Has anyone read The Bilingual Edge?

[Sarah CB]

I read it last year and was really inspired to try to create a bilingual environment. The neat thing about The Bilingual Edge is that it gives hope to those who are not fluent in a second language and gives practical advice on how to create a bilingual environment even if you don't speak the other language. I kind of lost steam during our move and renos last year, but I'd love to start putting some of the ideas I read about into play.

 

Is there anyone out there who is not fluent in a second language but is trying to create a bilingual environment?

 

Marie Filion (author of The Easy French) is going to be speaking at our convention on how to create an immersion environment even if you're not fluent in the language and I'm looking forward to gleaning some ideas from her.

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

I haven't read the book, but we're working on a third spoken language here (Spanish) and I definitely do not master that language!

So in a sense, I'm dealing with that situation now. I'm also looking for various ideas.

[mommaduck]

I read it last year and was really inspired to try to create a bilingual environment. The neat thing about The Bilingual Edge is that it gives hope to those who are not fluent in a second language and gives practical advice on how to create a bilingual environment even if you don't speak the other language. I kind of lost steam during our move and renos last year, but I'd love to start putting some of the ideas I read about into play.

 

Is there anyone out there who is not fluent in a second language but is trying to create a bilingual environment?

 

Marie Filion (author of The Easy French) is going to be speaking at our convention on how to create an immersion environment even if you're not fluent in the language and I'm looking forward to gleaning some ideas from her.

 

I'm not fluent in a second language. Hubby is VERY familiar with Spanish and is working at becoming fluent. We are doing our best to create a multi lingual environment. For the older children, this will be more of a familiarity; for the younger children we hope they will become naturally bilingual. My children have been introduced to Spanish, Italian, and Greek. However, they are currently learning/continuing Sign Language, Latin, and Cherokee. We want them to be fluent in ASL and Cherokee.

[Nan in Mass]

I was fairly successful for awhile, then sort of dropped it. And now I'm trying to start again. And keep forgetting to speak French. Or when I remember, either don't remember or don't know how to say what I need to say. Or the circumstances aren't right (like teaching how to drive or homeschooling). But, this is the weekend, and I've been trying and failing all fall so I'm remembering better now and even remembered sometimes over the last two weeks, so I'm sort of started, and the recent threads have helped motivate me. One of the reasons I'm excited about the board name change is that I know I need lots of support to do this. What sort of things are you trying to do?

-Nan

[mommaduck]

Question:

 

What were some of the suggestions in the book?

[cathmom]

I agree that it was hopeful. What I really liked was how it made it so clear that babies and little dc do not learn from videos or CDs. I was speaking only German with my twins until last summer when I got way too tired. Right now I don't know what to do.

 

Here is the review of it I wrote on my blog: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/cathmom/562478/

[anabelneri]

I know this is an old thread, but I felt like answering anyway.

 

I hope to someday have a bilingual household... I've requested that book from the library but haven't read it yet. My husband took a lot of French in high school, and our older daughter and I have been "chasing" French for the past 3.5 years. We've been buying used French board books from our local used bookstore, and reading them regularly. We have listened to every kids' French CD from the libraries in the area, and sometimes we watch movies in French.

 

I tend to be really flaky about things, but with trying to learn a language it seems that I'm like a dog who doesn't want to let go of her bone. We've been gnawing at this language for so long, and even when we're not actively learning new things we're still listening to French in the car and it keeps our language-learning lamp dimly lit.

 

We've had a hard time finding a good curriculum as a result. Last year we had a tutor who used Alex et Zoe with us, but she moved and we've been back to the drawing board. We have level 1 Rosetta Stone, but that's not such a great fit with a younger child (and now I have a toddler who is "learning" too). We've also tried Tell Me More, but that's not even as good as Rosetta Stone with a young'un. This year we've started the Learnables, which is going well so far. I've been reading all the French curriculum threads here lately, which is how I found this one.

 

Now and then we think about moving to Canada, because it seems like learning French would be easier. But who knows?

 

I think this thread struck a nerve,

Thanks,

Anabel

[Mabelen]

I haven't read the book, but we are a semi bilingual household.

 

I communicate with my girls in Spanish because I am a native Spanish speaker. My children answer in English most of the time, but if I ask them to say it in Spanish they do. Our family language is English because my dh is not fluent enough in Spanish, so any family time with dh is English only pretty much unless one of my children initiates in Spanish, then I reply back in Spanish and translate for hubby. While I agree that children do not learn from videos alone, I think they can have a very important roll in foreign/second language learning. The best thing with videos or TV is to watch with your children so you can talk in the foreign language about what you are watching during and after. I recently found out that my cable carries Ve Me in association with PBS, so we get quality educational childrens shows in the morning and early afternoon. In our family we do not watch TV at meal times, but I decided to let them watch Ve Me during breakfast and I am seing more output in Spanish since then. Of course this is in adition to and not in place of reading books in Spanish.

[Nan in Mass]

Anabel, I just wanted to encourage you to keep gnawing at that bone. I've done French sporadically, inconsistently, and definately oversimplistically, ungrammatically, and with a bad accent, and STILL my son can hold a conversation in French and read children's books and manage to understand Histoire et Geographie 6e (6th grade) in French. Gnawing is better than not gnawing. -Nan

[Sahamamama]

Is there anyone out there who is not fluent in a second language but is trying to create a bilingual environment?

 

Marie Filion (author of The Easy French) is going to be speaking at our convention on how to create an immersion environment even if you're not fluent in the language and I'm looking forward to gleaning some ideas from her.

 

Thanks for posting this, Sarah! I haven't read the book, but I'll look it up at our library.

 

I'm not sure how to create a bilingual home, but what I'd like to do is expose the girls to as much language as possible -- especially Spanish, French, and Arabic. My husband speaks Arabic fluently, but just try to get him to USE it with the girls. :toetap05: I have to remind him, gently, that now is the time to speak Arabic, thank you.....

 

We read Spanish books, listen to Spanish bilingual music, watch our Brainy Baby Spanish DVD. I don't know what to do beyond that, except speak as much Spanish as possible, especially with native Spanish speakers (whenever we're out). They are gracious with us, to say the least! Very, very patient, LOL. The whole time, I know I must be butchering their precious language, but they are so happy I'm trying. So patient.

 

When you get notes from the lecture, will you please let us know some tips? Please? (Or pm me?) Pretty please? Thanks!

[Sahamamama]

I agree that it was hopeful. What I really liked was how it made it so clear that babies and little dc do not learn from videos or CDs. I was speaking only German with my twins until last summer when I got way too tired. Right now I don't know what to do.

 

Here is the review of it I wrote on my blog: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/cathmom/562478/

 

Now, I can say that I have evidence to the contrary. My girls have been learning a LOT from Sara Jordan's Bilingual Songs in Spanish (CDs), as well as from their Brainy Baby Spanish DVD. In fact, just today at Sam's Club, we were holding a conversation based almost entirely on vocabulary we picked up from these resources. I even understood the word "gorra," which means "cap" -- and this was a little cap on a baby boy from Guatemala. His mother was amazed when we started speaking Spanish to her! ;)

 

So, I wouldn't just discount DVDs and CDs entirely, but I think that you probably can't just put them on and walk away, if you KWIM? You have to talk about the vocabulary and use it and make it real to the children.

 

I do need to read the book, though, so I don't know what the author says. Off to the library...... :auto: