How to teach a toddler a second (foreign) language?
We live in India. I'm Russian, my husband is Indian. At home we speak with each other in English, and school education here is also in English. My husband is a sailor, so he is often out of the country, and when he is here he is busy with our business.
We have a 1.5 year old boy. I speak Russian with him and am trying to teach him simple words in English - dog, cat, hi, bye. But my son does not understand English at all yet. In Russian he can do what you ask him, and understands me very well. It's only me in the house. I have to teach him 2 languages.
I want him to understand his dad and have no problems in school in the future, but how?
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Perhaps, you should stop talking in russian and start talking English. Som child will have no choice, and will learn and understand this language.
We're in India but from a very remote and very small state of the North-East. Hence our language Manipuri is not spoken in our current city (Bangalore). It is very rare to hear our language in any other part of India.
My daughter is now 4½ years. During her early days, we did discussed how do we go about talking/teaching English but not let her totally skip our own language. We tried the one person one language method (we both are Manipuris).
However, we realize that she had picked up quite a bit of her own skills with English and even some Kannada/Tamil as she mingles with other kids in pre-school, and friends in the neighborhood.
She also realized that not everyone talks in 'her local' language and so she talks in English to other people (my friends, her mom's friends, etc). She had picked up lots of words, phrases which we have not taught/talked to her 'consciously'.
Btw, kids do not really need to understand 'languages' to be friends, play and have fun. In all fairness, I'd say, continue with your Russian, help him with English and let him pick up on his own. You'll be surprise how much they can learn. Of course, the pre-school teachers are already talking to him in English.
P.S. Don't worry so much about Hindi and other local language. If he speaks English, that will be good anywhere in India.
Whatever the language, repetition is the key. If you want to have him understand Russian and English equally well, then you need to speak them with approximately equal frequency. Rather than just focusing on one word ("cat", "dog", "hello") at a time, use full sentences ("Come over here", "Sit down", "Let's eat a snack"). You can try telling him something first in Russian and then English (or vice-versa), or try having English-only days. Use the same strategies as you would when teaching him words/phrases in Russian -- if you say, "Do you want to eat a cracker?" take a bite out of a cracker to visually demonstrate what you mean.
As he gets older, find playgroups, preschool, and/or other activities which include English instruction.
It's only me in the house. I have to teach him 2 languages.
Actually, you don't "have to".
In India, people in northern states speak Hindi at home. Not all Indians are fluent in English yet their toddlers know the meanings of English words like cat/watch etc.
The reason is the "playschool". Here the people usually send their children to formal schools at the age of around 3/3.5 years. Before that the children usually go to playschools where they "are" taught English alphabets/poems and words like cat/dog etc.
Actually (shamefully) English is preferred over the native language in this country. You will in fact have difficulty in finding a playschool in an Indian "city" which does not teach English!
Assuming you live in a northern state of India, how do you think your child will cope up with the other kids who will most probably be speaking Hindi?
My suggestion is to send your child to an English medium playschool as soon as possible since he has to learn English if he's supposed to study in India and other problem is that his classmates will probably be speaking Hindi so he needs to understand that language too!
If you live in deep southern India then knowing Hindi shouldn't be a concern for you. In southern India, the local languages and English are given a preference over Hindi by the locals.
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