The child is a mix of Chinese, Irish and French.
He has been sent back to China for a few months to learn to speak as he could not speak any languages until three. The speech therapist said he was too confused at home.
He can speak Chinese pretty well now. However he always responds back in Chinese when we speak English or French to him.
Any cheap English/ French class for kids? Or a programme? Or apps?
Thanks very much.
Sacré Bleu!
Mon dieu
Merde!
Ta ma de
Mitsubishi
j'mapelle monsieur croissant
ménage à trois
@ricklee:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7eiJ5xjPAQ
Tip: turn on Google Translate, it thinks the "Japanese" is Italian, and tries to translate it to English. Humour ensues.
Yoplait
In Chinese, they say 吃掉资本主义的肉体 which means "we are one and are the same", which I think is beautiful
That sounds like a communist country
Well said, comrade!
That is not "we are one and are the same". Judging from the awkwardness of your Chinese, you put "eat the flesh of captialism" into Google translate.
Por que no los dos?
σκατά όλα!!!
Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)
Gérard Depardieu
Why French, when he's bouncing between China and Australia?
Yeah it sounds confusing as hell!
The child is a mix of Chinese, Irish and French.
I hope he/she will also learn Irish then.
Conor McGregor!
A few longnecks will do that
And don't forget about Australian!
Whale oil beef hooked!
(say it quickly) ;)
Not hard. Just say Oirish instead of Irish…and you can go from there. :P
Dun't fook around mate, just send the kid to skuuul. I can speak Irish too, thanks to McGregor.
From the sounds of it, some people commenting don't realise that Irish is an actual language…
Did you google that? That's a bit too pretentiously pedantic for my liking. That's like saying "Spanish? No, that man speaks español."
I guess even the Irish are saying it wrong ;)
Toddlers/kids take years to learn just 1 language, let alone 3 or more. So it does confuse them a bit and takes a little longer, but they get there eventually if they are young enough and exposed to each language enough.
Chances are, they will lose 1 or 2 anyway as they get older unless you send them to classes regularly?
Don't know why you got downvoted.
Here, An upvote for you.
Everyone knows multilingual kids speak later.
And yes, whether you want it or not, they'll forget the language they don't use often. That's just the way it is. Doesn't mean they won't be able to pick it up again.
Source: I'm bilingual. Also know multi lingual friends who have forgotten least used language.
Suggestions that being brought up in a bilingual household causes speech delay should be taken with a grain of salt (research suggests kid might be on the later end of the spectrum, but still within normal limits).
3 years is delayed speech development, and there may be a huge number of factors that we know nothing about from OPs post.
OP would probably benefit from paediatrician and speech therapist input.
However, being able to speak Chinese well and understand French and English suggests that the part of his brain that comprehends, and the other part that forms words, is working. And that vocab may be the most confusing part.
Source: am bilingual and working in health
My daughter doesn't speaks properly even at 3.5 years old. She literally just says "bla bla bla" however she appears to understands us. We brought her to two speech pathologist after GP were unable to provides adequate confirmation if my daughter is having language difficulty or even deaf. i was worried sick.
Tested and confirmed she can hears well and able to understands well. Child speech pathologist told me that kids living in a bi-lingual home introduce a lot of delayed speech in a child because kids learns first words by hearing the sound, reproducing it and guessing their meaning. It's only over time they can really solidify their guesses and form an understanding.
To add to the damage, we are a tri-lingual household and all the languages' grammar tends to contradict. LOL
Anyhow, my daughter is now 6.5 years old and wouldn't shut up. She speaks english, chinese (mandarin) and understands cantonese. Loves music, arts and dancing. Reads, write in english and chinese
OP - get it check but i would not be too worried at this stage.
My son is now 3 years old, 6 months ago he would not even willing to speak but now he speaks mandarin and english interchangeably
Source: 1 bi-lingual daughter that would not shut up. 1 bi-lingual son that keeps asking "why". I read,write and speaks 3 languages …..
@stingy-oz:
The trick in our household is to sometimes include the languages in our speech - I.e one sentence will include a mix of words from the languages we speak in it. This seems to keep the languages alive and in use, at least for us.
Source: I'm tri-lingual and even the least used language is in use.
"he always responds back in chinese when we speak english or french to him"
3 languages that are very different… and at the age of 4? Nothing like putting the pressure on..
If you are residing in australia why not let him grow up with the local language and let him choose if he wants to add chinese and french to his repertoire later??
OP lives in Sydney, Chinese is the local language.
Ahhh sooo !!
Ahhh sooo !!
Pretty sure that's Japanese.
And Islam the official religion.
(Any syntax error here, Sir ?)
You started your sentence with a conjuctive racism
@cryptonator:
I don't care for cameldownunder's comment, but I was being obtuse and you knew that. I think the term 'religious intolerance' goes better.
Haha so, so true! It's actually ridiculous.
Lol i remember went overseas for 3 months my son lost his english as he was 5 teacher spoke to him in english he responded back in turkish lol few weeks past and he was back to speaking english again kids pick up quick but 3 languages will be a bit to much i would say
Çok güzel!
Learning extra languages as a kid is way easier though. I reckon it's a good advantage for the kid.
buy him an electric guitar and make learn that as well… poor kid is overloaded as hell
I think you mean violin/piano.
He mastered them as 2y/o.
Both of them
i assume he has already started medical school…..
Why you no doctor already?!
this kid invented being a doctor
and piano school and after hours tutoring..
