I'm Stefanie, a doctoral student in second language acquisition, an English as a second language instructor, and a mother raising two trilingual children in French and Spanish, my non-native languages. I'm passionate about helping others experience the richness of life in two or more languages. I started this channel because I didn't see many channels providing advice for parents raising bilingual children in a non-native language. I post videos with tips and encouragement inspired by both my PhD studies and my experiences as a non-native French speaker living in the United States raising my sons in French.
A second language is a lifelong gift we can give our children, but the journey can be difficult at times--especially for non-native speakers. I hope here you'll find the inspiration and motivation we all need to go beyond simply learning a language to truly LIVING through your language each and every day with your family.
Пікірлер
1:00 Just out of curiosity from the bookpile, are you also learning Arabic? 👀
Yes! I got a minor in Arabic, but I haven't continued with it unfortunately. I hope to go back to studying it one day.
@@LiveYourLanguage واااه إن شاء الله تجدين الوقت 🤲🏻
Thank you so much for your videos! I'm currently 6 months pregnant. My child will definitely speak 2 languages, my husband will speak English and my entire family also speaks English. In school they will learn our countries language. I would like to add a third language - Hungarian. I grew up with my mother speaking to me in Hungarian while to my siblings in English. For my mother, it was her mother tongue. For me, it was technically my mother tounge, but I know English and my countries language way better. For me, speaking in Hungarian requires a lot more effort. Your videos are very inspiring. I love it that it's not your native language, and you are still doing it. It's so nice to hear that it's possible!
I'd love to hear the full interview as well!
Teachings kids several languages is definitely possible . I spoke 4 languages as a kid : English ,Talysh(a dialect of Persian) , Turkish and Russian . I still speak all 4 but I also learned Spanish a bit as a teenager and French in the UK as a kid though I am Canadian and I lived in the US it was funny that the place where I learned French was the United Kingdom lol the coolest thing is that because I was raised a polyglot I speak appx . 8 languages but I understand a lot and I mean a loooot more languages. Keep up the great work !! This is simply awesome !! I hope I'll be able to achieve what you have achieved , absolutely astounding !!
Thank you for your videos! I'm really motivated now to speak to my bub in French. Would you share your teeth brushing song?
Great, that's a good advice thanks,
"Promosm" 😩
Thanks Stephanie!! What was your French level? Do you live in the USA?
What languages did you teach your son? I'm only fluent in English but can get by in several. We dabble in Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi/Urdu, ASL, and several others. I'm learning Italian and speak ok Portuguese, Hindi, and sign. But I'd love for him to speak decent Hindi and Spanish... This video is SOOO encouraging!!!
Wow this is definitely a fascinating and helpful channel on this topic.
thanks so much. I find it so helpful and motivated
My first language was Spanish & I speak fluent English & a little German. I want my son to grow up knowing all, but I definitely need help with the German
Have him watch cartoons only in German from age 2. No English allowed. He will *at least* get perfect comprehension, and then learning to speak it later in life will be relatively easy.
Im German. German is really hard and our emotions in German are deep. If you don't know German it's gonna be hard for you. but if you don't want your son to be native, you want him to teach him the basics and the understanding of the language you can start with children shows and song. It's easy to find Disney movies and shows on Disney+ and our children songs are the same in English so it's easier for you to pick it up and to switch. just make sure your pronunciation is good enough bc German words can be tricky to pronounce
@@xunvenile German hasn’t been hard for me at all, lol. I think because I know Spanish. I think if I only knew English I can see why it would be very hard.
10:54 Are you talking about the second person indicative (you go), or the imperative (go!)?
Hi Stephanie, thank you so much for this video!! I am French (by the way your French is great and I am very impressed by how well your sons speak French!!). I have been speaking exclusively in English with my now 5 year old daugther since she was born. The first 2 years were great, she would sometimes reply in English to me and said her first words mostly in English. But then, when she was 3, she started school. I live in France, school is in French and no one but me speaks English with her. I feel like she has lost interest in English and doesn't feel the need to speak it. Even though she understands English, she can't speak it at all and that bothers me a lot. My question is, is there a way to get my daugther to reply in English to me (it might be late now that she is 5)?
Vanessa, thank you for your very nice comments. That means a lot! It's pretty cool to hear from someone with a child the same age who is doing the reverse of us. That's really tough! With school beginning so early, it's even more difficult I'll bet to push off the majority language influence. My youngest is beginning to do the same so I don't know if my advice to you will work yet, but here's what I do. If he says something to me in English (our majority language), I say "What? Did you mean [say the whole sentence in French]"? (he usually says yes) I say, "Oh, ok, say, '[I try to get him to say some short version of this...something...anything].'" My goal is to never let him get a free response for an English request. He will have to hear the entire French version first. Language acquisition is input, practice, and feedback. If my son refuses to practice, I'm at least going to make sure he has plenty of input and feedback. Keep going, even when she doesn't respond. From what I've read, even kids who don't use the language but understand it often have very little trouble "switching" to minority language mode when the need arises and they quickly make progress. Try to remember that even when she is not responding, a lot of acquisition is happening in that little amazing brain and do your best to support it, even when the fruits of your labor can't be observed in her speech. I hope this helps!
