your point, its quite clever. She's a tiny baby at the moment, so have a wee while before she starts speaking but I understand what you are all saying and the sooner the better. Quite hard being in Dubai - I mean the language choices (when it comes to learning and learning very well is difficult). Say Mandarin for example - God knows how i'd get her into it. Is it too ambitious to aim for one Asian language and one EU language?

5400

Posts

EW MASTER

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 17:01

I only have English and French, but dorter speaks 3 languages fluently, all learnt when she was a baby, and is familiar with, though not fluent in, 3 more. I have to say the only reason she does is because she's the product of a mixed-language marriage and was born in a third language country. She has English (my mother tongue, husbad and I speak English to each other), French (she was born and educated in Geneva and heard/spoke French all the time) and Greek as it is husbad's own language and he spoke to her in Greek from the moment she was born. As to which language to teach your baby - where do you see your baby's future? In an Arab country? A Spanish-speaking country? Europe? Do you think the baby's future will be dealing with the Chinese? If you or your other half don't speak another language yourselves, I would suggest you get an au-pair or helper who speaks the language you decide you want your baby to learn and that they speak it all the time to your baby.

9

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 16:59

Teach her what she will need later in life - Portuguese will be the main language spoken at the UN in then next 5 years. Chinese or Japanese as they are what the majority of the world deals with as far as trading goes. Think about what she will benefit from not just what sounds good to you. She could be taught Arabic, that would be good for her going into intelligence work.

231

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 16:59

Hello there, I am trilingual: French and Senegalese (Wolof) being my mother tongues and I also speak fluent English (having lived 15 yrs in London). My sons both speak French and English (their dad's British). My most important piece of advice would be to make sure you teach them a language YOU speak too and make sure that it is the one you use all the time. To give you an example. My eldest was born in the UK and spoke very early (11 months), all in French as I was at home with him. At the age of 2 he switched to English (easier language + he was attending nursery + when daddy was at home we spoke in English). My mom told me I had to carry on speaking in French to my son, no matter language he chose to answer in and make sure I repeated his words back to him in French. It was a tedious process as I could understand him but I stuck with it and after about 6 months he switched back to French with me, and English with dad. It's great now because his brother and him converse with each other in both languages. Make sure there are also rituals, such as story telling is in that language or certain games and finally try and find some friend his/her age that speak that language too. Good luck!

232

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 16:57

Mandarin - by the time she's grown up China could rule the world - economically.

119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 16:53

No, can't be based on me as she'll just end up with a messed up brum accent. i LOVE both French, but it comes second to my love for Spanish. Only thing though - doubt she'll be growing up with a need for either language. I'm thinking Arabic - but such a hard choice here in Dubai.

SarkySue6236658

212

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 16:49

Preferably one you can speak or would like to learn. Something useful like French or Spanish.

119

Posts

EW NEWBIE

Latest post on 01 February 2011 - 16:47

...speak? I REALLY want to teach my baby another language. Two questions for those of you who speak two languages :- 1. What second language do you speak? 2. How do you/did you teach your child/children? Final bit - your opinion - how shall I choose a language? Or rather what should I base my choice on? Thank you!

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