Do you raise your children in a trilingual household ? If so, please share insights I am somewhat at lost with how to handle this dilemma.
My mother tongue is french, I live in a greek country where foremost speak greek, my husband and I communicate in english. So you can see the predicament I was facing upon the arrival of our daughter.
At first, I intended for her to learn three languages which turned out to become two since I wasn't seeing any ability for her to evolve in communicating and adapting and three languages seemed too much to begin with, was I wrong ?
I focused on english and my husband on greek. Which improved majorly her ability to understand and interact. I know kids are like sponges, their “hard drive” are “empty" and ready to soak up all the knowledge.
I have read somewhere that should you raise a child in a bilingual environment, the parents must talk in their native language which make complete sense to me. I unfortunately, could not find any information on trilingual upbringing. I decided to amplify the english because a) it comes more easily to me and b) my daughter wouldn't be, if at all in a french speaking environment.
It is a shame in a way because whenever we will visit Canada she will not be able to communicate with my family who only speak french but rest assure I have not completely given up the idea, only postpone till further notice. I am waiting for her to establish a base in those two languages to then, when she will reach 3 or 4 years of age teach her french words.
I have seen a friend whom has a greek husband in which they communicate in english and she has a Spanish background, her daughter understands all 3 but she does live half of the year in her native country therefor her daughter is expose to the language and I think she has more chances of become fully trilingual.
I am aware that it takes more time for children who are bilinguals to become fluent in comparison to a child who was raised in a monolingual home. Apparently it is expected for children to be able to communicate with two languages by the age of five, in difference to the average with one language speaking family of the age of three. .
Greek is really difficult to learn in comparison to any latin base linguistics. I have been living in Greece for 5 years — yes I travel a lot therefor it doesn't help to immerse myself but I would qualify my level as basic, even after taking private lessons. I can communicate and understand a lot but there is major space for improvement in my end. So my question is this ; how can a child learn and be as advance as her peers in class by being teach an other language at home that has nothing to do with her day to day routine and still be successful at school ?
When I stayed home for almost two years due to pregnancy my learning improved tremendously. Being immerse is the secret therefor not living in a french speaking country is close to impossible for my daughter to learn it. Maybe in her later years she will have an interest in learning it, otherwise she will be "only" bilingual by default — not so bad to start up in life.
Beezeemum
At first, I intended for her to learn three languages which turned out to become two since I wasn't seeing any ability for her to evolve in communicating and adapting and three languages seemed too much to begin with, was I wrong ?
I focused on english and my husband on greek. Which improved majorly her ability to understand and interact. I know kids are like sponges, their “hard drive” are “empty" and ready to soak up all the knowledge.
I have read somewhere that should you raise a child in a bilingual environment, the parents must talk in their native language which make complete sense to me. I unfortunately, could not find any information on trilingual upbringing. I decided to amplify the english because a) it comes more easily to me and b) my daughter wouldn't be, if at all in a french speaking environment.
It is a shame in a way because whenever we will visit Canada she will not be able to communicate with my family who only speak french but rest assure I have not completely given up the idea, only postpone till further notice. I am waiting for her to establish a base in those two languages to then, when she will reach 3 or 4 years of age teach her french words.
I have seen a friend whom has a greek husband in which they communicate in english and she has a Spanish background, her daughter understands all 3 but she does live half of the year in her native country therefor her daughter is expose to the language and I think she has more chances of become fully trilingual.
I am aware that it takes more time for children who are bilinguals to become fluent in comparison to a child who was raised in a monolingual home. Apparently it is expected for children to be able to communicate with two languages by the age of five, in difference to the average with one language speaking family of the age of three. .
Greek is really difficult to learn in comparison to any latin base linguistics. I have been living in Greece for 5 years — yes I travel a lot therefor it doesn't help to immerse myself but I would qualify my level as basic, even after taking private lessons. I can communicate and understand a lot but there is major space for improvement in my end. So my question is this ; how can a child learn and be as advance as her peers in class by being teach an other language at home that has nothing to do with her day to day routine and still be successful at school ?
When I stayed home for almost two years due to pregnancy my learning improved tremendously. Being immerse is the secret therefor not living in a french speaking country is close to impossible for my daughter to learn it. Maybe in her later years she will have an interest in learning it, otherwise she will be "only" bilingual by default — not so bad to start up in life.
Beezeemum