Sharing this here (my bilingualism book reviews) in case it is interesting to you, Stefanie, or anyone else: For someone who isn't sure if bilingualism is for them, I would recommend either "Be Bilingual" by Annika Bourgogne or "Family Language Learning" by Christine Jernigan. For someone who knows they want to raise their child(ren) bilingually and wants help creating a language plan and specific advice for how to talk about their goals with others (professionals, teachers, family, etc.) I would recommend "Bilingual Families: A Practical Language Planning Guide" by Eowyn Crisfield. For someone who wants to read other parents' stories and get a closer look at what some different bilingual language plans can look like, I would recommend "Bilingual Success Stories Around the World" by Adam Beck. For someone who already has a language plan and needs activity ideas, I would recommend "The Toolbox for Multilingual Families" by Ute Limacher-Riebold. For someone who already has a plan but isn't seeing the results they want and need more specific guidance, I would recommend "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability" by Adam Beck. For anyone who wants more research, or a reference they can recommend to professionals, there is "A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism" by Colin Baker. I also recommend: "Talking with Your Toddler" by Teresa Laikko (★★★★★) "Raising a Bilingual Child" by Barbara Zurer Pearson (★★★★☆) "Becoming a Bilingual Family: Help Your Kids Learn Spanish" by Stephen Marks (★★★★☆) "The Parents' Guide to Raising Multi-Literate Children" by Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori (★★★★☆) "Bringing Up a Bilingual Child" by Rita Rosenback (★★★☆☆) I emphatically DO NOT recommend: "Bilingual Children: A Guide for Parents" by Juergen Meisel (★☆☆☆☆) "Bilingual by Choice" by Virginie Raguenaud (★☆☆☆☆)
Thanks so much, Mac! This is great!
@@LiveYourLanguage Needless to say I am interested in the topic! hahaha 😅
Surprised you hadn't already read Jernigan's book! I've read it several times, and given it as a gift to four or five people. I find it's encouraging for people who are not sure, but not a great resource for people who are already committed to the process.
Thank you for sharing these tips and your journey. It’s very encouraging and reassuring because this process of parenting in a non-native language can be very discouraging at times. 😅😊
Thank you for watching and commenting. I completely agree. It always helps to know someone else is out there going through similar experiences. Keep it up!
Love this channel alot. Just popes up on my youtube feed and think it is fabulous.
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a comment! So glad you are enjoying my videos!
Thanks for the advice. I also find that reading topical picture books (where available) is helpful, as they tend to use the common vocabulary used in a given context. Update on my situation: we have a second son now - he’s 4 weeks old today. My oldest son is about 3.5 years old (birthday in August), and has a very good passive understanding of German. He has recently become interested in trying to say some German words or singing some simple German songs; he was very resistant for a long time. Last year, he had access to a native speaker once a week for about an hour, who spoke 80% German with him. I was thrilled to find that my son could understand something like 90% of what the native speaker said! That really encouraged me to continue. I have committed to speaking exclusively German with him until he turns 4, and then I’ll review the situation. My biggest challenge seems to be that, because I’m not speaking my native language, not everything comes so spontaneously as it does in English. So, when I would usually make lots of mundane comments, I often just say nothing - e.g., on a road trip. This is something I want to get better at: just doing some small talk.
Joel, its good to hear from you and congratulations on your new son! You are right...picture books go hand in hand with looking things up because they will reveal the right sort of vocabulary to you. Great tip! You're setting up a great foundation for your older son and it's so wonderful that you had the joy of seeing him interact with a native speaker effectively. I love your approach--setting up a checkpoint to reassess whether this lifestyle is working out for you. I think everyone should take that approach. So many people don't ever start because they are afraid they can't sustain it for the child's entire childhood. I'd definitely encourage you to push through those difficult moments of small talk to say something, even if its not exactly what you would have said in English. If it's to difficult at first, I'd encourage you to even say those things in English so there is exposure to some language, even if it's not German. You know already how with experience, these situations will come to you more and more easily :). Thanks for reaching out!
