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

[JeffreyWitty]

There are Thai/English mixed language families here in South Korea. Not only to their kids speak both languages and understand both fine - they also soak up and speak KOREAN in daycare facilities.

My first kid is still too young, (under 2 months) but I expect him to get a firm grasp of his thai and english later on.

[mca]

My daughter has just turned 9 and slips between Thai and English flawlessly. When she was little my wife and I tried to used both languages equally with her and not allow one to be 'dominant" as it were.

Luckily studying at an international school she has both Thai and western friends so she doesn't use one language for the sake of convenience and allow the other one to take 2nd place.

[Cmmum]

We were concerned about this when our first was born, but were reassured by multiple eduction and language professionals that children are more than capable of speaking multiple languages from an early age. We were encourage that if we wanted them to be totally bilingual, the early they were exposed to both languages the better. It was also suggested to us for me to speak only English to them, and dad to speak only thai. I admit though that we did not do this very well! - as i am fluent in thai (yes, i do have a bit of an accent though) and my husband speaks good English, we just never seemed to remember to stick to 'the rule'! It didn't matter though - our 4 (nearly 5) year old is fluent in both languages (although prefers to read in English) - she was speaking early for her age, no delay experienced, and our 1 1/2 yr old comes out with a smattering of both languages. I think it is great when they can have broad language exposure

[feralfarang]

Recent research has shown that a baby's brain starts the process of hearing languages between 6 and 8 months. It is during this period that inhibition in the neural pathways begins to take shape. Before 6 months, a baby can hear every sound, and doesn't really process speech as we understand it, It isn't until after about 9 months that they have wired their brain to pay special attention to the sounds that their parents speak, and discard those phonemes that are not recognized as language. If you want to use 2 languages, it is important for the baby's primary care giver(s) to speak to them in these languages during this period. It will still work even if you miss this window, but it becomes less efficient. Interestingly, TV or recorded sounds do not help in this process. It is believed this is an evolutionary trait, and so the brain evolved to recognize the sounds of other humans in the environment. If the sounds aren't being spoken by a live human, they aren't registered as speech and thus the special language recognition centers do not adapt to hear them.

Babies absolutely can learn multiple languages when they are young. In fact, this is the best time to teach them. It may take longer for them to begin speaking, but once they start, their speech and fluency will in general be much greater than if you wait.

[Patsycat]

Keep up the good work, and never let them lose those languages and encourage them to learn more!!

[natas]

Don't see why the rule.

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

ignorance is no excuse for doing wrong.

There are plenty of reasons for this rule. A bit

More to read in the thread. I'm hoping someone else explains it.

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[tartempion]

My daughter is 3y 5m, has a Thai mother and although we mostly speak Thai amongst us her English is coming along fairly well. She now speaks mostly English to me, although I often forget to talk English to her. And I am almost daily surprised by the new words/sentences she is pronouncing.

Sometimes I have her pronouncing some words in French and they often sound without accent.

It is too early though to teach her a third language in my opinion.

She does know a few words of Dutch though and when I phone to friends and talk Dutch she insists to talk a few words Dutch to them, fabulous isn't ?

There is a private kindergarten at 8 km from our home where she can attend at age 3y 8m, we will check the place out soon and decide to have her attend or not.

We have a kindergarten in the village but we withdrew her after a few days.

I do have the chance to be with her 20/24h, she goes to visit her grandmother every day, I find that very important for her education.

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[Eleodel]

I grew up trilingual, as did most of my cousins (we're all mixed; 1/2 Japanese, 1/2 Lebanese, 1/2 Russian, 1/2 Argentinean, with the other half French). It's the best thing that ever happened to me. Do NOT believe naysayers who think it will be detrimental to a child's development, I can attest to the incredible benefits of a multilingual education. You just have to stick to a few rules while the kids are growing up (some consistency in the languages, be ready for your kid to maybe speak a few months later than his/her peers...). The plot thickens a bit with a different alphabet - extra teaching efforts when they're learning to read. Of course, different belief systems, religions, habits, etiquette etc... But that'll be your child's cultural inheritance as a citizen of the world. It may not be 'easy' or obvious but people who are cut off from their inheritance always feel something's missing...

And it didn't hurt one bit;0)

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[EmptyHead]

Yup.

Our daughter is 2 and 4 months. She can make up to 10 word sentences in Thai, English, and Isaan.

She didn't start speaking later than expected and her Thai (and Isaan) is the same as most kids her age (better that some).

Though she can't speak about as many different topics in English as in Thai (lower vocab) because i have been living in BKK, while she lives in Isaan so her vocabulary is lagging a bit.

She easily grasps that she has to speak to me in English and her Mum in Thai or Isaan. There is no confusion and she has never mixed up the languages in the same sentence, like people often think would happen. I think that is probably a myth.

Also, at that age they don't learn language - they aquire it.

It is natural for them to litterally absord any language system around them and it doesn't matter how many languages there are (so long as the input is enough).

Edited August 8, 2014 by EmptyHead

[kjhbigv]

Thanks to everyone

[thaibutty]

My son grows up trilingual. German, Thai and English.
And at almost 4 now he is very fluent in all 3 languages. He can use them according to the situation and person he is talking to. He switches in between without thinking.And he even translates for people who are not familiar with one of the languages.

