Will My 3 Year Old Learn English Fast?

[PattayaXpat]

I'm concerned that I'm not doing enough to teach my oldest daughter English. She's going to be three next month, she's living in Issan with her mother and I'm working abroad. Her mother speaks to her in English and Thai but, almost all other communication is in Thai and Issan. I speak to her in English and Thai but that's only on Skype and every few months when we are actually together.

We are all moving to the states next year before her 4th birthday, but I'm concerned that she will not be ready for school in English when she's 5.

I hope that it's true that kids are like sponges and pick up languages quickly but I would really like to hear experiences from others.

Thank You!

[Langsuan Man]

Whatever you do, please insure that the child continues to communicate in both languages. I was fluent in German after only a month when I was immersed in a German speaking boarding school in Luxembourg at the age of 9. It infuriated my mother when I came home on school breaks to have my father interpret for her little darling. When we returned to the US, the good nuns at the local Catholic school prohibited my parents from allowing me to continue to speak German and they insisted that I only speak my newly re-learned English

A terrible mistake on their part since studies have shown that bi or tri lingual kids actually learn their "mother tongue" better because they have the unique perspective of understanding why they say certain things in their primary language and it's comparison in the learned language

And yes the adage that kids are like sponges is true and you can use that to your advantage to give the child a leg up on life. Believe it or not US television will be a great source of language skills once she get to the US. Then your wife's most difficult task will be to keep her learning Thai ; which will meet with resistance since the child will want to be just like the other kids

[Khutan]

I took my daughter to Australia when she was 3 1/2 and she has picked up English very well starting from only a very few words. This is after 8 months.

She has also picked up a bit of Spanish from watching Dora the Explorer - I am not sure how useful that is in Australia though

[mike123ca]

I live with my wife and children here in Issan. When we first married we were living in South Korea and during the first year we had a son. The wife and I spoke only English to the boy and our Korean friends would also talk to him in English. He didn't start to speak until he was almost three years old.

Now he is three and we now have a baby girl. At this point in time, I want to move to Thailand.

We move to Ubon and onto a family compound where our house and other family houses are located.

The boy still doesn't speak any Thai, but now his mother is only speaking to him in Thai. He has started to go to kindergarden and all the other children are only Thai. About six months later he is speaking Thai fluently. Since 90 % of his world is now Thai, I try to make him watch cartoon movies and other things in English. He still speaks to me in English, but he asks his mother why I don't speak Thai because everyone else is Thai.

My daugher came here and she started to speak Thai as a first language. The wife encourage her to speak English. What did surprise me was that her English grammar was far superior to my son at that age even thought he had more practice at using English.

I have a co-worker who teaches at my school and his son is also a luk-kreung and he is 4 years old. Their boy started in English and itonly took him about 6 months to pick up the language. When our sons play together sometimes they will speak English and other times they switch over to Thai.

My gut feeling is if your not their to force the issue then your child will learn Thai or Issan. The society and schools do not use it. Children will follow the easiest path.

[PattayaXpat]

Thank You For All The Encouraging Replies!

I feel a little bit better now, I was afraid that i was doing her a disservice by not encouraging more English, but now I'm relieved by hearing your story's. She has an amazing vocabulary in Thai and does respond to her Mom when she speaks English but is hesitant to speak it her self. Her mother works with her on ABC's and she does watch some English cartoons which should help her stay close to the language. I recently purchase her a Leap Pad which I known she will love and is all in English.

Thanks Again Guys!

[Deserted]

There's quite a lot of literature on bilingual children if you research it. In general terms, children that are exposed to more than one language from an early age will need more time to pick them both up, and they won't be able to distinguish them well until the age of 5 (which is why younger children will sometimes insert words from L1 into L2 and vice-versa). Your child may not be ready but its not a worry, she will catch up as long as you continue talking toher. It's generally accepted that by the age of 9 bi-lingual children are on a par and often better than mono-lingual children. You probably know that there are certain structures in English (passives for example) that are not mastered until 11-13, so I wouldn't worry just yet. I would review the situation when she gets to 7 and not before. If she's moving to an English speaking environment, I am sure she'll catch up quickly enough.

[Somtamnication]

My 6 year old is now learning Chinese.

At home we speak Thai and English. When he asks something to his mom in Thai, without any thought whatsoever, he turns his head and asks me the same in English.

It will only fill you with pride. I am amazed at how he speaks both languages. One poster mentioned Dora. Absolutely!!! But get the other ones as well, LIttle Einsteins is fabulous! Other nature and science shows. Turn tv off with pokemon and those japanese crap shows.

On the ipad, I have English, Español and Chinese. He gets enough Thai, as he lives here. But the rest, we make sure he has fun learning. Yesterday was his first class in Chinese and he enjoyed it. I speak in Spanish to him, but not as often as my wife wants me to. I want him to improve his English. He makes the classic Thai mistakes of not using tenses.

Anyways, have fun watching the kid grow. Let hit happen naturally!!!! Do not push too much.

[cooked]

My two sons, intelligent but not overly so, speak and write, in order of preference: Swiss German (yes some people can still write it), French, English and High German. One can also use Italian and Spanish as a spoken language. I can recall times at table when we had three languages going, the English people present sitting there with their mouths open. In certain workers 'pubs' in Switzerland you can see street sweepers and construction workers using their own mother tongue and being answered to in another.

Don't worry about it, let the kids alone. The worst that I have seen has been families that moved to another language region, worried that their kids wouldn't get on in school and started speaking the new language at home.

Never, never take a kid's mother tongue away from him or her! These kids have problems communicating in my experience, and seem to have other social problems. It's not called the mother tongue for nothing, taking this away is like depriving them of their mother.

By the way I knew an 11 year old that had 9 languages, but she isn't typical.

[necronx99]

Kids genetically are programmed to learn languages until age 8 or 9.

They pick them up with no trouble in very short time in an immersion setting.

Dont worry about it.

[cdnvic]

My four year old just spent two months in Thailand and she now speaks Thai fluently. At that age they pick languages up very fast.

[PattayaXpat]

It's really great to hear all of these story's. My wife and I always talked about how we would keep her speaking Thai while we were in America but I never realized how much she would be speaking Thai at 3 years old! Please keep in mind that she was our first and she always surprising us by what she can do.