My little girl turns 2 years on feb 21 and I'm very excited because she will be able to sing along when we cut the cake. My girlfriend and I are from different language groups and we use words from both languages in our home to communicate with the child. She seems to comprehend the words easily regardless of the language we choose to use at the moment , e.g , come give mommy/daddy a hug , in our languages sounds quite different from one another. My concern is will she develop a normal language structure ( mental ) like any child in a monolingual family setup ? If not what should we do , normally in our society the paternal lineage dominates and I'm not comfortable with that sort of arrangement. I want my child to be able to speak both our languages without any prejudice , after all it's a huge advantage in all spheres of life in our society. Thanks.:confused:

Children learn languages so easily before they are 5 or 6. Make sure that the child spends plenty of time with your girlfriend so that the second language is part of her, just like the parental language will be.

Hi,

It is perfectly fine for you and your partner to speak to your little girl in different languages, she will be able to grasp both the languages, I have seen many children around me who can easily adapt and speak different native languages.

Wish her a very happy birthday

I watched a therapist once talk about this on a TV show. He suggested so as to make things go faster and smoother , that each parent choose a different language and stick to this choice at first. Then after a while they can start mixing when they feel the child has grasped the difference. But even if both of you mix them from the start, in the end it will work out but it will just take longer and will give more room for unnecessary confusion. I learnt 3 languages as a child. My parents spoke one language at home, the country I was in had a completely different language, and the school I went to a third different language and I now speak all 3.
I don't really master any of them, but I manage lol I also learned 2 other languages as a grown up, one of which I completely forgot and the second one , well I mostly understand than speak it. Probably bcoz I don't practice it. All this and I am not really genetically predisposed to speak many languages lol because I am a slow learner so I think your child will be just fine don't worry hehe

You should be proud of your daughter, man. Researches have shown that children who learn more than one language in early age tend to develop higher IQ. So don't worry, just take care of your daughter well. Wishing her a happy birthday :)

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Originally Posted by edzmedz

I watched a therapist once talk about this on a tv show. He suggested so as to make things go faster and smoother , that each parent choose a different language and stick to this choice at first. Then after a while they can start mixing when they feel the child has grasped the difference. But even if both of u mix them from the start, in the end it will work out but it will just take longer and will give more room for unnecessary confusion. I learnt 3 languages as a child. My parents spoke one language at home, the country i was in had a completely different language, and the school i went to a third different language and i now speak all 3.
i don't really master any of them, but i manage lol I also learned 2 other languages as a grown up, one of which i completely forgot and the second one , well i mostly understand than speak it. Probably bcoz i don't practice it. All this and i am not really genetically predisposed to speak many languages lol coz i am a slow learner so i think ur child will be just fine don't worry hehe

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Thanks edzmeds , I speak 3 languages myself and can read and understand 2 more from our locality. But like yourself I learned my native language first then others later on. I 'll be visiting professionals more regularly from now on to seek further advice but hey thanks a lot cheers !

Sounds great, keep the child around the various speech groups. This is wonderful thing for a child to learn.