Bilingual

For bilingual children, here are 10 Tips for helping these internationally adopted children retain their first language. 1) “Let them still speak it.” This was the number one suggestion given by my 5 internationally born teenagers. Some feel that an English language immersion (having the child speak only English and speak none of their native language for a time) is the most effective way for a child to learn English. I’m sure this approach has merit. However, my kids feel that being allowed to use their language all along shows acceptance of them (including their language) and allows them to keep and practice both languages at the same time. 2) Let them read books. Have books in… [more]

Mo from the Korean adoption blog posted yesterday about a Korean English doll. Interested, I followed the link. The doll is sold by Target and available on their website www.target.com. Not having a Korean born nor Korean speaking child myself, I checked around the site to see if they offered something similar in other languages. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they sure did. They offer a similar doll in many different languages; I was pleased with the variety that isn’t usually offered by other stores. They have the following: Young-Hee speaks Korean Sophie speaks Italian (with soccer ball/outfit instead of purse) Lizzie speaks Spanish (pictured with this blog) Jolie speaks French Emma speaks German Alexa speaks Greek Sarah speaks… [more]

17yr old Caroline, adopted from Russia, shares her thoughts on language acquisition. Is there anything that someone could have done differently in America to help you learn English/a new language? When I first came here, I went to school in a class that was 2 grades below my age. I also repeated that grade. It made things very difficult for me, then and now, not to be with same aged students. I think it would have been better for me to have been in the right grade for my age, but to have tutors or private teachers or extra help in school in order to learn English. I think another thing that would have helped a little is if the family or… [more]