Talking to my child in front of people who speak English vs. people who do not speak English

This Christmas we have been traveling around the North and East of Switzerland. How beautiful everything was! And how cold!

One of the days we visited Zurich and we used the opportunity to meet some Swiss friends who live there. We had a great time. It always feels good to spend some time chatting with people with whom you share things. In addition, we introduced our son to them, as they didn't know him yet.

The Swiss couple that we met speak German, but we spent all the afternoon speaking in English. They even talked to my little one in English, which was great. They spoke a lot to him and said a couple of cute things in German. That was very funny to me, because I repeated those things, although I had no idea what I was saying. It was fun and it was really nice to be able to communicate in a language with which we all felt comfortable and could express ourselves perfectly.

And what was the best of all? That, in this situation, speaking to my son in English felt very natural to me.

Around me, many people speak English well. However, some relatives and friends do not master it or do not speak English at all. Personally, I think that this is not a problem to continue to bring up my baby bilingually without being native. However, I have to say that I have different feelings talking to my son depending on being surrounded by people who speak English or being surrounded by people who don't.

Embarrassed talking in front of native speakers? Knock, knock!

I have already written about my feelings when speaking to my son in English in front of native speakers. As I imagined, there would be more situations where I would find myself with English speakers for various reasons. Well, I haven't had to wait a long time for a new moment to come.

What will native English speakers think about my experience? Fears and doubts

The first few times I thought about having children and speaking to them in English, I had the main ideas clear and very few doubts. It seemed to me that it made sense, that it was interesting and that, just as I talk to my students or to other people in English, I would do it with my son. All the questions and doubts came when I started. I had my son in my arms and I was going to start speaking to him in English all the time.

How to overcome challenges talking to your children in a foreign language

Raising children is not an easy task. It is stimulating, exciting, thrilling... one of the greatest experiences that we can have, but definitely: not simple. Sometimes we don't know if what we are doing is right or wrong and the future scare us a bit. However, we improve day by day and we try to do our best to bring up our offspring safely, healthily and affectionately.

The parents that want to speak in English or in any other language to their children since they are little, without being native in that language, add new challenges. While bringing up nonnative bilingual children, parents may go through different periods that can be anticipated.

Parents that I am meeting on Internet sharing their experience talking to their children in nonnative English

Are you trying to find information about nonnative bilingual parenting? Do you want to talk to your baby or child in English and you want to search for other ones' experience and advice? There are many books, websites and research about bilingual children raised by bilingual couples, but there is not so much about non native people. Parents that have learnt a language as a foreign one that have decided to start speaking to their children in English, Chinese, French...or whatever the language they have chosen.

I would like to hear my baby saying something to see if I am doing right

When do babies start saying their first conscious words? I have read that this happens around the end of the first year of life. Although some babies don't say anything until they are thirteen months old.
My son has already said 'mama' a few times but this has just been unconscious babbling.
I wonder what will be the first things that he will say. Will he say something in Spanish or in English?
It's been six months now that I am talking to him in nonnative English all the time and I can't wait to start hearing him speaking.
The development of everyone's speech is a long process. I am looking forward to discovering with my own baby how it happens.

Where does my passion for bilingualism come from?

The love, passion or interest for languages comes to each one of us in a different way. In my case, it was something that didn't come from me at the beginning. It came from my environment. It wasn't me the one who started to have the need of speaking other languages or the one who wanted to learn a new language for fun and pleasure. It was the people around me and the places where I lived the ones that took me towards this knowledge of second languages. And it was later on, when I grew up, when I started to make an effort to improve them. This time, of my own accord.

Babbling, 6 months old and first unconscious word

My baby is 6 months old and he is very cute and charming. He is thriving very well. I am enjoying very much playing with him and staring at him all the time. It is incredible the intense and beautiful feelings that a child can awake.

I am going to write a quick summary of my son's thriving, although just by watching the video uploaded on YouTube you can easily see that we are still in the beginning of this bilingual experience.

The video has different moments where my son is babbling and playing. Sometimes we are in the kitchen, others in the living room or the car. Although we record videos very often (as good first-time parents) these last two months he hasn’t been speaking a lot. He is in a ‘silent mode’. It has been a long time that I can’t hear him having the super-conversations that he used to have when he was three or four months old. I guess he has moved from the first babbling, that were just instinctive reflexes, to this new babbling that helps him test his vocal cords and his hearing skills. Now it is sure that he can hear himself and that sometimes he shouts or makes sounds because he needs something or feels uncomfortable and he wants to let me know.

7 feelings raising a non native bilingual child when he is six months old

My bilingual baby is already six months old. He is absolutely cute, fun and lovely. What can I say...? Since he was three months old I am enjoying so much when he laughs, when he babbles, when he sleeps, when he eats, when he looks at me, when he cries if I leave the room... He is a baby with a lot of energy and he is developing and growing up very well. Before, everything was also wonderful but the way he is able to interact with me now cannot be expressed in words.

As you can see if you follow the blog, the family experience parenting our child in English being nonnative speakers continues. As I wrote in a previous post, since he was two months old I am speaking to him in non-native English and his dad in native Spanish. It was a bit hard the first month due to the lack of vocabulary and self-confidence. But since then, I talk to him all the time in English (except those times that my baby got too fussy).

Now that the summer is gone and we are back to our daily routine I can relax a bit and concentrate myself on all the feelings and thoughts that I have on my mind.

Other parents and their bilingual experiences and questions Otros padres y sus experiencias bilingües y dudas

Read the comments where other parents are bringing their experience to bear and... why don't you comment your own bilingual parenting, ideas and questions? What are you doing with your children to get them bilingual? Is it in non native English or is it in another language? And your friends, what are they doing?

Lee en los comentarios la experiencia que aportan otros padres y... anímate a comentar tu propia crianza bilingüe, tus ideas y dudas. ¿Qué estás haciendo con tus niños o hijos para que sean bilingües? ¿Es en inglés no nativo u otra lengua? Y tus amigos, ¿qué hacen?