My Son's English Accent

[Brewster67]

I have a son who is almost 4 years old.

 

I have only ever communicated with him in English, his mother uses mostly English with her thick Thai accent and occasionally in Thai. While everyone else uses pure Thai.

 

It amazes me how with absolutely no attempt at tuition, and when he learned to speak at about age 1, he only ever spoke to me in English, he mostly speaks to his  mother in English and occasionally Thai and everyone else in Thai.

 

Nobody actually explained what language and to whom, mostly because how do you explain the concept of multiple languages to a child so young?... He simply just realised we speak different and learned them in parallel.

 

He has never attempted to use Thai with me, and never attempts to use English with the Thais.

 

But what really gets me is that even though Thais speak English with a thick Thai accent, my son speaks English in a pure English accent.

 

Is this the same with other farang with kids brought up here?

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Brewster67

[Captain Monday]

Blessed to be perfectly bilingual. This primary language acquisition stage happens from birth to about age two. Sponges, I don't think linguists can explain it even. The only one (or two) I met who appear to be white western blokes what to my ear speak perfect Thai grew up in Thailand. Like born or attended primary school.

I saw a few more on TV or youtube.  Those might be gimmicks

 

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by Captain Monday

[Excel]

Completely the same for all of mine

[phetphet]

Thai GF's 9 year old daughter speaks native English without any accent, but her mother says she speaks Thai with a foreign accent. Despite having only ever lived in Thailand and going to a Thai nursery school.

 

I  told her thats because she mainly speaks to her in English. I did tell her to always speak to her in Thai, but we always use English at home, and most of her friends converse in English or French.

 

Sent her at 6 years old to a french school, and have been told she speaks french like a native. Well,  as good an almost 10 year old can speak.  Still a ways to go.

 

She is now having extra curricular Thai lessons, and should end up tri lingual. Plus she speaks to  her grandma on the phone in whatever their Isaan dialect is.

 

She also  wants to learn Spanish once she starts secondary school.

 

She tells me that when playing online games with other children, they often don't believe that she is not from the UK.

[1FinickyOne]

Yes. I have seen similar... 

 

It is fascinating and a great gift for your son. 

[Dmaxdan]

Our 7 year old grandson (who lives with us) speaks English with an American accent which I can only assume he picked up from watching TV because as far as I'm aware he has never met an American.

I hail from the south coast of England (where we speak proper like.....) so he definitely didn't pick it up from me!

 

His Thai is actually quite poor which in many ways I have been blamed for but the real reason is he lives in an environment where nobody apart from me speaks English and yet the locals and extended family insist on trying to speak English to him when non of them are actually capable of it. 

Very bizarre....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hanaguma]

You are doing the right thing, keep it up!

 

A lot of people used to follow the One Language, One Parent rule for raising kids. That is, each parent speaks their native language to the child. But that ignores the influence of environment. If you are in Thailand, everything around you is in Thai- school, TV, friends, etc.   So English gets a bit pushed back.

 

You are using the MLaH system- Minority Language at Home. Both parents use the non-local language with the children as much as possible. This helps a lot. Especially when the parents use the non-local language when communicating with each other. Your kid(s) will see the two of you using English, so this will make English seem valuable and worth knowing.

 

We did the same with my son (bilingual English/Japanese). It worked out very well for him. He grew up in Japan with all the advantages of good education here, and stlil learned English to a native speaker level. 

[richard_smith237]

As I am British, my Son’s English is ‘native’, having always attended international school he started to develop an ‘international school style US accent’ which I had to slap out of him.

 

Unfortunately, he needs a lot more work on his Thai as his schooling is 100% in English & he has extra curricular Thai lessons. 
My Wife tells me he speaks Thai like a foreigner !!!  He’s 8, so will hopefully develop more.

 

My Wife’s English is fluent… she has to remember to speak Thai all time with our son for his benefit.

 

I have also found it interesting to witness the children of my Wife’s friends communicate - they are all 100% Thai and attend  international schools, Thai is their primary ‘home language’ yet when the kids are together they all communicate in English. 
 

They tell me it’s just easier / quicker…,

 

I wonder if English, even with all its silly idiosyncrasies is a more efficient language to use. 
 

 
 

Edited July 28, 2022 by richard_smith237

[2009]

My kid speaks with a Yankee accent and can put on the thickest Tinglish accent you've ever heard too.

[redsongthaew]

What I found interesting is that if my son was playing and I was watching him he would talk to his toys in English.

 

If his mum was watching him he would talk to his toys in Thai.

 

Just our presence in the room changed how his mind worked.

[rankric]

Our son speaks English at home and he speaks thai and lao, but i reckon he is a bit behind on those two.

 

Not worried at all as he seems to catch on quickly with languages and is a touch rusty on thai and lao due to a lack of use. 

 

Our sons favourite videos are " big boy youtuber" grown men playing games and commentating on gameplay.

 

Some Yank words have entered and last week he joked I was the stinkiest guy in the neighbourhood.

 

I never try to explain to people who ask him " do you speak thai" i just advise him to answer like mommy speaks.

 

An English chap once asked him something in thai and he responded correctly in English.

 

Good guy but always room for improvement.

[Sparktrader]

Kids brain is a sponge. He will pick up the clearest accent which is yours.

 

First 7 years the brain picks up things the best.

 

 

[Sparktrader]

On 8/17/2022 at 4:10 AM, redsongthaew said:

What I found interesting is that if my son was playing and I was watching him he would talk to his toys in English.

