Language question! Advice pls :)

[SaijaM]

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all good today :)

I'm in a process of starting childminding and actually really excited about it!
However I'm not entirely sure how to deal with the following dilemma, any advice appreciated!

Basically I'm from Finland and my husband is English. We have a daughter together (9 months) and obviously she will stay with me whilst I'm minding.. which is why I wanted to be a minder in the first place.

However, when I speak to her, I only speak Finnish (when directly speaking to her).. but when I'm minding, I obviously will have to speak English.. I guess? I don't want to confuse the other kids too much!

Will this confuse my daughter?? Any experience?

Hmmm... have to think some ways around this....

Thanks xx
Saija

[Kimmy050983]

Hi Saija,

this is interesting as I have got the exact same "problem".
I only speak German to Jamie. I have thought long about it but made the decision to keep speaking German to Jamie and the after whatever I have said , say the same in English. So no kid is left out BUT my son still gets the benefit of being bilingual. It is so important that you do keep at it and he will reap huge benefits from it when he´s older :)

I will tell parents that is the way I´ll do it and one friend actually said, if she´d have children she would want me to talk German to them:laughing:

Kimmy

[SaijaM]

Hi again Kimmy :)

That's great to hear, I will do the same :) I really want her to be bilingual and I realise I need to keep up with the Finnish language at all times in order for that to happen.

I have a mindee queing up also, and the parents said they would be happy for me to speak Finnish to her too, as it's so beneficial to any child .. however wanted to ask the question, as I will have other parents (well, hope so anyhow!) asking about it I'm sure...

Thanks xx
Saija

[huggableshelly]

offering 2 languages within any setting is a fantastic asset to have, you are showing diversity being able to cater for atleast 2 different languages and encouraging children to interact with eachother in ways they would not at home.

make sure you add it to your adverts/portfolio and self evaluation form when you do one.

if i were you I would also label toy boxes up in finnish and english, use your skills to its full potential and enjoy childminding.

[pinkbutterfly]

Don't worry your daughter will not be confused. Children learn language in a different way to adults so she will just take as it comes. She will ... in time mix the languages a little bit ... say half sentence in English and half in Finnish (or odd words) but that's just natural and in time everything will fall back into place. It's all worth it. Good luck

[WibbleWobble]

even if your mindees never use the finnish they learn, the part of the brain used for language is stimulated and it is known that children who are spoken to in two languages at a young age find it easier to learn languages at school. :thumbsup:

My friend is Turkish, her hubby is english. The kids are bilingual and are excelling at other languages at school...they say they find it easy.!
It can be funny when a word in turkish means something different in english-

my hubby's name is Phil.... phil (not sure of the spelling for the turkish word) means ELEPHANT! so he always gets elephant related birthday cards and gifts from them.... :laughing:

mandy xx

[Alibali]

It'll be fine, she'll adapt in no time, I have friends one Scottish and his wife from Equador, they both spoke to sons in their own language and by the time lo was 2 he would speak to mum and then go to dad and tell dad the same thing in English as dad couldn't interpret:) Very clever.

[Dragonfly]

I have a problem with just english !!!!!!. I think its very important that you carry on speaking both languages.You pick things up so much easier as a child so you could end up with lots of mindees speaking two different languages brill:thumbsup:

[SaijaM]

Thanks so much, so re-assuring to hear all the positive replies :)
I will keep up the Finnish then :)

xx Saija

[tulip0803]

I am in Wales in a Welsh speaking area - I have some Welsh & use it with the children & use English too. Some families here only speak Welsh, some only English and some have parents who each speak a different language to them. Also got a lot of Polish familes so there is a bit of Polish here too although I can only say hello & bye:blush:

I would use it as a selling point and stress, as Parsley that by hearing different languages from a young age makes it easier to learn other languages at school. Make the most of it and shout about it. I would love to place my child in bilingual care as it is great for their development. I was taught to sandwich short sentences for English speaking children so you say a word of phrase in Finnish - English - Finnish. It helps an english speaking child to understand but stresses the Finnish to help them remember.

And they will muddle both up because they understand both languages. My daughters are bi-lingual and the youngest has been here fom a baby and will often speak sentences in both english & Welsh and can switch from one to the other without thinking. I have to think hard to switch cos I have only been learning in the last few years. When she was 3 she counted up to 10 in Welsh and then continued in English as she understood that they meant the same thing.

My friend's daughter is 5 and speaks Polish, English, Welsh and Persian. AT 3 she was purposefully teaching people words in her other languages so we would know them too, Shame it isn't so easy for an adult to remember them:rolleyes:

Good luck!!

[manjay]

It's a definite yes from me too. We are one of the only countries in Europe that doesn't bring children up bilingually and in most countries they are able to speak more than 2.

I live in a very Welsh speaking area and I am trying my hardest to learn as much Welsh as possible. I attended a lecture recently delivered by a professor of languages and he couldn't promote enough how much bilingualism helps a child's cognition.

As a parent I would love this sort of environment for my child:thumbsup:

[ninagee]

I have always spoken to my own dd7 and ds5 in greek and they answer back in a mixture of greek/english. I labelled all the toy boxes in both languages before I started childminding so when I had potential parents turn up they were impressed.

I now have lo1 who has spanish/english spoken at home. Another lo2 has polish/english at home. I sent home a list of words i.e. numbers 1-20, colours, shapes, house, car, school, shops etc and both sets of parents have added the translations underneath which I have on display.

Both parents are quite happy for me to speak to them in greek and I have picked up some spanish along the way but struggling with polish! On some days we have four languages spoken which can be quite fun! I'll say the word first in english followed by the appropriate language.

Continue with speaking to your daughter in your own language. It will benefit her a great deal when she is older.

Nina :)