Raising bilingual children

From my experience as a) an educator from Canada an officially bilingual country with a career in ESL spanning over 28 years now, and b) the parent of a Brazilian born child take a tip from the Canadian concept of IMMERSION schools.

Children learn naturally the language that they are exposed to at home. You should make every effort for you and your husband to speak ONLY English in the home and to the child. He/she will learn the language naturally as a mother tongue. He/she will also be exposed to immersion in the Portuguese language from all other sources (i.e. other relatives, playmates, television, school, etc.) so will get the benefit of both worlds. The child will grow up speaking both languages fluently without any problems. Just like technology and computers, kids have ZERO fear of making mistakes so they learn quickly, they're the same with acquiring their language skills too. You'll find that they can jump back and forth between the two languages with surprising ease if they get as much exposure to both as possible.

My son is 8 years old, and because my wife does not speak English I am the boy's only exposure to English other than television and the internet. Despite that he clearly understands everything I say to him in English, and what he reads. At times he'll respond in English and at others he responds in Portuguese, but it is absolutely clear that he understood what he heard or read in English nonetheless.

While it may be necessary to force yourselves to use only English at home, and it may be difficult for your a Brazilian spouse it is well worth the effort.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

James wrote:

From my experience as a) an educator from Canada an officially bilingual country with a career in ESL spanning over 28 years now, and b) the parent of a Brazilian born child take a tip from the Canadian concept of IMMERSION schools.

Children learn naturally the language that they are exposed to at home. You should make every effort for you and your husband to speak ONLY English in the home and to the child. He/she will learn the language naturally as a mother tongue. He/she will also be exposed to immersion in the Portuguese language from all other sources (i.e. other relatives, playmates, television, school, etc.) so will get the benefit of both worlds. The child will grow up speaking both languages fluently without any problems. Just like technology and computers, kids have ZERO fear of making mistakes so they learn quickly, they're the same with acquiring their language skills too. You'll find that they can jump back and forth between the two languages with surprising ease if they get as much exposure to both as possible.

My son is 8 years old, and because my wife does not speak English I am the boy's only exposure to English other than television and the internet. Despite that he clearly understands everything I say to him in English, and what he reads. At times he'll respond in English and at others he responds in Portuguese, but it is absolutely clear that he understood what he heard or read in English nonetheless.

While it may be necessary to force yourselves to use only English at home, and it may be difficult for your a Brazilian spouse it is well worth the effort.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

Great viewpoint, which I wholeheartedly agree with.  I speak English, and my wife Romanian (though she is fluent in English also) and we have a 3 and 6 yr old.  We speak English in the house 95% of the time, which I need for my own sanity mostly, and had to insist on   So the kids have English continuous exposure in the home.  They get exposure to Romanian when we go out of course and when we leave them with my wifes' parents over weekends.  They naturally have absorbed both languages without extraordinary effort,  My youngest even switches languages appropriately depending on who he is talking to or what he hears being spoken in the room, and my daughter did the same at around 2.5 / 3 yrs old.  My daughter now is even working on German as a 3rd language.  They indeed are sponges for information   They might not be as fluent (as in having the vocabulary) as other native English or Romanian kids that are monolingual, and I think that's reasonable as they've split their learning across two languages already, but they can communicate very well in either language.

Romaniac

So you think that I should speak with my son also in English? I have no problems doing that but I thought, by reading it somewhere, that I should speak to him in Portuguese and my husband in English. To me it's even better because I can keep my English as sharp as possible. I basically live with my parents who are helping us out while we settle in Brazil and find a job etc, so when my baby is born he will have his grandparents in the same house only speaking in Portuguese. I thought I would have to speak in Portuguese also and only my husband in English, but it makes sense that one more person communicates in English.
What about children getting confused or taking some time to start talking? Is that a myth?
It somehow makes sense because they're learning everything in two languages

No, it's imperative that you both speak English with your child. He will already have more than enough exposure to the Portuguese language to keep him fluent and constantly growing in the language. It will be difficult for him to find enough English speakers here in Brazil so you, your husband, television and the internet will probably be the only exposure he'll get.