 

If his mum was watching him he would talk to his toys in Thai.

 

Just our presence in the room changed how his mind worked.

The human brain age 3 to 7 is a recording device. It repeats what it learns. Most important years for learning.

[Lucky Bones]

Nearly 10 year old step grandson.

I don't see him maybe 6 or 8 weeks and then he has a brilliant conversation in English with me.

No-one speaks English in the village.

He even cocks his head sideways when unsure of something.

I just hope he can use his ability.

Kids......great eh!!! (Until they get older.)

 

[GinBoy2]

Language development is fascinating to me.

 

I grew up bilingual. At home we only spoke Spanish, but I was immersed in English at school, TV friends etc. Thoughts in my head can swirl in English and Spanish all at the same time.

 

I think growing up like that made my ability to pick up other languages easier, so Mandarin, Thai and Lao came fairly easily. That being said, I don't 'think' in them like I do in English and Spanish.

 

When our son was born we did the one parent language thing.

 

We actually did one parent two language. My wife Thai/Lao, me English/Mandarin.

 

Result he speaks all four fluently.

 

I wanted to add Spanish to it, but I couldn't keep my head together around speaking three languages all at the same time.

 

Subsequently back in the US he learned Spanish, and like me he found picking up another language fairly easy.

 

Language and the human brain is a wonderful piece of evolution

Edited October 25, 2022 by GinBoy2

[riclag]

Your child is very special  to be able to converse in two languages at such a young age!

Congrats to the parents and your son of course.

 

[GinBoy2]

I should add something about accents.

 

So my son, he's in his 20's spoken all these languages most of his life.

 

He speaks Lao and Thai just like his mother as a native.

 

His English is just like me as Californian.

 

His Mandarin is like mine. It's fluent but any native mandarin speaker knows it's a North American version.

 

His newly learned Spanish is interesting. Because he didn't learn it from me, I can't quite define the accent. I know it's not mine, his Mexican cousins don't either, so maybe he's developing his own unique accent

 

 

[phetphet]

The one thing that I have noticed our youngster picking  up from Youtube, is that US propensity to use the word like in  almost every sentence. I am trying to drum it out of her, explaining that when she  makes a statement, it is, or it isn't. It's not like.

 

This video of Miriam Margolyes explaining to Will.i.am shows what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLOi5p59O_A

 

[GinBoy2]

2 minutes ago, phetphet said:

The one thing that I have noticed our youngster picking  up from Youtube, is that US propensity to use the word like in  almost every sentence. I am trying to drum it out of her, explaining that when she  makes a statement, it is, or it isn't. It's not like.

 

This video of Miriam Margolyes explaining to Will.i.am shows what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLOi5p59O_A

 

Good luck with that.

 

I'm sure there were a bunch of parents in the UK trying drum out of their kids local idioms and speak like the folks on the BBC in the 40/50/60's.

 

Language evolves, and as someone who speaks multiple of them, one of the marvels of English its ability to change, add, innovate and borrow.

 

It maybe 'like' today, but the kids will move on and it'll be something else tomorrow. 

I like letting then experiment with language

[Neeranam]

On 7/27/2022 at 6:18 AM, Brewster67 said:

But what really gets me is that even though Thais speak English with a thick Thai accent, my son speaks English in a pure English accent.

 

Is this the same with other farang with kids brought up here?

No, they have a Scots/Doric accent ???? 

 

Tell your wife to only speak Thai to him, as it is detrimental to his English.

You never speak Thai to him, unless you are fluent/native.

This was what my bosses told me, 2 guys with PhDs in Bilingual Language Acquisition. 

[GinBoy2]

3 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

No, they have a Scots/Doric accent ???? 

 

Tell your wife to only speak Thai to him, as it is detrimental to his English.

You never speak Thai to him, unless you are fluent/native.

This was what my bosses told me, 2 guys with PhDs in Bilingual Language Acquisition. 

Most of us who are polyglots don't need a PhD to tell us how to do this.

 

It's kinda makes me laugh a little bit. For ever multi lingual families have been doing this, but suddenly we need a Proff in 'Bilingual Language Acquisition' to tell us how to do it?

 

I think we got this figured out just fine

[DezLez]

9 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

Tell your wife to only speak Thai to him, as it is detrimental to his English.

You never speak Thai to him, unless you are fluent/native.

Cr@P!

Get the kids exposed to different languages from different accents and nationalities!

 

[GinBoy2]

23 hours ago, DezLez said:

Cr@P!

Get the kids exposed to different languages from different accents and nationalities!

 

Well this is where it all gets a little murky.

 

Our son was born in Singapore, so environmentally he was exposed to English (Singlish) and Mandarin.

 

At home, my wife only talked directly to him in Thai and Lao, me English and Mandarin. The reason I spoke in Mandarin was because we thought in later life that would be more useful than my native Spanish, which in his career has proven true.

 

Now when not talking directly to him, we usually conversed in English, my wife was raised in Chicago as a teenager so her English is native, but we'd also watch Thai language movies at home, and when mad at me my wife reverts to Lao or Thai, so the whole experience for a small child is very immersive.

 

Now I have now clue how the infant brain figures out all these inputs, but somehow it does. Language sticks, accents can (not always) change.

 

When in Singapore my son spoke with a Singapore accent through middle school, yet today he sounds like any other young man in Denver