[Closed] What 3rd Language for the little one to study?

😆

Surely French or Spanish as that will cover the three most common languages in the world.

I was thinking of dusting off my old Latin books, it would give him a good basis of other European languages for the future.

I would just pick a European language rather than have him learn a dead language.[url=

I believe Eddie Izzard had some thoughts on the subject.[/url]

Edit: If you want them to speak the languages of both of the new economic superpowers then Indian to compliment the Chinese.

Spanish according to Radio 4. As it's Latin based it'll be an intro to French, Italian etc. and he can practise with Dora the Explorer 🙂

Mark Datz?

ignore French - it's dying.

English is the [i]lingua franca[/i] of the world now 😉

Maybe Spanish or Portugese?

How about Welsh?

I suspect if you try to get a kid to learn three languages simultaneously, you stand a strong chance of them doing badly at all of them. Do badly at English and you'll struggle through your education.

But I'm not a speech therapist.

He's 8 months old and you're choosing his options at school?

Get his marriage arranged too this week, why don't ya?

There are good reasons to study Latin - I did a few years of it - but not sure I'd push a kid into it. I'd say French but mostly leave it to the school.

Maybe you could teach the kid 'troll' 😉

norwegian. birds are well hot in norway innit.

Have you thought of names for his kids yet?

Mum only speaks Chinese in front of him.

Is that Mandarin or Satsuma?

Sign Language.

Children can develop the capacity to express themselves through sign language before they can communicate verbally.

Is that Mandarin or Satsuma?

how about a bit of boxing?

Thats ace, so you and your wife will never have a conversation in front of him? Unless you have a conversation where you are speaking english and she replies in chinese which surely is going to confuse the little fella.

classic, 8 months old... and already getting lumbered with latin.. poor little sod!

latin. you get french, italian, spanish, bits of several other european languages and english for free.

kids who are multilingual from an early age tend to do well on it.

Is that Mandarin or Satsuma?

hehe

+1

This thread reeks of child one-upmanship, but then I'm only jealous as I can barely speak English.

Glaswegian.
The three combined with the kick boxing will be a winning combination.

..where you are speaking english and she replies in chinese

It worked for Chewy and Han Solo (except not English and Chinese).

Han Solo 😆

Not latin. You get some of French spanish etc but you might as well learn one of those languages directly and get some use out of it. Latin is not useful on its own anywhere, and it's dead hard. Why bother ramming home the finer points of a grammar that no-one cares about?

I'd say French or Spanish. French mainly because out of all the European countries I can think of that's the place you're least likely to meet an English speaker.

It's hard though for an English speaker, since it's intonation and subtleties of inflexion are hard for Anglophones to manage. German and Scandinavian etc are much easier from this point of view, but if you learn how to listen and pronounce French properly you've had practise in a difficult skill (that is, understanding subtleties that aren't in your language). Learning German won't teach you this.

[url=

Depardoo (Alan Partridge content)[/url] at 2:40 in. Or you could listen to the whole sketch cos it's genius 🙂

essex, innit

How exactly are you going to teach them another language? My kids speak two but we live in another country. Going to employ à foreign nanny as it is pointless teaching them that young. Swedish nanny, mumsfillibaba.

Spanish or arabic. ignore the detractors, the younger he is, the easier it is to learn languages. I hated my parents forcing languages on me, and I'm by no means fluent, but lessons from 5 onwards in French did me very well and also get by in German/Dutch, Spanish, italian and some Greek. I like the idea of Latin to form a basis of understanding, perhaps it is the common rules of Latin that help me with other European languages?

I hated my parents forcing languages on me, and I'm by no means fluent

Hmmmm...

Klingon.

C#

You're in China, aren't you? How about Japanese then 😆

C# is old hat. F# is what you want - get ahead of the curve 🙂

trolling or the ultimate middle class dilemma. Not sure yet.

He'll know the word for a boy chicken in lots of languages...

He'll know the word for a boy chicken in lots of languages...

