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BedHead · 04-14-2008, 04:27 PM

Portuguese. My daughter lives in an environment of almost all Portuguese. But I speak only English to her and spend considerable time saying and repeating things. She'll get English from her environment eventually. And Spanish will be easy for her.

I avoid speaking Portuguese with her because a) I make grammatical mistakes and I don't want her to be confused -- and experts say this is the biggest problem and b) it prolongs confusion to have shifting going on between languages. I may be prolonging the confusion because I don't speak English with my wife; this should stop.

For me, ultimately, the most important thing will be to choose environments that are happy for her whatever the language. But, man, if she could speak Chinese with a native's accent, it'd be the most surprising thing coming from the mouth of a toe-headed, blue-eyed girl.

04-14-2008, 04:27 PM	#94
BedHead Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Princeton, NJ Threads: 41 Posts: 1,228	Portuguese. My daughter lives in an environment of almost all Portuguese. But I speak only English to her and spend considerable time saying and repeating things. She'll get English from her environment eventually. And Spanish will be easy for her. I avoid speaking Portuguese with her because a) I make grammatical mistakes and I don't want her to be confused -- and experts say this is the biggest problem and b) it prolongs confusion to have shifting going on between languages. I may be prolonging the confusion because I don't speak English with my wife; this should stop. For me, ultimately, the most important thing will be to choose environments that are happy for her whatever the language. But, man, if she could speak Chinese with a native's accent, it'd be the most surprising thing coming from the mouth of a toe-headed, blue-eyed girl. Last edited by BedHead : 04-14-2008 at 04:34 PM.