So we do the OPOL method. What are your thoughts on this? Our daughter is learning Japanese and mom is Japanese so speaks to her exclusively in Japanese. I've noticed that our daughter is more attached to her mother, my partner. She outright says she prefers her and only wants her for things like bedtime, going places etc. I do not speak Japanese nor do I understand it. I feel left out of the conversation and feel I am missing out of much of what is going on with our daughter when they speak. It could be at the dinner table, lying in bed, or playing. Is this feeling of exclusion part of the OPOL method? If so how do you overcome it? How do you work to not have the child favor one parent or the other? Thanks!
Thank you for watching the video and for taking the time to leave a comment. I believe what you describe in your comment is one of the dark sides of OPOL: exclusion of the other person if he or she does not understand the target language. My tip is always to prioritize relationships first and foremost. If you feel excluded, talk to your partner about speaking the majority language when you're around or at a certain time of day (from dinner on through bedtime, for example). Remember: OPOL is just a tool to help parents provide adequate levels of input in the language. A rule of thumb is no less than 30-40% of your daughter's input should be in Japanese. Depending on how much time she spends with your partner, you have some wiggle room and if an hour or two in the majority language this will result in your feeling much more included, it's absolutely worth it. OPOL is a means to an end, not the end itself. Translator earbuds: I heard of translator earbuds that translate words around you into English. I got a pair for my husband, but he hasn't tried them yet. They're called Timekettle Language Translator Earbuds. Maybe that might help? Once we try them out I'll make a post about it 🙂. I hope this helps. Stay in touch! I appreciate your perspective.
Really nice.
Great. And one could say also that the children could learn to read and write since they are two year old. You could start with simple words like "mama" in big and red letters.
hi, I just wanna start raising bilingual kids but my oldest child is already 5yo, is it too late? and how to do that? because it would be confusing for her if I suddenly changed my language when speaking to her.
My son is 5 years old. I haven't spoke english to him because I am not a native speaker and I do not live on an english speaking country... can I start or is it too late?
I'm not fluent in my native tongue but started speaking to my baby in it from birth using the OPOL method. The more I soeak the better I get and I have a tutor as well. She's the one who encouraged me not to rely on being fluent to speak and also allow myself to make mistakes. I'm now a solid intermediate and only use English when I'm nonplussed, although I base my tutoring on my daughter's growing needs. Songs and books have been great and I agree about practicing with these.
OPOL does not work for everyone. The older kids get the more they will choose a favorite language.
Will you eventually teach your children Japanese?
I went to a Russian Saturday school as a child in the UK (I spoke Russian at home and English at school/with friends), and I enjoyed it for a while but got more stressed out by it as I grew older. I think I went from ages 5-12 or so, it was best for me to stop when I did but in retrospect it was one of the better things for me to be able to talk to so many native speakers outside of my own family! I'd definitely suggest trying again as long as it's not a huge stress on everyone, just from my own personal experience looking back on it. Mental health and wellbeing come first though :)
I found your channel today! We're a mixed family where I am the sole input of French (non-native) for my daughters, living in the US. Though there are some speakers of French here, they are few and far between. It was so encouraging to see this channel because you and I are in the same boat! Doing the same thing! I also have my master's in second language acquisition and am raising my girls in a language my partner doesn't speak. It's a challenge that few people understand. I wanted to say thank you for doing what you're doing and normalizing something that most people don't really understand. My daughter is almost 3 and i have a newborn. I definitely question it some days when it's harder for me to find my words. Its so cool to see the fruits of your labor though as my daughter begins developing more complex speech in both languages. I've actually documented her speech from when she was only 7 weeks old! Either way it can really be difficult at times but I'm so happy to have found what you do!
Hello and congratulations on your newborn and your efforts raising your children so far in French! Also, thank you so much for reaching out! French is easier to find resources for compared to a lot of less commonly taught languages, but French speakers aren't easy to find. As you said, same boat! As I've gone down this path, I am finding out that there are success stories that do normalize this experience, but they're buried for several reasons (I have thoughts on this--stay tuned for a video about it at some point). Since you're in the SLA field, you might want to look up this article. If you don't have access anymore, I can email it to you--let me know. The situation is different (two L2 English speakers raising a child in English in China), but I found it so inspiring to hear some of the same struggles I can relate to documented in an academic way. Spoiler alert: When he moves to Canada eventually, everything is just fine and their efforts have paid off! Liu, W., & Lin, X. (2019). Family language policy in English as a foreign language: a case study from China to Canada. Language Policy, 18(2), 191-207. doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9475-5 Also Christine Jernigan's book Family Language Learning is awesome so far and normalizes our exact experience as foreign language parents. Sometimes you just want to know that it'll all be ok in the end. These resources have really helped me. :)
I love it! I'm a French speaker raising my son to be bilingual. Since he’s a baby I speak to him in English and my family wasn’t very supportive of it especially because I decided to send him to an English School in Quebec (Canada) which is mainly French. Basically, where I live all the kids must go to French School unless they have a parent who attended an English elementary school. My son’s dad who unfortunately passed was French and was sent to English school due to his American ancestry. Today my son speaks mostly English but understands French very well and can make sentences. Now I choose to communicate with him more in French even though I'm not too worried about his French since his environment is French except for School 🙂
This is absolutely inspirational! Thank you for sharing! I am looking forward to more videos with helpful tips!