I spoke English at home and Welsh everywhere else form the age of 5 to 11. By the end of it I could speek welsh better than English and couln't tell the difference unless I concentrated on what I/the other pweron/the book was saying!

I'd leave it for school, trying a third language with no context is just going to confuse him, at the moment I guess he barely registers that mum speeks one and dad the other, if they both start speeking a third lot of jibberish he's going to be confused entirely!

Aged 5 it took me about a term to pick up almost fluent Welsh, so if it bothers you find a private school that will teach him in a 3rd langage at that point.

Be careful tho. I know a few English families that moved to Wales with the result that their kids are fluent in a language that the parents don't understand. Has a few interesting discipline issues 🙂

Swedish. The Swedish girls are HOT!!!!

I found this out after a 3 week trip round Sweden a few weeks back. He'll love you for it 😉

If you're not trolling, then I'd suggest relaxing a little.

Latin will give you the structure and basis for all of Europe's romantic languages, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan, Corsican, Lombard, Occitan, Gascon, Aromanian, Sardinian, Sicilian, Venetian, Galician, Neapolitan and Friulian amongst others.

Or just not bother and let him sort it out himself when he cares. A friend's son is Dutch/Chinese and has learned to speak Dutch/English/Cantonese without having to allocate specific adults/rooms or times of day to any partiucular language or dialect.

How about you teach him to speak Working Class, help him not get beaten up when he mixes with normal people.

How about you teach him to speak Working Class, help him not get beaten up when he mixes with normal people.

Excellent. Cos obviously there is no way he could be working class and have a Chinese mother and English father? Or is it the fact that the OP thinks education might be in some way important that makes you think he must be "posh"?

Yarkshire!

I happen to think an education is important.

Almost as important as having a balanced, rational and 'fun' childhood.

Have a nephew who's dual language, father is (well spoken) Aussie, mother is French Canadian, so he learnt English/French.
Other than the hilarity of his pointing to a cat and using the French word for it (I didn't realise) he's done OK.
But, he was way behind the curve in terms of linguistic ability for a few years, just the pure effort of learning a new word and it being said several different ways.
Remember, he's not learning the alternate way to say cat, he's learning that the fluffy thing that just coughed up a hair ball should be named 'cat' or whatever. Teaching three different words for a specific object may be pretty tough when it's hard enough to figure out plurals etc.
Good luck though, multi-lingual is a real bonus I think.

Troll. Spanish would be my choice but at a suitable age not 8 months.

Our 2 year old son loves sign language though. Mr Tumble on CBeebies has a lot to answer for!

Spanish, English and Chinese will all he'll need in 10yrs time.

Often found Latin very useful for working out European words but I think Spanish would be a better one to pick.

Spanish or Arabic seem the obvious 'world' choices but as already mentioned by others how the hell do you introduce that?
Surely the point of children picking up language is that it's in their surroundings & they pick up it by default?

I'm an expat with my kids speaking primarily Flemish but also english.
My eldest who is now 5 has french lessons at school 1 afternoon a week already but it's very different to his exposure to English & Flemish

Fluent bullshit?

I reckon if you have English you have to choose another language because you have a connection to it. Like for example, Welsh if you live in Wales, Spanish if you live in the USA or whatever. You don't need either of those to get by, but let you into another culture/society that you wouldn't otherwise be able to participate in.

Isn't Latin a little tricky to learn as a language, being as pronounciation is a guess? I remember being it taught it completely phonetically, which to be fair is how my Italian colleague has told me to read Italian.. so maybe that's not so far off.
Spanish realisitically, an indian dialect (sinhalese? hindi? tamil? marathi? there's quite a choice you know) might be handy but all the ones I work with want to speak English.

Brassneck - the pronunciation in Latin is WAY more straightforward than in our daft language!

Always very impressed with truly bi or multi lingual people. Have a mate who is completely fluent in Spanish, German and Italian and very good at French. Amazing!

txt spk

My three year old speaks Mandarin and English. Her Mum is Taiwanese. As a couple of other posters have said, there needs to be a reason and constant input in any language they learn, so they hear it everyday. Otherwise you're into language classes and tutors. Something for the future maybe.