Cheers,
James

Hi MrsW
I am in floripa too and raising tri lingual kids ( actually tetra lingual). My kids already spoke 3 languages when they came to Brazil , as they grew up with them ...different mix of cultures. When they reached here the elder ones ( who were already speaking different languages adopted portugesr within 6 months and now speak it fluently ) . However, I noticed that though my toddlers understand the different languages they prefer to speak just English. I don't understand why so , but I do not presurize them and just talk to them in all the languages. I believe speaking more than one language helps the child's abilities in communication , expression and makes them more adaptable. A friend of mine told me that if s child knows two languages which are different eg Arabic and English ( totally different ) even if they ever have any brain problem the will still be able to speak one language as they both are processed by different sides of the brain.

My son has just turned two and is babbling, occasionally I think I can make out a word in English or one in Portuguese. It's interesting that you guys are suggesting that only one language is spoken in the home because a language teacher friend (herself raising bilingual kids) suggested myself and my husband speak our native tongue only to him. Hmm. It's food for thought anyway. At the moment he gets his Portuguese immersion when he goes to granny for the weekend but we'll (hopefully) soon be moving to a different part of Brazil and I wonder what we should do then since he won't have those regular stays with the family

I suggest speak all languages with the child. He might mix them up initially but in the long term he will have a better grasp and will choose his or her own preferred language on his own. That's what I did and it worked out fine.

Thanks soie5!

Hi babblinginbrazil,

As an English (ESL) teacher with a career of over 28 years now I can tell you that with such a young child, if your household is bilingual (English/Portuguese) and no other languages are involved, it would be best for you and your husband to speak only English to your child. Even at his young age he is going to get more than enough exposure to the Portuguese language to pick it up with relative ease. The problem is going to be getting sufficient exposure to the English language (or your native language if other than English). Once your son gets older and has a fairly decent base in both languages then you can speak in either of them, it won't make too much of a difference, but doing so right now will probably be quite confusing for him.

Cheers,
James     Expat-blog Experts Team

Hi James, thankyou. That is really helpful

Hi guys! My son was born and is almost 2 months and I speak English with him (I'm a native Portuguese speaker) because my husband is American and because of that idea that James was talking about - the enough exposure to Portuguese with the family and environment around. But I get myself speaking Portuguese around my son when somebody else is speaking in Portuguese with him because I kinda think it's weird that people are talking to him and I keep the conversation in English. For example if somebody come and say "oiii dá um sorriso pra titia" I feel weird to say "say hi to her"  specially if I'm around people I don't know and so I end up talking to him in English. Also there are times in which I feel like I can express certain feeling better in Portuguese because that's the language I learned to express my feelings first and sometimes it feels more "accurate" in Portuguese but I wonder if this back and forth will confuse him.

You and your husband changing back and forth while he's really young will probably confuse him a bit. Once he's a little older and begins expressing himself in English it shouldn't be a problem as long as the majority of your conversations are English. Actually he'll probably adjust quite well to switching back and forth between English and Portuguese depending on who is speaking to him. It will become like second nature after a while and he'll become more fluent in both languages.

Cheers,
James
expat.com Experts Team

We have a 16 year old  girl and a 12 year old.   My wife speaks English but she wont speak English unless she has to. (she´s Brazilian). She came here about 4 years before I came from Canada,  so I did my best to keep them bilingual,   so,  when they were still small kids I fed them lots of English material on tv ,books, dvds, etc.  I´ve been here 6 years now,    they speak English among themselves,  Portuguese to their mother and outside the house.

@MrsW Bom Día! I have a great example. My natural mother passed away when I was only 5. My father married a Brazilin lady when I was about 8. I was always very close to my father and to help him with the cultural differences as well as that true love thing, I married a Brazilian myself.

The difference is my Brazilian mother taught me a few catch phrases like "apagar a luz" as well as common words for sugar, milk etc.

My Brazilian wife on the other had brought our daughter to her parents in Brazil when she was 5 months old. From then on she taught her and only spoke to her in Portuguese. My wife spoke to me in English and I spoke to my daughter in English. My daughter grew up bilingual with Portuguese being her dominant language (she also learned Spanish in school).

So now I know some Portuguese from the time I spent with my mother in Niteroi (across from Rio), but my daughter has both a Brazilian and American passports and has dual citizenship.

It's all in the approach and commitment.

Roddie in Retirement