Will My Thai Kid Speak English Naturally?

[Jaxxper]

Our daughter was from my wife under a previous marriage. When I met her 10 years ago when she was 6 she only spoke Thai. I bought some books from the UK in English ( started with stuff that was for a 3 year old), and took it from there. Now she's 16 and her conversational English is excellent. The arrangement we had was that I would help her with her English and she would help me with Thai..... She lapped up the learning English bit but my Thai didn't improve that much ????. Anyway, bottom line is that at that age the child will pick up both languages. I'd suggest as it gets older try to have some English language conversations. Helps their comprehension and acceptance of English. It's a great gift you can pass onto your child.

[bluejets]

My wife's niece and nephew are about 6 and 4 now and we speak to them in both Thai and English.

We have done this since they both were born.

Seems they can switch from one to the other at the drop of a hat.

There is an older nephew, now 15, who has only been subjected to this for the last 7 years and still finds English difficult.

Although we are in Aus most of the time, we chat to them almost every day via Line or whatever.

[kokesaat]

A departed friend of ours got married and had a baby girl when he was 63.   As she grew (rules kicked in before she was 2), English was the only language her mother could speak with her if in the same room as the father.  If the mother was alone with her, she could speak her native language.   The girl could watch all the TV she wanted but only English programs.  

I often thought he was a tad strict with the language rules, but it became apparent as she entered middle school that her English was far ahead of her classmates.  She went on to ABAC and is now in Germany.  

I think the father had it right

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, ancharee said:

My boy is 4 year old now, when he talks to his mother it's mostly in thai but as soon as he turns to me he switches to English, like you my thai is poor I have also started speaking a little Spanish to him as I am fluent in that language, I would also like him to learn mandarin, as said children are very good a learning in the early years but remember thai will probably be there number 1 language so cant over do it, little by little !! 

You can't over do it if the child is very young, they have brains like sponges. I read once that a toddler has the ability to learn 8 languages simultaneously as long as he/she is continually exposed to these languages. I find it difficult to get my son to read voluntarily, he is stuck to an iphone or the internet but never a book whether it be in Thai or English, reading for a Thai is a chore to be avoided, I don't let him avoid it but that could turn him off it of course.

[lucky2008]

Children who experience two languages from birth typically become native speakers of both, while adults often struggle with second language learning and rarely attain native-like fluency.

 

If each parent speaks a different language, then as long as children receive enough exposure to both languages, it should be natural for them to pick up both of languages from the start. 

 

Try not to worry about this issue too much. I think your main concern should be having sufficient funds for a half decent Kindergarden where tuition is going to run you up close to 200k per year maybe more.

 

Good luck. 

[sanemax]

6 hours ago, Happy Grumpy said:

No problem.

 

Speak and play and be with them as much as possible.

 

If they watch kid's cartoons or shows, have them on in English. 

Until they want to watch a Russian speaking cartoon 

[davidst01]

you and your wife should only speak English. Everyone else thai. 

 

Let your kid start watching 20min of peppa pig or Simon cartoons. Good Uk accents. your kid will learn. 

 

you read book every day in English. as many as you can

 

By 4 yrs old your child will be speaking heaps of english with you

[Rc2702]

Our son watches YouTube since 15 months in his baby jail. Annoys me the Russian and Spanish cartoons but he seems to like them and the English and Thai too.

 

We use 1P1L mostly but if he misbehave it's normally English. 

 

He's just turned 2 and says a few words in english and Thai but I'm prepared for a bit of a delay on that front as I've asked around a bit.

 

Will start reading to him for 15 each night soon but right now he is learning to sit still and listen to his mother pray each night. Once he realises he's gotta sit still will begin reading to him as a reward.

[Time Traveller]

 

18 hours ago, soalbundy said:

I have spoken English with my son (11) from the day he was born, despite the mother-in-law saying he is Thai, he will never understand what you are saying ???? He speaks fluent English and can read English fluently as well, I make him read kids stories on the internet. He gets further input from playing games on the internet (Roblox) and can communicate with some of the players in England and America, since many of the players and games come from America he has started to get a slight American accent which I come down hard on, "it's not caaan't, it's cant". I let him see examples of how Richard Burton spoke and show him the ugliness of the American accent by showing him examples of the 'Southern drawl' it seems to have had an affect. He has now asked me if I can teach him German but I feel that at 11 it is too late without a lot of work, and Thai's don't like a lot of work. 

Sorry your kid has a pompous ass as his father.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Time Traveller

[Sydebolle]

Apply common sense - just speak exclusively English with your son in a natural way. He will be fluent in the language and realize, who is the capacity in what language. 

I was the only person around my children speaking a (hillbilly) dialect faintly derived from German. The kids (all grown now) have a 100% passive command of the language, developed a "language" of their own among them which is a mix of three languages, and speak 90% without any problem. As said - I was the only one ever around them speaking the language and they never ever faced a problem back in my native country. 

Don't worry, just let it happen naturally ???? 

[cooked]

One of the strongest capabilities a small child has is learning to communicate. My kids grew up originally in a ousehold attempting to speak only English, although the "mother tongue" remained Swiss German. When we moved to the French speaking part of Switzerland and schooling started, my Swiss German became the household language, meanwhile new vocabulary tended to be French. Italian and Spanish got added to that mixture, you should have been at the table when we had guests!

The point is, we never worried about it and NEVER deprived the kids of their mother tongue. Neighbours in the same situation first banned English and then German, result, two kids that have difficulties communicating in any language.

[soalbundy]

4 hours ago, Time Traveller said:

 

Sorry your kid has a pompous ass as his father.

but he is bilingual and speaks English that can be understood world wide.

