how much time needed for immersion

[cmarango]

My dh tries his hardest to speak only spanish to my dc, but that turns out to be closer to 60% of the time. I can see huge leaps in speaking ability after my in-laws have visited and only spoken spanish to my children. So, my dh and I have been talking about spending more time in Colombia so that our children can be truly bilingual.

 

Now I need to figure out how much time we are going to spend in Colombia and what is the best way to spend that time. We are currently thinking that 2-3 months every year would be best. However, would it be better to simply go once for 2 months every year or visit 3-4 times every year for 3 weeks each.

 

Any thoughts or advice?

 

Thanks so much.

[cathmom]

I would think going for 2-3 months at a time would be better. I think with a few weeks, the dc would just get used to being there and speaking Spanish when it would be time to go home. Plus if they are there longer maybe they will make friends?

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I've seen both approaches with friends.

Some go back to their home country every year for a couple of weeks. Others, every few years for a couple of months.

Either method will help the kids to become bilingual, and either method may fail too.

What makes the difference is the attitude at home between the trips. You've got to keep studying the language at home to make the most of the trips.

[Laura Corin]

My boys were in China for four years, then we left for 18 months. When we went back for two weeks, the Chinese was back up to fluent very fast.

 

My vote would be for a longer period to achieve real fluency, then you will have more leeway in the future on what kind of trips to make. As Cleo says, you need to keep the work going at home too.

 

Laura

[jld]

Several trips a year sounds expensive (jmho).

 

Try to arrange a two month trip as soon as you can (that way you get the ball rolling). See if you can send the dc by themselves for a few months, if you feel they're old enough. If that works out, try to do it as reasonably often as you can afford it, and can stand being away from them (the hard part).

 

This is what we're doing with our kids and their grandparents in France, who don't speak English. Nothing works like immersion for getting kids who have always heard a language to speak it better.

 

You're really lucky that Spanish is your second language, as there are so many native speakers in America, and so many opportunities to keep up your kids' Spanish between trips. It's harder with other languages.

[In The Great White North]

Longer at a time is best.

 

We have been visiting German speaking countries for two or three weeks at a time, every other year all their life (and they had German in school 1-8 and ds18 studied German formally for 9th and 10th.) The only one with any fluency at all is the dd who spent 7th grade in Switzerland (total immersion with a Swiss family.) She was orally fluent (in both Swiss German and High German) by October; it was not perfect but she could understand and be understood enough to get 1's in her classes, and was getting 1's on written work (essays) by December.