Child To Be Bilingual

[pipchatel]

Hello there Can any one help point me in the right direction/info for preparing our selves to make our New baby Boy BiLingual in English/Thai. Hes just 3 months old now, and I chat away in English, and My wife and Daughters doing The Thai. I have No Thia (I am deaf and its hard)

Any advise would be good. Later on when hes about 6, we plan an English Kindergarden school

for him, but they do both Thai/English We are in Lampang County

Cheers Pip in Lampang

[meadish_sweetball]

The first point is to expose him to both languages from an early age, which you are doing already - good so far. Do not stop doing this. If you started to speak Thai to him, he would not see any need for using English with you when he is old enough.

If you keep it up, he will most likely speak English to you and your English-speaking friends and family, and Thai to everybody else. Before he feels comfortable with both languages he will of course mix them up a bit, but that is just part of the learning process and nothing you should worry about. Just let it take its time. Just keep in mind that to learn two separate systems requires more effort than one - however, it is by no means dangerous or above any normally gifted child to do so, and it will mean a tremendous advantage later in life.

English is a prestige language all over the world, and there are tangible benefits to speaking it. It also has a coolness value, which means you probably will not run into many problems with his learning to speak it. As for the Thai - if you aim to live in Thailand permanently, it goes with the environment. No need to worry.

Another key factor is of course time. Spend a lot of time with him.

That being said, if you are really deaf as you say, I am actually not sure what, if any, difference it will make...

Maybe you can lipread, if so I guess no problem. But if he cannot get through to you by speaking English it is possible he may lose motivation. In that case it would be good if somebody else who is a hearing native English speaker is around him on a regular basis, so he can see that the language 'works' when he speaks it too.

Hope that helps to some extent. There should be other members with additional experiences/knowledge who can share...?

[p_brownstone]

By far the best way, as already mentioned, would be to continue what you are doing now - you speak only English to your son and all native Thai speakers speak only Thai. Although (I believe!) my Thai is quite fluent I was firmly instructed by my Thai wife not to speak Thai with our daughter from the day she was born because my accent might easily confuse her, the same would be true if a Thai, however fluent, spoke in English of course. This proved to be the correct course of action because my daughter is now totally bi-lingual in English and Thai.

My mild concerns in your particular case would be that since you are deaf I believe your own pronunciation of English may be somewhat unclear or at least unusual (please understand I mean no offence here, it is a common problem since you, the speaker, cannot clearly hear your own pronunciation and take steps to correct it). This may be a hindrance in that your son will pick up spoken English the way he hears it from you, also, as Meadish points out, I am not certain how you would be able to correct his pronunciation, I do not know if lip-reading will give much indication of how well the words are actually enunciated. I am sure you will already be aware of these potential difficulties yourself however.

One final point; as your child begins to learn to speak Thai, be careful of the typical Thai attitude to tease and make fun of incorrect pronunciation, rather than correct the child. There is no intentional malice in this attitude, they simply feel that the incorrect pronunciation is “na-rak” or “cute” and, as I say, will often laugh at or tease the child and make him repeat the incorrect pronunciation for their own amusement. This started to be quite a problem when my daughter began to speak Thai in the company of Thai friends and family. Even at a very young age she was strong willed and self-reliant so she quickly became annoyed at the teasing and virtually stopped speaking Thai at all. I would strongly advise you to keep an eye out for a similar situation developing with your son and put a stop to it immediately.

Patrick

Edited February 14, 2006 by p_brownstone

[N&M]

Are you deaf from old age and completely deaf or just hard of hearing.

I presume you have a hearing aid then ?? If not, get one, its for your childs benefit not yours.

I have a son now 4 who is as fluent as any four year old is in both languages. He was translating to me at less than 2 years old. I speak only english with him and my wife speaks both Thai and English with him.

One nanny has some english and speaks some words and phrases with him, but mostly Thai, the other mostly only Thai.

Do not worry, just remember that you are in a native Thai speaking country. He will pick up the language all around him and Thai will be easy. It is English that will be the problem as his surrounds may only involve you as the english speaker. For the sake of his english ability you need to speak with him a lot.

I started this with my son by spending hours with him alone, I would take him out, shopping, eating, playing whatever, just him and me and all we spoke was english and he is a chatterbox so it helps.

As for international school, make sure you checkout the teachers and their ability to speak english !!! As for the age to start, if you can, start him earlier than 6. My son started kindergarten at just under 3 years, I think he was 2 years 10 or 11 months.

I objected to the idea, I was horrified at my son being away from us and home at such an early age. I wanted him with us still, I would miss him to much, selfish reasons I guess and back home we did not start school until 5 years old and even then I hated it and that was to continue for another 12/13 years or so. But now a year later I am so glad we did, he has many friends, he learns to play and mix with others, he can read, he can count, he can do a lot of things that I am so proud of him being able to do.

So look into starting them early. From an early age and up until a certain age, I think it is 6 or so, their minds are just like sponges and they soak up everything they can. The more they are submitted to, the more they will develop.

Its so much fun we had another one to do it all again.

