We are in a somewhat unique situation (I guess) in that we've got 3 generations in 1 house, cover 3 languages between us and run a language school. Our mix of Spanglemanish (Spanish, German and English) makes for some great conversation in the house and many hilarious moments of being lost in translation. With our latest addition to the family of course the question came up of how we will bring him language wise. My wife has a teaching degree in Spanish and English Philology (language and culture) which I'm hoping will come in really handy when our son goes to school. But when do you start with exposing your children to other languages?
Well ... basically from day they are born (we think). However there is a difference between language learning through a native speaker in the house (parents, grand parents or other relatives) or by sending your kids to a learning centre. We often get requests from parents at our Spanish school wanting to enrol their 1-year old in language classes. To which we say NO as it is almost impossible to do any structured language learning at that age. A good age to start structured learning is probably from 5 years onwards. If you want to start earlier one thing you can do is to expose your children to another language - but that's better in an unstructured format (not at a school). ... read more >>
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