Did/Will anyone teach their child a second language?

I sing a lullaby to Julianne in Italian...and say a few words to her during our day...but I am not Fluent at all. Rob knows only the BAD words! ....
He knows a bit of hebrew and a bit of yiddish..so we will expose her to ALL we know!

My dad was from italy and my mom was first gen...I can speak italian (bad accent tho!) but my brother can understand it but not speak it.

I no very little Gaelic (Irish) my husband knows more (but is definitely not fluent) but we do say some words to Patrick in Gaelic & he knows what they mean.

I want him to learn it as he gets older. I would have LOVED to learn it. (I might still take classes in it)

Good question, Erica!!

I'd love for Sean to learn a 2nd language. I hope he shows some interest in it. Of course, we also want him to play an instrument or 2, play pro basketball and baseball, travel to the moon and discover a cure for cancer... He better hit the books!!

Kathi, you forgot marry a super model with a Phd. in physics, and end world hunger!!

And I'm sure your lil' peanut will be as successful as that, and MORE!

I'm like Claud ... my parents and grandparents speak Italian but we don't ... and I'm first generation! I blame my parents ... but my Mom went to school here and English is what my parents spoke to each other and us.

I'd love my child to learn Italian ... perhaps I'll finally learn when he/she does!!!

don't worry about going back and forth. that's how i learned my parents' language .. and all our relatives/family friends did. kids are smart .. they'll pick it up just try to focus on the non -english language .. even if u mix the two up it wont matter .. the kids will just learn two words for everything

Absolutely! We definitely intend to teach ours Italian. My sister is pretty fluent & I told her the same thing ... speak only in Italian. I thought that it would be great for them to bond as well! Something that no one else shares.

Claud ... my parents had the same experience as you did. Their parents did not teach Italian ... instead they kept it from them and used it so that the kids wouldn't know what they were talking about. Its always made me sad b/c I would've loved to have been bilingual.

As far as being confused or speaking more than one language .... Don't worry!! Children can track several languages at once. Its stimulating in terms of their development. Even playing foreign language tapes or videos is beneficial! And even if they are only exposed to a language for a few years, later on, they'll have an easier time learning languages in general.

Children will not speak with an accent, as they will be learning English at the same time. When they're this young, they can learn to make all the sounds necessary in both languages w/o difficulty. An adult or older child will have an accent because they've learned the new language later on when it becomes much more difficult to make the sounds correctly.

Also .... we've found that there are several places that teach foreign languages to babies as young as 18 months! We've been investigating the program at St. Brigid's parish in Westbury, particularly .... They've got a very large Italian American community so I'm not surprised that they've got a well developed program.

Ciao!

Since my DH parents are deaf, we will be teaching our kids sign language. Which I am very excited about, since most kids can sign before they can speak!