Can babies learn both Thai and English at the same time?

[TimRichards2k]

In the first few months of a baby's life they analyse all the spoken sounds they hear. After that, that learned sensitivity to specific sounds is the foundation to 'listening'. So if they hear multiple languages during the first few months of their lives before they learn to talk, then their abilty to understand and recognize words sounding like those they heard in the first few months, will be greatly enhanced. So the more variety of spoken languages they hear in the first few months, the better their ability to learn and use more languages as they grow older.

If you want detailed information, look at this - http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies.html

Good Luck!

[timber]

The leaning curve is influenced more by the appreciation and praise of the parents than the subject, get involved and you will be amazed. Don't expect immediate results just be patient and good things will happen.

[Water Buffalo]

Yes.

6 languages have been proven under experiment conditions. More than 6 has never been proven, nor disproven.

Both languages will be first languages.

Babies don't learn their first languages, they acquire them.

[Patsycat]

Jambo, i spoke Swahili first.

Now i speak English, French and Spanish. Forgotten the Swahili apart from a few words.

[Raybo]

My wifes neice who has a set of twins who are 3 1/2, learned English and Thai from their birth.

Their Dad is American and my neice is 100% Thai. They were exposed to their Thai Mawmaw and Pawpaw

Speaking Thai, and their Dad and me speaking english and they are doing fine.

They also have an 18 month old who is very fluent in both languages.

The kids automatically learn who to speak which language to.

Don't worry, they will learn just fine!.

Chulai

[slipperylobster]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

Can you point to some information on the web to support your theories? I am reading through several sites, and none support your claims.

Bilingual skills are best learned from each parent speaking to their child in their native language at a very early age.

I would be willing to read anything on the web that supports your slaims

9 years old is wayyyy too late to start learning. Why would the mom and dad not speak to them in their own languages starting at birth.....?

Why restrict the baby from that opportunity??

[wooloomooloo]

However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

Masters degree or not, if both parents' are of two nationalities, then what is the foreign language? Tsk.

[dao16]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

Garbage. All that has been proven wrong. Seriously.

[Africanteacher]

I speak Luo, Swahili, Gikuyu and some English. My mother was Gikuyu and my father was Luo. My national language is Swahili and at school, the language of instruction was English.

I have a 5year old (step) daughter that speaks French and English. She's learning some Thai at the moment and her progress is pleasing.

I never thought it could happen, but babies are darn smart and flexible beings, who can learn and adapt to languages rather easily.

[Africanteacher]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

Garbage. All that has been proven wrong. Seriously.

Right on!

[wooloomooloo]

I never thought it could happen, but babies are darn smart and flexible beings, who can learn and adapt to languages rather easily.

What the kids are not interested in, they'll dismiss.

[Thai at Heart]

Just you both stick strictly to your mother tongues and no cheating.

Kids will learn very easily

[Africanteacher]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

My mother and I conversed in Gikuyu and my father spoke with me in Luo. With my maid and our neighbours outside, we spoke in Swahili. I first went to school at the age of 6 and began learning English. I also studied French and now speak it fluently. All my siblings are fluent in all these languages.

My conclusion is that you may have carried out your survey amongst subjects that are/were not exposed to multilingual environment.

If you're in doubt, I am more than happy to alter your line of thought on this issue.

[Thai at Heart]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

Total rubbish.

So do the Swiss wait until 8,to start the 2nd of 4 languages?,,are you a former thai education minister?

[wooloomooloo]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion is that you may have carried out your survey amongst subjects that are/were not exposed to multilingual environment.

If you're in doubt, I am more than happy to alter your line of thought on this issue.

Don't argue, Africanteacher has a masters degree and was principal in US. BS, sorry.

[Africanteacher]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion is that you may have carried out your survey amongst subjects that are/were not exposed to multilingual environment.

If you're in doubt, I am more than happy to alter your line of thought on this issue.

Don't argue, Africanteacher has a masters degree and was principal in US. BS, sorry.

Oh, darn it. Missed that bit

[dao16]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

My mother and I conversed in Gikuyu and my father spoke with me in Luo. With my maid and our neighbours outside, we spoke in Swahili. I first went to school at the age of 6 and began learning English. I also studied French and now speak it fluently. All my siblings are fluent in all these languages.

My conclusion is that you may have carried out your survey amongst subjects that are/were not exposed to multilingual environment.

If you're in doubt, I am more than happy to alter your line of thought on this issue.

