Not the English Language

[Calypso 464]

I am just wondering...

Did you teach your husband/wife how to speak your native tongue?

Did he/she tell you that he/she was interested in learning it?

How did you teach him/her?

Are you now using that non-American English language in your daily conversation?

God bless us all.

FAE

[SMR 368]

I am just wondering...

Did you teach your husband/wife how to speak your native tongue?

Did he/she tell you that he/she was interested in learning it?

How did you teach him/her?

Are you now using that non-American English language in your daily conversation?

God bless us all.

FAE

I learned Russian when I was there (not from my wife). We speak Russian about half the time at home. We plan to teach our children to be bilingual.

[Malrothien 6]

My husband is Canadian - he already spoke English. I will teach him Spanish, though, because I am half Cuban and our children will be raised bilingual, too.

Unfortunately for me, my husband will always sound like a gringo though. Poor guy.

[jundp 191]

We use English to speak to each other, primarily. I know a tiny bit of German but not enough for full conversation. However my husband does speak German with my son. My daughter is learning German.

[Marina-Del 10]

My husband helped me learn Portuguese, but since I have lived here in Brazil for a year now (and will continue to live here for another 6 months), most of my learning did not come from him, but from the world around me.

We still speak in English most of the time although now that I'm close to fluent we speak in Portuguese more and more frequently. When we are around others who don't speak English (which is a LOT of the time as we're living with his Portuguese only aunt now) we speak in Portuguese because it's rude when she is there and we're speaking over her head.

If you are trying to learn while in the US, then good luck. It's so hard to learn another language but without the constant everyday surroundings of that language it's even more difficult!

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Bren and I were bilingual when we met. We dabble in German, French and Italian; depending on the occasion, ifyouknowhwatimean

[Malrothien 6]

If you are trying to learn while in the US, then good luck. It's so hard to learn another language but without the constant everyday surroundings of that language it's even more difficult!

Definitely! Spanish was my first language but I went to English school so it didn't 'stick' as well as it should have. Since living in Canada, with a smaller Spanish speaking community, I have forgotten a lot of it.

[Calypso 464]

Bren and I were bilingual when we met. We dabble in German, French and Italian; depending on the occasion, ifyouknowhwatimean

I do know what you mean.

FAE

[Marina-Del 10]

Yeah I'm worried about that Malrothien.

Right now we live in Brazil and go back and forth with English and Portuguese. But once we get to the US (cross your fingers in July) we plan on speaking exclusively in Portuguese (unless again we're around those that don't speak Portuguese, like my parents).

We want our house to be a complete Portuguese bubble. Once we have children he will speak to them in Portuguese and I will speak to them in english. However, once they get to be around 4-5 and start going to school then we'll speak exclusively Portuguese at home again. They can speak English at school, with friends, with my parents, ect...but we want them to speak Portuguse with us. Of course...we'll see how that works out! I fully understand that the kids might have different plans.

I have a Spanish friend who ONLY speaks Spanish with his children, but they usually refuse to speak in Spanish to him because they know that daddy understands English too.

[Malrothien 6]

Keep to your beliefs. My parents took me to the doctor about it when I was young and the doctor (this was in the 80's, too) told them that they should stick with English because that is what is spoken at school.

I was lucky that my brain had already developed in a multi-lingual fashion so I don't lose that aspect of it, but bilingualism is such a benefit.

[del-11-03-2013 1]

I am just wondering...

Did you teach your husband/wife how to speak your native tongue?

Did he/she tell you that he/she was interested in learning it?

How did you teach him/her?

Are you now using that non-American English language in your daily conversation?

God bless us all.

FAE

I only teach Paul 5 Malay words - Gila (crazy), Selamat Pagi (Good Morning), Selamat Datang (Welcome), Jahat (Bad) and Sayang (Honey/Sweetheart). Paul wanted to learn Malay but I refuse to teach him more because that's my secret language with our kids (in the future)

In our daily conversation, we speak English but sometimes we use those 5 words in our conversation. It was funny though

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I am just wondering...

Did you teach your husband/wife how to speak your native tongue?

I've picked up a few phrases and words in Bisaya from listening to my wife speak to my 8 yr. old stepson, but I don't know enough to hold a conversation. She speaks to our 21 mo. old in Bisaya and he understands a lot of it, but I don't think either he or his older brother will really speak unless they are surrounded by people speaking the language all the time.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Galt's gallstones

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Definitely! Spanish was my first language but I went to English school so it didn't 'stick' as well as it should have. Since living in Canada, with a smaller Spanish speaking community, I have forgotten a lot of it.

So I can insult you and get away with it??????????

[Calypso 464]

Sounds like an elaborate plan.

I don't know if it's true but when I was in college, a professor said that children learn language best when they are between two and seven years old.

Hakuna matata.

God bless us all.

FAE

Yeah I'm worried about that Malrothien.

Right now we live in Brazil and go back and forth with English and Portuguese. But once we get to the US (cross your fingers in July) we plan on speaking exclusively in Portuguese (unless again we're around those that don't speak Portuguese, like my parents).

We want our house to be a complete Portuguese bubble. Once we have children he will speak to them in Portuguese and I will speak to them in english. However, once they get to be around 4-5 and start going to school then we'll speak exclusively Portuguese at home again. They can speak English at school, with friends, with my parents, ect...but we want them to speak Portuguse with us. Of course...we'll see how that works out! I fully understand that the kids might have different plans.

I have a Spanish friend who ONLY speaks Spanish with his children, but they usually refuse to speak in Spanish to him because they know that daddy understands English too.

[Ladylethal 12]

Well, my native language is Portuguese. Luis's native language is Spanish. We met and dated in English, as we were both fluent in it. We spoke English only till I moved here. Since we're in PR I learned Spanish (I knew a bit) after I arrived and we use mostly Spanish in our house although I go back to English when I can't express myself in Spanish (I'm almost fluent but some things still confuse me) in the way I want.

Luis has taken a lot of trips to Brasil so he now knows Portuguese. He understands it perfectly and will speak a mix of portuguese and spanish to my family which they understand but its not fluent portuguese.

Since Luis is joining the Air Force we'll most likely be living in the US for our next several years together and we plan to teach our kids all 3 languages. I'll speak Portuguese to them, he'll speak Spanish, and they'll know English from the environment.

Edited December 29, 2009 by Ladylethal