Question about dual nationality kids and their English ability from early age

[mattk1]

Hey guys, (hope this is in the right place)

I’m after some advice here for the situation I’m in.

I have two young kids (boys, age 3 years and 18 months) and for the past year they have lived with their mother as I have been working away a lot. Anyway we are now all living together again and it’s great, however my three year old speaks Thai (obviously) and doesn’t understand a word I say. I knew this would be the case of course since I have not been around so much during the critical language learning months but I want to rectify this as soon as I can.

I’m constantly sitting with him when I’m at home but as soon as I’m away again he is surrounded by Thai language.

The plan was for us to stay in Thailand for one more year but now I’m thinking let’s get over to England sooner rather than later.

So my question is to the people who have walked this path before me, how long did you leave it before you returned with your kids to your home country and was there any issues you can remember?

Thanks for any advice here, I appreciate it!

[CharlieH]

This may be better in Family and Children forum.

MOVED

[i claudius]

Our son ,moved to england at 6 years old ,he soon picked up the language ,with a lot of help from the school ,as for interacting with the other kids ,they spoke no Thai and at first he spoke no English ,but they just seemed to understand each other ,with pointing and well god knows how ,when we came back to live here when he was 12 he spoke English with a local accent ,he is now 22 and fluent in both languages ,but still speaks Thai to his mum like he always did , i understand the jist of the conversation and we slip back and forth ,dont worry ,it works out ok .

Edited March 27, 2015 by i claudius

[NeverSure]

Our son ,moved to england at 6 years old ,he soon picked up the language ,with a lot of help from the school ,as for interacting with the other kids ,they spoke no Thai and at first he spoke no English ,but they just seemed to understand each other ,with pointing and well god knows how ,when we came back to live here when he was 12 he spoke English with a local accent ,he is now 22 and fluent in both languages ,but still speaks Thai to his mum like he always did , i understand the jist of the conversation and we slip back and forth ,dont worry ,it works out ok .

That's awesome that he's bilingual. Good job.

[i claudius]

At university he helps the English teachers with lessons in English ,and when he was 17 came 18th in the country in English for students in BKK ,I was very upset ,you got money if he had come first,lol

[nikmar]

We ve always stayed in Thailand and my son (7) goes to a Thai school. Im really the only person who speaks English to him. It was slow at first but his confidence in English built up and now there are no problems. He watches cartoons on YouTube in English so you could encourage your sons to get into the habit of doing the same. My lad picked up a great deal for Peppa Pig. Including a home counties accent.

When I was at junior school around 8 or 9, a Chinese kid joined our class with zero English skills. It took him about a year to to pick it up without many problems.

It really is amazing how quickly kids pick things up.

[Orac]

Have you considered an english speaking kindergarten. My daughter started at 2 years and speaks both Thai and English well now though she does seem to have picked up a slight american accent...

Edited March 27, 2015 by Orac

[GooEng]

i've got boys age 4 and 8 and we moved to the uk last december.

before moving the 8 year old was bilingual as he'd been educated at an international school in thailand since primary 1, but the little one had only had 3 months of international kindergarten and although he understood some english he was still shy or unwilling to speak it - i work offshore a lot so his exposure to it outside school was limited.

now, after 3 months in the uk at british pre-school he's not only speaking english, he speaks it with a local (Elgin, Scotland) accent! the older one is also developing an accent and is even starting to use scottish dialect (he referrred to something as "nae bad", the other day). i've also noticed that the kids now also speak 50/50 english/thai to each other when they are playing together, whereas before moving they spoke thai exclusively.

kids minds seem to be very able to absorb and learn everything - language in particular, so i wouldn't worry in the slightest - they'll be fine.

Edited March 27, 2015 by GooEng

[RichBKK]

We ve always stayed in Thailand and my son (7) goes to a Thai school. Im really the only person who speaks English to him. It was slow at first but his confidence in English built up and now there are no problems. He watches cartoons on YouTube in English so you could encourage your sons to get into the habit of doing the same. My lad picked up a great deal for Peppa Pig. Including a home counties accent.

When I was at junior school around 8 or 9, a Chinese kid joined our class with zero English skills. It took him about a year to to pick it up without many problems.

It really is amazing how quickly kids pick things up.