Yeah, this type of thinking was kind of popular back in the 70s and the only thing it resulted in was people not teaching their kids second or third languages--one girl I knew had a French father and an American mother, but they heard about the "confusion" thing. Result? At 20, she was in France struggling to learn French, a language she would have been fluent in had her parents taught her.

I have worked with languages for quite a while now in many different contexts, and your experience sounds correct. And, too true, a lot of people I have met in Africa speak several languages quite fluently, whether European or African languages.

[featography]

My baby is doing exactly this at the moment. Some words are quite clearly spoken in Thai, with others in English. For what it's worth I've read about both the positives and negatives of this very subject. One article I read spoke of how beneficial it is to introduce a child to another language as early as possible. Whereas another article I read said that learning two languages so early in life can in fact have a detrimental effect on the child as they pick up their native language much slower because of the use of an additional langauge.

So to be honest, I'm none the wiser if it is good or not but I'd also be interested to hear about anyone elses experience in this.

I am the parent of a 3 year old, who is in a very good school that teaches English. She speaks Thai primarily with family, neighbors, etc. but can hold an English conversation with teachers and parents of the other students. I agree with the post that they are sponges soaking up water. Their brains absorb everything much easier than older kids or adults. My wife converses in Thai with her, I converse in English. When speaking in either language, if mid sentence, she cant think of the word she wants, she uses the equivalent from the other language. To the prospective parents, go for it, and worry not about language issues. As the Brits say, ''Little Pitchers have big ears''. Kids don't miss a thing.

[Puyai]

I'm loving hearing my little boy speak two languages. He's 16 months now and is saying some words just in Thai, some just in English and some in both languages. He understands instructions in both Thai and English. I also have a Thai friend married to a lady from Belguim. Their children speak Thai, French and English fluently. Like most have said, it's best to start them with two languages from birth, anyone saying otherwise is in cuckoo land.

[Water Buffalo]

If I can give you my personal observations through experience and research doing my master's degree and when I was a principal in the US. I also did a survey on this particular topic during my PhD.

My conclusion was depending on the age of the child. The child should be near the fourth grade or 8 to 9 years old before teaching and additional language. They had a tendency of being the most receptive to any foreign language is during those years. Prior to those years they had a tendency to display mass confusion.

Parents have a tendency to promote an education at times way too early. The readiness level depends on the individual child. However, if promoting a foreign language to a child I would walk very cautiously at doing this at a very early age.

If seeking any additional information I would be happy to honor any questions that you may have.

I'm sorry, but this is rubbish.

It has been proven under scientific experimental conditions by linguists that a child can acquire (not learn) up to 6 first languages provided there is enough natural input. More than 6 hasn't been attempted.

If a child doesn't get any input of a language until the age of 8 or 9, it will become their second language, if they are able to learn it.

[pistachios]

Don't see why the rule.

We all mix English and Thai, doesn't seem to bother baby.

One of the only risks of teaching children 2 languages is that they get two broken languages and not one or two whole. Zero risk if you follow the "rule".

If both parents are bilingual 100% fluent in both languages then the only problem would be when the child begins to try to separate the two languages

If either parent isn't 100% fluent and have a foreign accent then you are making problems for the child by speaking the "wrong" language. Your native language should be used so the child gets it 100% correct with all the colors and shades, will be able to read between the lines and some day be a poet or what ever they wish. Give them two broken languages and they will never understand either perfectly.

For the child, in the long run, better an uneducated ghetto parent give a child his/her language than an educated one give them one they don't fully comprehend.

( father of 5. 20 year span all bilingual 3 different languages and I've studied the subject at University level )

Interesting post. My mother tongue is french, my english is pretty good but I can't say I'm fluent. My accent is terrible to be honest. We speak english at home with my thai gf. She speaks better english than most thais I have ever met but it's not excellent.

Should we have children, I should then strictly speak to them in french and she in Thai. I wonder when and how would they learn english? I'm guessing they will get bits and pieces from when we speak english, and the rest from kindergarten/school if we put them in international ones.

Would it be enough to become fluent in English? French is nice but pretty much useless nowadays, I'd rather see them become bilingual thai/english with spoken french on the side than thai/french and some english...

[Water Buffalo]

Don't see why the rule.

We all mix English and Thai, doesn't seem to bother baby.

One of the only risks of teaching children 2 languages is that they get two broken languages and not one or two whole. Zero risk if you follow the "rule".