[pipchatel]

Are you deaf from old age and completely deaf or just hard of hearing.

Hi Its Pip First thanks to you all so much, great advise and Info. As for me, my deafeness. I was made deaf around 1944, v2 rocket London. Hearing lost ever so slowly, i became naturally an expert lip reader, voice/speach perfect ( a bit London cockny)I just have t be face to face, body laungauge important to me too, people cant hide crap from me. Had a very more than normal life. Well thats me. I will read again and follow all your advice and value it. Its going to be a challange, but already feel more opptermistic, and I think body lauguage with my son already takes a form.

Again thank you all and will certainly follow your ideas.

Best regards Pip

[tutsiwarrior]

in the same vein...has anyone had the experience of enrolling a completely non-english speaking Thai adolescent in an english speaking international school outside of Thailand? I have considered this for my step daughter who will be finishing prathom in a couple of years. Not so much to obtain a US type high school diploma as to become fluent in the language so she can find a decent job when we return to Thailand.

When I was 15 I found myself (no Spanish language skills at all) attending a local school in South America (baccalaureate system all in Spanish)...became fluent within a year, at the end of the second year my composition skills were as good if not better than a native speaker...was continually accused by teachers of plagiarism. I have read that adolescense is the best time to be exposed to a new language and wonder if my experience could be duplicated by my step daughter.

Any observations?

[meadish_sweetball]

She will certainly learn a lot of the language in a year, but I don't think you should expect her to surpass natives...

Bear in mind that Spanish and English are much more similar to each other, both being Indo-European languages, and Spanish being a fairly regular language in many respects - spelling Spanish is easy. Spelling English is a nightmare if you have not been exposed to it before. As a Thai she will also struggle with tense if she has not dealt with it before.

Also, the pronunciation of Spanish for an English-speaking person rather simple, compared to that of English to a native Thai speaker....

That being said, if she is getting on ok in school so far, she probably will be ok.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

As for international school, make sure you checkout the teachers and their ability to speak english !!! As for the age to start, if you can, start him earlier than 6. My son started kindergarten at just under 3 years, I think he was 2 years 10 or 11 months.

But, if you do that then make sure that your child is studying with children of the same age. Some places will take your money and stick your kids in a kindy class with much older kids.

[N&M]

Yes true, but that in itself is not always bad, depending on how old of course.

They put my son into nursery first and he would not sleep in the afternoon when all the other kids his same age had a nap. So they put him in with theolder kids in Kindergated 1 and just let him watch and listen and play. then when the school year was over and he was ready to attend K1 he was already a little ahead of all the others.

It is all dependant on the school and you checking it out thoroughly first.

[Johpa]

Hello there Can any one help point me in the right direction/info for preparing our selves to make our New baby Boy BiLingual in English/Thai. Hes just 3 months old now, and I chat away in English, and My wife and Daughters doing The Thai. I have No Thia (I am deaf and its hard)

Any advise would be good. Later on when hes about 6, we plan an English Kindergarden school

for him, but they do both Thai/English We are in Lampang County

Cheers Pip in Lampang

You can speak English to your child and your wife can speak Thai to your child and the kid will grow up with two "mother" tongues. Or you can both speak English in the home and let the kid encounter Thai everywhere else and the child will have English as a "mother" tongue and Thai as a "native" tongue as the native tongue will be whatever his play peers speak, to the chagrin of many parents around the world.

I have a niece whose mother is Karen and whose father is Mong. She grew up fluent in Karen, Mong, and Northern Thai (Kham Muang) and who also now speaks fluent Central Thai. So having two parent languages is a piece of cake for a young child as long as there is adequate exposure to the languages. But if you are the only English speaker be prepared for the child to be Thai language dominant. This may mean that the child understands your English but prefers to answer in Thai. Don't let that bother you because once exposed to more English speakers later in life the switch in language will be very quick and easy.

Both of my kids were brought up as bilinguals and my son now speaks a far better Thai than do I. My son easily switches between Thai and English although my daughter is heavily English dominant.

The main thing is not to get frustrated. While they are young, being exposed to a language on a regular basis will result in langauge acquisition. Languages are the gift of the gods.

[Cheeky Farang]

Not only is speaking English and Thai is important, but PLEASE dont forget to teach them how to read and write both. This is very important for our Luk-Krungs that live out of Thailand. What good is the language if when they return home to Thailand and cant read Thai. Yes they will have ONE of the skills needed to better themselves, but to get a truly good position in the workplace they must be able to read any documents placed before them.

CF

[The Dan Sai Kid]

Yes true, but that in itself is not always bad, depending on how old of course.

They put my son into nursery first and he would not sleep in the afternoon when all the other kids his same age had a nap. So they put him in with theolder kids in Kindergated 1 and just let him watch and listen and play. then when the school year was over and he was ready to attend K1 he was already a little ahead of all the others.

It is all dependant on the school and you checking it out thoroughly first.

I agree on checking out the school first. I think it's very important you try to see as many places as possible and try to seek out advice from someone who is not going to profit. EG, some schools will say ANYTHING to get you to sign up your kids!!