[PoorSucker]

On 3/19/2019 at 8:34 AM, soalbundy said:

 He gets further input from playing games on the internet (Roblox) and can communicate with some of the players in England and America, 

Hey, my son (7) also loves Roblox. 

In fact his English reading and writing is better than his Thai. 

He goes to the EP here. 

[cortez]

Don't worry he will pick up English quickly and easily, just by speaking to him on a daily basis.  You can strengthen this with songs and reading books to him.  Inevitably youtube will come in the equation and he will be watching songs or cartoons in English.  All of this will contribute and he will be bilingual in no time.  After that comes the question of which school system you will put him into but that's another subject !

[Happy Grumpy]

On 3/19/2019 at 10:24 PM, sanemax said:

Until they want to watch a Russian speaking cartoon 

As happens when they click on Marsha and The Bear.

 

Nothing wrong with being trilingualski. 

[Happy Grumpy]

On 3/20/2019 at 12:19 PM, PoorSucker said:

In fact his English reading and writing is better than his Thai. 

I find that kids in a bilingual home - English/Thai, often prefer English and Westerners than Thai and Thais. Regardless of being in an EP, Int. School or Thai school.

 

Make of that what you will. 

[FruitPudding]

From my experience they slway end up speaking at a native speaker level, but have a different accent (from parent).

 

Interestingly, they all seem to have the "same" different accent. It doesn't seem to matter if parent is Australian, English, Scottish, or American -- when those kids are together speaking English they have the same accent! Kinda like how all white South Africans sound the same, or Aussies, or Americans (despite their parents originating from various conntries)

[Neeranam]

On 3/19/2019 at 8:52 AM, mick220675 said:

I found the easy way to get my daughter speaking English was cartoons, then English music on You tube.

She just picked it up without any stress. She is now learning Korean thanks to K-pop.

My daughters also love that crap and can surreal the language, also Japanese, Chinese, English and Thai.

Always speak English to your kid and tell your wife never to speak English to them, that's what the experts say about bilingual language acquisition.

[unblocktheplanet]

A Thai kid should be fluent which means being able to read and write, composition and grammar. Our daughter's early influence were her grandparents. Although she understood English, she wouldn't speak. This changed when both her mother & I only spoke to her in English and refused to respond to Thai.

 

For fluency & acculturation, she went to primary and junior high in Thai schools. Once her Thai foundation had been established, she went to an int'l high school only in English. She's now in third-year university in Canada with an intensive online job in Thai.

[Hanaguma]

On 3/23/2019 at 8:13 PM, Neeranam said:

My daughters also love that crap and can surreal the language, also Japanese, Chinese, English and Thai.

Always speak English to your kid and tell your wife never to speak English to them, that's what the experts say about bilingual language acquisition.

Actually that's not entirely true. The One Parent One Language approach has many flaws, especially in terms of " play language" between siblings and also the valorization of the minority language (in this case, English).

 

A better way is called MLaH, or Minority Language at Home.with this technique, the family's default language is English wherever they are together- at home, at restaurants, etc. The kids will get enough exposure to Thai at school, with their friends, and so on. The key is to maximize their time using English. Plus, there disturbing of kids seeing their parents using English too, this is what valorization means. The kids see Mom and Dad using English, so it makes English valuable in their eyes.

 

I tried this style for my son ( he is Canadian\Japanese and grew up in Japan) and it is fantastic. He is fluently bilingual and biliterate with no discernible accent. 

[Neeranam]

On 3/27/2019 at 5:22 PM, Hanaguma said:

Actually that's not entirely true. The One Parent One Language approach has many flaws, especially in terms of " play language" between siblings and also the valorization of the minority language (in this case, English).

 

A better way is called MLaH, or Minority Language at Home.with this technique, the family's default language is English wherever they are together- at home, at restaurants, etc. The kids will get enough exposure to Thai at school, with their friends, and so on. The key is to maximize their time using English. Plus, there disturbing of kids seeing their parents using English too, this is what valorization means. The kids see Mom and Dad using English, so it makes English valuable in their eyes.

 

I tried this style for my son ( he is Canadian\Japanese and grew up in Japan) and it is fantastic. He is fluently bilingual and biliterate with no discernible accent. 

It certainly wouldn't have worked on my house, as my wife's English is terrible.

Unless the non native speaker is a very advanced speaker, I say no English,  as the kids would pick up bad accents and grammar.

[richard_smith237]

We were advised by teachers at my Sons School to speak our native languages to my Son. 

 

At school (Int'l school) my son (5yo) studies in English with a little extra curricular Thai outside of School.

 

I speak English at home with my Son. My Wife speaks Thai. 

 

My Wife's English is fluent, but not perfect, there are sometimes minor grammatical mistakes which I can pick up on, I think its a good idea that my Son does not pick up on these minor grammatical mistakes too. 

 

 

[Hanaguma]

5 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

We were advised by teachers at my Sons School to speak our native languages to my Son. 

 

At school (Int'l school) my son (5yo) studies in English with a little extra curricular Thai outside of School.

 

I speak English at home with my Son. My Wife speaks Thai. 

 

My Wife's English is fluent, but not perfect, there are sometimes minor grammatical mistakes which I can pick up on, I think its a good idea that my Son does not pick up on these minor grammatical mistakes too. 

 

 

That's a common fear, that your child will pick up bad habits and poor pronunciation from the non native speaking parent. However, it isn't supported by the research. Your son's teachers my not be up to date on current second language scholarship.

[brokenbone]

kids are uniquely well adapted to learn,

and doubly so below age 6,

so just talk to it like if it was a native english

at the same age as yourself