I do know that when she goes "home" to Taipei with her Mum, she comes back speaking much more Chinese, simply because no-one speaks English.

It's a difficult one! Mrs midgebait is expecting at the end of August and we're not sure whether the 'bump' should learn classical guitar or piano.

I'll have to post for advice closer to the time 😉

Eh? johni, calling me a troll???
Confused I am if you are?
❓

use of the term 'the little one' = middle class OP

they should learn portuguese, Brazil is where it's all at, innit

not a Troll, both myself and my wife are fluent in both languages so he does hear both languages all the time.
As any parent does, we read to him (in our respective languages) and because we are living in China for the next several years, when we do come back to England, I'd like him to be on the same language level as any English child would be.
Also, looking forward to the future, it's going to be hard out there, so I'd like for him to have a skill other children might not.
I'm not going to be a pushy parent, but he WILL do dance class especially if he hates it, and he is no way allowed to go MTB like his dad, as it's way to dangerous (hope he hates dance class, and sneaks out on his bike) otherwise I might have a gay latin speaker for a son 🙁
Seriously though, I'm not going to introduce a 3rd language for a few years yet, but we do have a neighbor whose 4 year old can speak Dutch (Father), Portuguese (Mother), a little English (Kindergarten) and Chinese (Nanny)

I'm not going to be a pushy parent, but he WILL do dance class especially if he hates it

Eh?

Btw picking up a language from someone he knows and spends a lot of time with is a massively different proposition from teaching it to him and making him learn.

no way allowed to go MTB like his dad, as it's way to dangerous

who won't allow him? you or chairwoman mao?

seems like a great troll or quite disturbing insight....

I'd say if you are living in China and want him to have strong English on your return, English should be the stronger language in the home when you get to the point of more complex interaction between the 3 of you. With plenty of exposure to mandarin outside of the home this should come naturally too. I have two English friends (well, one is from Norfolk - does that really count as English?) who live in Spain in a village where they are just about the only English speakers but obviously speak English in the house. Their kids are 100% as fluent in Spanish as they are in English despite this. White European British types like me tend to forget quite how common this set up is in Britain with Asian families who are more than comfortable conversing English outside the house and another language within - a skill I wish I had.

I'm no linguist, but sit on my school's curriculum committee and have sat through numerous meetings regarding the direction for language provision in the future. The school does teach latin but only to a group of gifted linguists who opt to do it. Interestingly the school is now following what seems to be a modern trend of reintroducing it to a wider audience as a lot of recent research indicates that weaker linguists who have been exposed to latin make more progress in romantic languages if they have some latin experience too. It is also obviously is not taught from a conversational perspective so does not require as much curriculum time as say French or Spanish. A bit of "fun" latin games with dad in a few years might be a good thing but I'd leave it at that for a good long while. As for a choice of third or forth MFL, potential choice of future school will have a lot of bearing on this as most have a core MFL that all learn.

So, let me get this right, you started this thread to show the world what a great parent you are because you want your kid to be able to speak three languages?

iDave - Member

no way allowed to go MTB like his dad, as it's way to dangerous

who won't allow him? you or chairwoman mao?

seems like a great troll or quite disturbing insight....

Tavis wrote:-

...Seriously though,

Dave - your irony detection setting needs turning up a little

Klingon, definitely Klingon.

Or Elvish.

So, let me get this right, you started this thread to show the world what a great parent you are because you want your kid to be able to speak three languages?

Why would you think that?

Seems to me he was just asking what people thought were useful languages.

yep I am.

We speak both languages at home, but when time comes he'll be attending a Chinese language only school, so then the emphasis will change to English at home, and Chinese outside.

I was thinking of Latin as it's a good base for the Romantic languages, and not knowing where we shall be (in the world) in 8 years, maybe it will help him in the future.
I was keen on knowing what other STW think would be a good idea.