If both parents are bilingual 100% fluent in both languages then the only problem would be when the child begins to try to separate the two languages

If either parent isn't 100% fluent and have a foreign accent then you are making problems for the child by speaking the "wrong" language. Your native language should be used so the child gets it 100% correct with all the colors and shades, will be able to read between the lines and some day be a poet or what ever they wish. Give them two broken languages and they will never understand either perfectly.

For the child, in the long run, better an uneducated ghetto parent give a child his/her language than an educated one give them one they don't fully comprehend.

( father of 5. 20 year span all bilingual 3 different languages and I've studied the subject at University level )

Interesting post. My mother tongue is french, my english is pretty good but I can't say I'm fluent. My accent is terrible to be honest. We speak english at home with my thai gf. She speaks better english than most thais I have ever met but it's not excellent.

Should we have children, I should then strictly speak to them in french and she in Thai. I wonder when and how would they learn english? I'm guessing they will get bits and pieces from when we speak english, and the rest from kindergarten/school if we put them in international ones.

Would it be enough to become fluent in English? French is nice but pretty much useless nowadays, I'd rather see them become bilingual thai/english with spoken french on the side than thai/french and some english...

You can speak to them in English and French. I asked a similar question to my linguistics professor. He said that it is better to keep languages separate, but if you have to mix them it will only take the child a couple of years extra to figure it out. (i.e. if the average french child if considered a native speaker at 5 years old, your child may be that at 7 just because of the mixing of the languages)

It is better to do that and get English and French later, than just French only earlier.

[GooEng]

short answer is yes.

don't be put off if your child doesn't fit with any supposed standards of learning stages of languages - they vary from child to child.

support and encourage both languages and they will get there.

[NCFC]

A piece of advice a doctor gave us when our girl was learning to speak was for the parents not to mix the languages ie, father always speak English and mother always speak Thai and don't fall into the Thinglish trap as it confuses the kid.

I have a hunch that kids brought up multilingually gain more intelligence, though I don't know if there has been any research done to back up that opinion

[FiftyTwo]

A piece of advice a doctor gave us when our girl was learning to speak was for the parents not to mix the languages ie, father always speak English and mother always speak Thai and don't fall into the Thinglish trap as it confuses the kid.

I have a hunch that kids brought up multilingually gain more intelligence, though I don't know if there has been any research done to back up that opinion

And why would a random doctor know anything at all about the subject?

Most of my family members randomly change languages between Thai and English depending on the subject.

Thai soaps ..... we speak Thai.

American movies ...... we speak English.

Random conversations, Thai food only has Thai names so we speak Thai, English food, etc.

The whole idea of limiting language use is nonsense.

[mike123ca]

I'm waiting for the day when Thai immigration accuses foreign fathers of teaching their children a foreign language and not having the required work permit to teach.

Edited November 16, 2013 by mike123ca

[recycler]

We speak 3 languages at home and our daughter of 14 months picks words out of all 3, I presume she will sort it out at some time between the 3.

It's actually very good for the brain to grow up multilingual!

[eurozhongguo]

I was brought up bilingual from birth so that it is absolutely not a problem. However, a bilingual or multilingual child will tend to think differently from monoglot ones, especially as an adult as he will not be so easily brainwashed by the media of one particular culture. It is to eb recommended. Go for it!!!!

[Forethat]

We speak 3 languages at home and our daughter of 14 months picks words out of all 3, I presume she will sort it out at some time between the 3.

This is commonly referred to as code switching, nothing to worry about. Adults do this as well when they use one language and borrows a word from another language when they need or sometimes to show off (yes, really). There is a reverse code switching as well, for instance, when you hear expats in Thailand speak English but switch for the few Thai words they know.

"you can stop trng kham the hotel"

[phusingpete]

I was brought up bilingual from birth so that it is absolutely not a problem. However, a bilingual or multilingual child will tend to think differently from monoglot ones, especially as an adult as he will not be so easily brainwashed by the media of one particular culture. It is to eb recommended. Go for it!!!!

Since my adopted daughter (100% Thai} was a baby I have only spoken to her in English my wife spoke in Thai. She had no problem

using both languages and is now fluent in both. She is now six years old. I did not work so spent a great deal of time with her

I used English books re ABC, colours, shapes etc. Also English nursery rhymes. Even now if we watch videos I ensure most

are in English. My wife assures me that she has a good command of the Thai language and she is now learning Chinese

at school. It is trully amazing to see her transfer from one language to another without hesitation. Go for it.