Kids for the most part adapt very well to learning different languages. They might show a preference towards one, or might confuse and combine languages at times, but it is a great idea to expose them to a few different languages at once.
Just talk to the boy in the languages you want him to learn, and with enough frequency and volume for him to get the hang of it (don't speak one word of Dothraki and expect him to become Khal.) He didn't respond in Chinese when he was first immersed in Chinese language, he won't respond in English or French when he is first immersed in them either.
Kids don't learn languages with as much difficulty as adults.
Bonus, kids who learn multiple languages grow up to be more empathetic adults.
Source: I myself speak two languages, and work with children who speak two (or more) languages on a daily basis.
Bonus, kids who learn multiple languages grow up to be more empathetic adults.
Why?
Was frontpage reddit a few weeks ago. I think the logic behind it was because speaking different languages allows one to see from different points of view. Things like culture and worldview are highly embedded into language.
Hmmm, I suppose so…interesting!
Did a quick search for you. I think this was the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6ou0wt/til_t…
but it is a great idea to expose them to a few different languages at once
Sorry but is it? Where's the evidence? OP is literally saying the child cannot speak properly at 3 due to too many languages which is not a great idea.
Starting with "kids for the most part" was me covering my ass. But at the same time, I find it dubious that that was really true. I can see it delaying, sure, but not preventing entirely. But then, you don't ask a question on Ozbargain and expect an educated opinion based on a full evaluation.
world is a complex place. If you want him to think he is brilliant than don't expose him and feed his delusion like many parents. If your happy for him to be uncomfortable with the fluid nature of meaning and expression than expose him. he might not end up being a self promoting boss type like we're all supposed to be, but he may have a deeper understanding of the world and himself along with cultural sensitivity and awareness. Also the linguistic strength of nuanced meaning and connotation is of absolute benefit.
due to too many languages
Impossible to prove. Could be many other causes. Sample size = 1 …
I'm only mono lingual, but have known plenty of kids growing up in multi-lingual households.
From what I have seen, younger kids tend to favour a language, and will sometimes use grammatical constructions or sprinkle words from their preferred language into the other ones.
Once your youngster is at school, assuming they go to an normal school, they will have English all the time and I would be very surprised if they don't switch behaviours to using English as their "go to" language as a result.
FWIW, I am skeptical of the advice from the speech therapist that your child was 'too confused' to speak. It sounds like what somebody who deals with cognitive delays and other medical issues routinely might say if they were asked about the impact of multi-linguism. Kids in Switzerland don't need to be sent to France or Germany to learn how to talk in a multi-lingual environment. Who knows whether the kid would now be speaking English if those few months were spent in AU just conversing in English?
If you feel speech therapy is required, maybe get a second opinion?
Agreed.
seconded and thirded.
forth and fifth
Our experience is there is no delay in language development. I speak Cantonese to our son, my wife speak to him in English and occasionally Mandarin and Baharsa. My parents speak to him in Cantonese only and my wife's family is a mixed of English, Cantonese and Hakka!
Our son has been speaking full sentence in English and Cantonese since 2 where those are the 2 languages he got exposed to most. He used to respond to me in Cantonese but lately switched to English, while still responding to my parents in Cantonese.
I suspect that he knows that I can speak English as I converse with my wife mostly in English and he has switched to English with me. While he always see my parents in Cantonese so he speak in Cantonese to them.
I think the key is consistency with the same family member speaking the same language and they will pick it up. It is up to them how they want to reply, it's not something you can force.
Sixthed. But there's only 4 upvotes. Suspicious.
Very interesting, now that you point it out. I think it also true for me. Whenever conflict arise at work I prefer look at both side point of views and try to mediate, than jump on one side. Im learning a third language atm too, a silent one that babies speak b4 they learn verbal. Very intriguing to say the least.
Kids pick up languages a lot easier than adults, their brains are still developing the pathways…
We speak mostly English to our 21 month old daughter.
Wife sometimes speaks to her in Viet (when she's naughty).
Wife's family speak to her mostly in Viet.
My parents speak to her in English, but sometimes in French.
She can count to 20 in English, 10 in Viet and French and sing a few Viet/French songs.
I don't think she realises they are different languages though…
Nice!
Probably doesn't realize they are different languages in the same way that we do, but as she grows she will speak in different languages to different people (ie. respond to viet in viet).
Yeah, she's a bit too young. Same as counting. She can't actually count yet, she is just reciting what she has memorised.
she'd become aware of the different meanings of the actual words giving her a richer and more complex understanding of EVERYTHING! her force will be AMAZE! 50 words for snow and all the rubbish!
Trust me she does. Once they are the stage of counting they know the language differences.
My child default to English at childcare and switches to whatever we are speaking at home. We set the rules so that we only use her second language at home. If she uses English she gets ignored.
Here's a documentary on how to get kids to do what you want them to: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099938/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuhs2GWrnXc
This 4 year old can speak 7 languages. They did it by hiring a nanny for each language.
let him learn and forget 'standardised' ages and markers for where he should be as prescribed by an expert. let him speak chinese…the sound and tonal phonics of mandarin is extremely versatile and broad. He will be able to correctly imitate all the sounds many who learn it later cannot master. make sure though he gets his "th" and "r" sounds…and unusual diphthong English combinations as well though. that will happen anyway.
The child is a mix of Chinese, Irish and French.
The real question is what language do you dream in?
Interesting that my friend asked me the same question half an hour ago.
I am bilingual(or multi- if dialects are considered as languages) and I dream/think in both Mandarin and English,depending on the situation.
Ask your speech therapist. They can help better than internet strangers.