Much the same with my little girl, who is nearly 2. She fell in love with Peppa pig when she was last over here, picked up loads as well through being immersed in an English speaking environment for nearly 3 months

They have had to return without me due to me having to stay on back for medical stuff, but my wife continues to speak (mostly) English to her and she continues to watch Peppa pig and Mother goose club and other nursery rhyme things religiously, and has already also grasped there being two words for things (English and thai), switching between 'mai ow' and 'no', 'Baby want that' 'baby swimming mai?' and 'mummy come on then', 'ta (grandad) go there' and thai equivalents. Its quite funny actually, and at that age she has the basics already in place. Younger the better I think, and my wife has aims to make her trilingual with chinese, though think we may wait a bit longer with that

[yankee99]

Mine are 3 1/2 and always speak English to me and thai to mom. Amazing how they can switch saying the exact thing from one parent to the other. I guess the difference is i am around daily. They also watch 90% of tv in english. Seems care bears and frozen are the flavor of the month.

[kwonitoy]

When my son (now 3 1/2) started talking I was also working away from home on a 28 in 9 day out rotation.

I was initially freaked out with his lack of English exposure and the girls, nanny, wife, housekeeper would pound the Thai into him.

Being home for 3 months after my contract ended solved the situation completely, I spoke english to him explaining numbers, letters, objects etc and all that gets absorbed like a sponge.

Intitally I asked the wife to speak some english to him when I was gone, but that's been stopped now as he was picking up her speach patterns which were incorrect, best to learn from a native speaker things like the letter L and R

My experence is the same as yankee99 and he constantly amazes people, he speaks Thai/Issan to the locals and to me or any other foreigners he switches effortlessly to English.

Agree with the english TV, but no substitute for just sitting and reading a kids book, I've also downloaded some good kids learning stuff on my computer, there's lots out there

He's at the " Dad, Dad, what's that?" stage and I love it.

[i claudius]

When my son (now 3 1/2) started talking I was also working away from home on a 28 in 9 day out rotation.

I was initially freaked out with his lack of English exposure and the girls, nanny, wife, housekeeper would pound the Thai into him.

Being home for 3 months after my contract ended solved the situation completely, I spoke english to him explaining numbers, letters, objects etc and all that gets absorbed like a sponge.

Intitally I asked the wife to speak some english to him when I was gone, but that's been stopped now as he was picking up her speach patterns which were incorrect, best to learn from a native speaker things like the letter L and R

My experence is the same as yankee99 and he constantly amazes people, he speaks Thai/Issan to the locals and to me or any other foreigners he switches effortlessly to English.

Agree with the english TV, but no substitute for just sitting and reading a kids book, I've also downloaded some good kids learning stuff on my computer, there's lots out there

He's at the " Dad, Dad, what's that?" stage and I love it.

Yes great isnt it ,i remember when he used to say "dad dad" and i would hold his hand to take him across the road ,now its "dad dad" as he takes my hand to take me across the road 555

[yankee99]

When my son (now 3 1/2) started talking I was also working away from home on a 28 in 9 day out rotation.

I was initially freaked out with his lack of English exposure and the girls, nanny, wife, housekeeper would pound the Thai into him.

Being home for 3 months after my contract ended solved the situation completely, I spoke english to him explaining numbers, letters, objects etc and all that gets absorbed like a sponge.

Intitally I asked the wife to speak some english to him when I was gone, but that's been stopped now as he was picking up her speach patterns which were incorrect, best to learn from a native speaker things like the letter L and R

My experence is the same as yankee99 and he constantly amazes people, he speaks Thai/Issan to the locals and to me or any other foreigners he switches effortlessly to English.

Agree with the english TV, but no substitute for just sitting and reading a kids book, I've also downloaded some good kids learning stuff on my computer, there's lots out there

He's at the " Dad, Dad, what's that?" stage and I love it.

" Dad, Dad, what's that?"

Yes but the next stage is bad "can i have this and i want that" ..... I also dont let thais speak English to my daughters.

[mattk1]

Hi all,

I want to say a massive thanks to all the people who have replied to my post here with some excellent advice and information

I feel a lot better about the situation now and I plan to have some Peppa pig DVD's sent over, having checked it out it's excellent!

Another one I found which is really good for kids learning English is called "Go Go's adventures with English". You can find episodes of that on YouTube, the kids just copy what the character says many times and they just seem to get it

Thanks again everybody here and have a great day

[Forethat]

Sorry, but there's no hard rule that applies to children when it comes to languages and speech. I only have to look at my own daughter and how she managed to pick up english compared to some of her class mates from China, Russia, Qatar and France. They were all different.

