Parenting Stack Exchange
Parenting Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [language]

Use of language in general, and about learning foreign languages. See also the tags [language-development] and [bilingual].

76 questions
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What are some strategies for raising a bilingual child?

We are planning on raising our child bi-lingual. The plan is for my husband to only speak English to her and I would only speak Tagalog (a dialect of the Philippines). I have asked my parents to also only speak to her in Tagalog since she will get…
Rhea
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8 answers

My child witnessed a toddler being taught to cuss by older kids. How to deal with rude language at social gatherings?

I took my 9 year old son to a little social gathering with some kids from different sporting activities. Some of the families attending this gathering come from a very "rough" background. One of the boys about the age of my son was teaching his baby…
manuelBetancurt
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15 answers

Teaching my son a language he doesn't want to learn

My stepson is a six-year-old native Japanese speaker. When my wife and I first met and as we started getting more serious in our relationship, we didn't put a whole lot of effort into attempting to teach him English. Every time the topic was…
SomeShinyObject
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Toddler made "incorrect" animal identification that is actually correct. Better to correct her or not?

My niece is a year and a half old. I was reading a book on animals with her recently and helping her learn the names of the animals in it. I noticed that she identified the picture of a lion as a "kitty". Is it pedagogically better at this point to…
Robert Columbia
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44
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10 answers

Too many languages?

I am actually a language researcher, but when it comes to my own situation I have a hard time being objective and make some choices for my own family. My husband and I are expecting our first child, and I am really confused as to which languages we…
Wand
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36
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11 answers

Raising a bilingual kid. When should we introduce the majority language?

We are a family living in an English speaking country with a 3-year-old. My wife and I speak both French and English and we are committed to raise our kid bilingual in both languages. So far our approach has been to expose him only to French since…
Arm
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34
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15 answers

How do my wife and I stop our son from learning to swear from us?

My wife and I both tend to have... colorful language (for me it tends to be far worse when driving). Our son just turned one, and is starting to become more verbal. He's not quite at the point where he's repeating whatever we say, but it is just…
user420
28
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3 answers

Expat child refuses to learn local language

We are a Spanish family who has recently relocated to England with our children. Our 6 year old boy can't speak nor understand English; he knows some words, basic phrases and a few numbers, but that is all. He keeps saying that he wants to go "back…
Diego Sánchez
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27
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8 answers

Why do parents refer to themselves in the third person?

Can anyone explain to me the reason why parents tend to refer to themselves in the third person, when talking to their young children? E.g.: "Hold Daddy's hand while we cross the road" as opposed to "Hold my hand while we cross the road" Is there…
UpTheCreek
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26
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8 answers

Do I keep my daughter's Russian vocabulary small or not?

My husband is American, and I am Russian. We live in US in an area without a large Russian community. My relatives are in Russia. Our daughter is nine months old, and I have been speaking to her in Russian only since she was born. Of late, I have…
Isabella Leonarda
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Should I correct my daughter's pronunciation of ballet terms?

I'm a Hong Konger. I grew up in Montréal, Canada so I speak French, albeit with a perfect Québécois accent (which I'm proud of). I now live in Hong Kong. My daughter was born in Hong Kong and mostly speaks Cantonese. I haven't started teaching…
Kal
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12 answers

How can I convince my child to write?

Recently my child(3.5 Years old) has joined a pre-school class. A couple of months passed and he participated in all types of activities and events. He has also learned oral words. Sometimes feel he uncomfortable in writing at school and at home. If…
Gourav Joshi
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What if my kids don't want me to speak my native language?

My children are raised multilingual; we live in Austria and they learn all their German from my wife and from the world around us. I'm Danish and I want my kids to know that language too, so since birth I've exclusively spoken Danish to them even…
Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
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Does anyone recognize where the phrase "Dinosaur on the button" comes from?

Our 3.5-year-old son has picked up a catchphrase/joke punchline from somewhere... but we can't figure out where it came from, his teachers can't figure it out, his daycare teachers can't figure it out, and google has been no help at all. I even…
cabbey
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What language should I use to talk to my baby?

I know two languages: My 'mother tongue' and English. I used to speak my mother tongue until I moved to an English-speaking country at the age of 8. Consequently, my mother tongue is at the level of a typical 8 year old i.e. I'm not very…
Anon
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