Any tips for how a caregiver (au pair) can overcome hesitations and obstacles in providing an immersive environment in the child’s second-language? We have a caregiver we brought into our home specifically for the purpose of helping us raise our kids bilingually, but it turns out that she has a hard time sticking to her native language (Spanish) and requiring our kids to use it too, no matter how much we remind her. Is there any resource that can give her more confidence and concrete tips for helping my kids transition to speaking 100% Spanish with her?
Hello, and thank you for watching my video. I have a few tips for you: 1. How old are your children and do they already speak some of the target language? It's important to have realistic expectations and allow for a transition period while everyone gets adjusted. It's a more difficult transition the older your kids are and they might need extra support and encouragement while the language of communication is established. 2. Provide specific tips on what the caregiver can focus that day (and then ask about it at the end of the day, every day). If you know your kids will be going to the beach or zoo soon, try to ask the caregiver to discuss a book about that topic in Spanish or if you're doing screen time, actively watching and discussing a very short related video, pausing to discuss new words and answer questions. Asking about what you did in Spanish every day will prompt the caregiver to make sure he or she does it every day. 3. Make sure to prove resources that promote Spanish use. Does your library have a Spanish book section? Can you request books? 4. Coach your caregiver on how to use English resources for Spanish language education. Model with a book just describing what you see on the page then asking question about what you see. Remember, for kids that don't read, all they see is the pictures anyways, so describe them in detail and ask the kids simple questions. 5. Choose themes for the week. continuing with thematic content will allow the kids to reuse the new vocabulary they have, making it stick. 6. Focus first on routines and things that are repeated often. These can be quick wins. 7. During the transition period, focus on the routines first and then expand out to other contexts. I takes time to get the language established, so it's best to make it as easy as possible. I hope these tips help!
"Whats your favourite activity?" "Who wants apple sauce?" So cute😂😂
Dear Stephanie, I just found your KZread videos and they are wonderful❤! I am also a mom (almost 2 year old daughter) raising my child in my non- native language. Because of my unique situation, I’m doing it slightly differently than you are though. I was wondering if we could have a chat or consultation about it, because I have some questions. Or, can you recommend an expert that I can have a video consultation with? I want to use whatever method is most effective to bring up a fully bilingual child and I’m not sure how to proceed. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer 😅
Loved your video. Did you introduce French and english alphabet in same time , did you use the phonic way or just the sound of the letters. Joyeux Noel
It’s crazy you don’t have more views but I have an eight month old little girl I am not bilingual but I want to I want to be and I want to teach my daughter how to speak multiple languages as well as my 13-year-old son who is half Puerto Rican and doesn’t know Spanish, so I would really like toteach my infants and whole family so we can all become bilingual. I want to see my daughter grow up to speak eight languages at least
So encouraging!
Keep up the great work!
I have a few friends who only allow say Russian or Polish or Romanian to be spoken at home.That includes siblings speaking to each other! One mother told me she would take away their favorite game or what have you and it has worked. Once outside? They only speak english!
Hi ! That's really impressive and inspiring what you've done with your child. I'm curious, what was your level in French when you started to talk to your first child? Thanks 😊
So great to see an update. They’re doing so well in all three of their languages. Immersion school sounds like a great opportunity. Since you said it’s a lottery to get in; what happens if he doesn’t get a spot? Can your try again another year? Dual immersion schools around here require the child start in kindergarten and you can’t join later on.
Hi, I am not leaving comments on KZread at all but I really wanted to congratulate for your high quality content. My wife is French, I am Hungarian/Romanian and we are living in Germany. Our 1 yo is growing up trilingual with French, Hungarian and German, three languages from different language families, and of course we have our fears and want to do this as well as possible. As a scholar myself, besides reading a few books about multilingualism, I find it great that someone with actual expertise creates well documented content about this matter that is encountered by more and more families in this globalized society. So, congrats and looking forward for the next videos about your experiences as a family. Best, Phileas, Héloïse and Norbert
What about homeschooling? I grew up speaking some French as a third language so IM intermediate. I plan on homeschooling my kids, does that make it easier or harder?
Always love your videos! So interesting and motivating. Thank you ! :-)
I'm so happy to see its all worked out so well! I'm pregnant with my first right now and am planning on doing Spanish and English