They all started reception (4-5 year olds) with no or little knowledge of english. The Russian boy and twins from Qatar are more or less fluent in english after the first year, the Chinese boy really struggles with a very limited vocabulary and the French girl is OK with an incredibly cute french accent. My daughter is not perfectly fluent but I'd say another year and you will not be able to tell she didn't grow up in UK. She's going to be 5 in a few weeks and can read and write english, but obviously not as well as most of her native english friends. My daughter has forgotten 95% of her spoken Thai, it's just not there anymore. She still understands a lot of Thai. I speak with her in my native language which she has now deserted in favour of english (she still understands exactly what I say but prefer to answer in english). I also try to speak with her in Italian and French (she learns French in school as well).

I think there's an increased risk for language issues the older they get. I also believe (supported by medical facts) that the learning window is wide open until they are ≈7 years old, but at that point you will introduce a secondary issue: social and environmental difficulties. Children can be cruel and the ability to communicate is likely to aid social exclusion. For this reason, you need to choose wisely when you decide on a school for your children, and make sure the schools culture will support your children's needs. I decided to give my daughter some extra language support, this comes at a high cost because she's in private school; if your child is in private school NHS will not cover any additional support that would otherwise be offered for free via NHS if in a state school.

Lastly, a language is not something that magically "appears" in someone's head, it is something that must be "offered", you have to GIVE someone the ability to learn and use a language. You must teach your boys, and the better teacher you are the quicker your boys will learn. This means you own this task, you will have to dedicate yourself and your time to pass down the gift of communicating in a language. One step is to get the boys to an environment where they are exposed to english as well as being able to develop friendships with other english speaking children. Another is to read and speak to your child all the time. If you do this, you will have no problem and your boys will be speaking english before you know it.

Good luck.

[mattk1]

Forethat, thank you for your excellent post and advice, I am very grateful to hear other people's opinions and ideas and I'm feeling much happier about teaching my kids to speak English well.

In just the short time since I posted this I am amazed at how much my eldest understands when I ask him (or tell him) to do something, i.e. go and put it in the bin - and off he goes, lol. Great stuff!

Thanks again guys and have a great day

[2008bangkok]

Same as a previous poster, iv got a 4 yr old girl and 6 yr old boy always lived in thailand never had a single lesson of English, when they was young they spoke only thai i rememebr being very worried that they would always be like that and they would never understand English.

Roll forward a few years and they are speak both English and Thai both to a very good standard (still not a single english lesson) if they are with there mum they speak all thai to everybody including mums friends, if they are with me they speak english with everybody including dads friends and themselves

[mattk1]

Cheers 2008bangkok, that's a fantastic achievement! You must be very proud of your kids

Keep up the good work!

[2008bangkok]

Cheers 2008bangkok, that's a fantastic achievement! You must be very proud of your kids

Keep up the good work!

Thanks mattk1, its amazing how there english is so good just being with me, literlly they go to a thai goverment school which doesnt teach english, they have learnt it all from listening to me and a bit of Youtube UK cartoons, my secet is i just speak to them as i would anybody else, no tinlgish, no baby talk just normal.

My advice to you is to stay in Thailand as planned, enjoy your time because the kids have potentially another 18 yrs to learn and if they can becom billingual it will help them out later if they want to learn other languages.

good luck

[BeefSlapper]

I got new born

My native lang is spanish and I speak english used to live in uk 10y

I dont speak thai

Speak eng with gf.

So for me ideal would.be if kid speaks 3 languages

Anyone kid speaks 3? Like my case

[thewug]

I'm in the same situation. I work in Canada for three weeks and come home for one week. But we put our daughter who is three in a all English school. And it's good. She is learning more English all the time. If she says something in Thai and you understand what it is tell it to her in English. Children learn quick.

[thewug]

I'm in the same situation. I work in Canada for three weeks and come home for one week. But we put our daughter who is three in a all English school. And it's good. She is learning more English all the time. If she says something in Thai and you understand what it is tell it to her in English. Children learn quick.

[Roadman]

The very basic of language is one that has been handed down from generation to generation and the only difference today is we have advanced from "ugh" and "ogh" from the early story teller in the smoke laden cave with the pictures on the rock wall to having it all appear on the magic Ipad screen. The one constant is the story teller who is generally the Dad is still the one who brings the pictures magically alive whether from rock wall or Ipad screen. Personally with my own children I think I lived in the golden age of the picture book, and I know when I am lucky enough to be blessed with grand children from my thai daughters those old tattered picture books with the magic they behold to turn a dad into a pantomime actor and capture little ones are going to play a leading role in ensuring that those young minds are getting a rolling start to English.