The most important thing to do is to be very strict in which language you use with your child. Don't mix languages and don't use any other than you're native language with the child except for very rare occasions.

I only speak in German with him, my wife only in Thai and kindergarten is all in English(eventhough they also have some Thai classes)

This works perfect and is key for the development of equal strength in the languages.

Biggest mistake and I see this so many times is farang fathers who speak terrible Thai use it on their kids and mothers speak in pidgeon English with the kids. The poor kids grow up with no real mother tongue and never really master any of the languages...

[Newguy70]

Yes.

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[Murphy0608]

I was always insanely jealous of my cousins who grew up in Switzerland, where German,French,Italian and English are all spoken and one day at dinner I literally had to pick my jaw up as they literally switched mid sentence through each.

I agree with one parent speaking one language each as it does add consistency, but I would also say to make sure your child never feels under pressure to speak a particular language on command. I have seen it so many times where a parent (often a proud farang father)has demanded their child speak English to me (on the street,in the market or even in 7) and the look of fear in the child's eyes is awful. It's well and good being able to have a conversation at home with family but another in the big bad world.

Also on a side note, having taught in schools here and when Thai teachers find out a child is from a mixed family they assume the child can speak english,German,Norwegian etc as their mother or father does. This can put a lot of pressure on kids and often in my experience they child end up being nervous and not wanting to participate in English class as they feel their level of English isn't as good as it should be or that the teacher will punish them as they should speak it perfectly as a parent speaks it.

Praise and confidence are key.

[cooked]

I was always insanely jealous of my cousins who grew up in Switzerland, where German,French,Italian and English are all spoken and one day at dinner I literally had to pick my jaw up as they literally switched mid sentence through each.

I agree with one parent speaking one language each as it does add consistency, but I would also say to make sure your child never feels under pressure to speak a particular language on command. I have seen it so many times where a parent (often a proud farang father)has demanded their child speak English to me (on the street,in the market or even in 7) and the look of fear in the child's eyes is awful. It's well and good being able to have a conversation at home with family but another in the big bad world.

Also on a side note, having taught in schools here and when Thai teachers find out a child is from a mixed family they assume the child can speak english,German,Norwegian etc as their mother or father does. This can put a lot of pressure on kids and often in my experience they child end up being nervous and not wanting to participate in English class as they feel their level of English isn't as good as it should be or that the teacher will punish them as they should speak it perfectly as a parent speaks it.

Praise and confidence are key.

Hmm, old thread revived, I thought I would add a comment. I have seen two families where the mother tongue, that is to say, the language that the mother used with her very young children, was for some reason done away with. In one case because the parents moved from Canada to Switzerland and decided it was a good idea to speak French with their kids (with an atrocious German accent) and the other because the father decided he hated all things Thai. Difficult to draw conclusions from just two examples but the three children from these families seem to be damaged.

Nobody as mentioned the importance of the mother tongue, it's where you feel at home.My ex wife's great grandmother, living in the German part of Switzerland for 85 years, reverted to speaking French in her last days.

Anyway, at home in Switzerland I spoke Swiss German, my wife, at least initially, spoke English with me, German with the kids. We moved to the French part pre school and just sent them to school when the time arrived. Absolutely no problem for both boys although as mentioned, the younger one did start to speak later. Both have very good jobs that depend on their having the three languages at their finger tips. We also had trilingual conversations at the dinner table.

Switch to Thailand, we are looking after my wife's grand daughter, now 8. 'The brat now understands most of what we say (including my swear words when driving) and we speak a halting English together. She watches that horrible program High Five on TV and I found some good stuff on Youtube. I say halting, but she speaks better than most Thais I meet, including the village school teacher, I have to wean her off using Thai sentence structures.

As mentioned, praise and confidence are essential, but that is the key to good parenting anywhere, isn't it?

[715]

Thank you for the replies. The way it's going currently, baby will learn Thai from my wife, English from me and a series of grunts and clicking from my visiting (much too long) mother in law.

Edited February 22, 2015 by 715

[kwonitoy]

Son is now 3.5 years old, raised in Udon Thani, Thai wife/nanny/housekeeper, Canadian english speaking Dad.

I was working away from home on 4 weeks on and one off, at a little over 2 years son starts rattleing off Thai and Issan and the girls are chuffed. He didn't speak any english and I'm freaking out.

Had a three month lay off where I spent every day a home and with him, at the end of three months he's speaking English to me and turning to the girls and speaking Thai.

Now at 3.5 his fluency and comand of both languages is incredible, he speaks and understand more Thai now than I ever will. There ability to pick it up is amazing.

[tartempion]

My girl just turned 4, mother Thai, father multi-lingual farang.

We have no rules mixing Thai, Isaan, English abs sporadic French or Spanish.

Wether I say something in Thai or English she will reply in English to me, in Thai to her mother, she got it right.

[patongphil]

Thank you for the replies. The way it's going currently, baby will learn Thai from my wife, English from me and a series of grunts and clicking from my visiting (much too long) mother in law.

That made me laugh as it is so true in my situation too!!!!

[hanno]

My daughter was exposed to Vietnamese, English and German. There was some confusion in the beginning but one day everything fell into place and today, 15 years later, she is fluent in all three.