I always wanted to study Elvish, so maybe that might be good, we could chat and no-one would know what we are on about 🙂

If he attends a Chinese school, chances are English will be his weaker language. Depending when you come back, there'll be some catching up to do. Not sure on the wisdom of a 3rd language tho. Or the availability and quality of tuition in China. Would have thought it a bit scarce.

We speak both languages at home, but when time comes he'll be attending a Chinese language only school, so then the emphasis will change to English at home, and Chinese outside.

That would give me the fear. I know a lot of Chinese people from Uni, and the Chinese education system seems to produce people who think differently to what's wanted in UK universities. Of course, it's possible to adjust, but it's hassle I wouldn't want.

A friend does the same, he's English and mum is French. Its worked for their two kids - multi-lingual, down to winding up mum and dad in their 2nd languages.

And another friend in the same position only spoke French in their house, consequently the kids only speak French...

tbh I wouldn't worry about a 3rd language at the moment, wait until there is a reason for a particular one.

we do have a neighbor whose 4 year old can speak Dutch (Father), Portuguese (Mother), a little English (Kindergarten) and Chinese (Nanny)

Sounds like a case of trying to keep up with the Jones's

I wouldnt bother teaching him any other languages to be honest, it'll just confuse him.

I only know English and it hasnt been a problem for me when I go on holiday to Fuengirola. I manage by speaking in a raised voice and I can always repeat the sentence a few times till Im understood.

Thankfully in Fuengirola and generally on the sunshine coast of spain, alot of the people speak good English, or are English (even better) so communicating isnt too much bother.

Klingon, definitely Klingon.

Or Elvish.

There's a guy works down the chip shop I'd swear he's Elvish.

<tips hat to Kirsty and Terry>

Tron - completely agree. We only want him to do Primary School in the mainstay system, so that he gets a good grounding in the language.
Whilst he's at Primary school, he'll get extra lessons (and the main language at home will be) in English.
When we leave here, his Mum will take over, and he'll get extra lessons in Chinese.
There is no way I'd let him continue with Chinese Education after Primary School. Just way to much pressure on the children.

B r - I'm not worried at the moment, just wondered in the future, which language would be useful. With him speak both Mandarin and English, he's pretty much got the world covered, but I'd like him to have a 3rd string to his bow.

dtf -

As an aside, a mates girlfriend is British-born Chinese. I gave her a lift once (helping to fix her car). She rang her mum and was like

"[i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [b]Halfords [/b][i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [b]locking wheel-nut[/b] [i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [i]something in mandarin something in mandarin [/i] [b]the AA[/b]"

Somethings she'd just never learnt the words for. I didn't know she spoke it though so was well confused when she first picked up the phone!

brassneck - very good.

Isn't Latin a little tricky to learn as a language, being as pronounciation is a guess?

The languages you really want to learn are the ones of places that are poor now. Why? Because in 20/30 years they will be the ones developing fastest and big business/government/occupying military will need people to speak the language.

So have a crack at Swahili, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi...or Portuguese (Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome & Principe - though the boat may have been missed on that last one) or French (all of Francophone Africa). Spanish should still be good, although there are obviously a lot of Spanish-English bilingual people in the world - although not so many Spanish-Chinese, I'd imagine.

And Arabic, of course - and quite possibly Chinese and Arabic together will be lingui franci (?) coming up the rear of English pretty soon.

Hmmm. I reckon Latin's well worth it for the air of worldliness it bestows upon the speaker, not to mention the sideways door into the Old Boys' Network of ex-public schoolboys jobs club...

8 months old? what about just having some fun, and playing with stuff. You know, kicking a football about or whatever. you worry too much. Even if he doesnt speak another word of english until he is 6 yrs old or whatever, he'll still be fine. he'll pick it up in no time. Everyone in china manages.

And my mum is Chinese, and my Dad is english.

At eight months you'll be having fun getting him to point out the differences between a red cube and a yellow cylinder - let alone learning all the ways of describing them in three languages. But I've said all that up there I suppose.