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Kids not wanting to speak English and Spanish accents
Papamiento, Haitian/Martinican/Guadaloupan Creole, Garifuna, Jamaican Creole are all hybrid languages that developed in the Caribbean. There is a sort of Belizean Creole that mixes English and Spanish also.
You can't give up! When it comes to a second language, most people, especially children, go through a silent period in which they are unable to or just totally uninterested in producing the language. That doesn't mean they are not absorbing anything.
I used to give one of my nephews English lessons, and for a while he wouldn't say much, just words. THIS is where you might get disappointed and give up, but you have to go on. One day we were watching tv together and he asked "Can I borrow your phone?" From them on, we couldn't shut him up. Now he can keep a conversation in English, and watches and understands movies and cartoons with no subtitles.
Songs and music are great. Try to find the openings for his favorite cartoon series in both English and Spanish on Youtube. If he knows the Spanish version, he'll have interest the English version and he'll kind of get what it means.
Use a tablet, flashcards and posters.
Get him a textbook for kids and dedicate at least one hour a day for him to take a lesson, in English. Just like ESL students do.
As others have suggested, have him play with English speaking kids.
Give him rewards when speaking the language. For my nephew, when he spoke full sentences or got to sing a full song In English, I always hugged him and gave him and kiss and told him that that was so cute and that I was proud of him.
Just bombard the kid on a daily basis with English stuff, coming from different sources, and one day it'll pay off.
I used to give one of my nephews English lessons, and for a while he wouldn't say much, just words. THIS is where you might get disappointed and give up, but you have to go on. One day we were watching tv together and he asked "Can I borrow your phone?" From them on, we couldn't shut him up. Now he can keep a conversation in English, and watches and understands movies and cartoons with no subtitles.
Songs and music are great. Try to find the openings for his favorite cartoon series in both English and Spanish on Youtube. If he knows the Spanish version, he'll have interest the English version and he'll kind of get what it means.
Use a tablet, flashcards and posters.
Get him a textbook for kids and dedicate at least one hour a day for him to take a lesson, in English. Just like ESL students do.
As others have suggested, have him play with English speaking kids.
Give him rewards when speaking the language. For my nephew, when he spoke full sentences or got to sing a full song In English, I always hugged him and gave him and kiss and told him that that was so cute and that I was proud of him.
Just bombard the kid on a daily basis with English stuff, coming from different sources, and one day it'll pay off.
Cool auntie
It reminds me of a story. One day, I was walking down the street with my children and this woman stopped me, because she overheard me speak French with the children. We started talking she spoke perfect French because she had studied in Switzerland and she practically beg me for a play-date so that her son (whom she had been speaking French too, which is impressive) could finally get the opportunity to play with French speaking children.
So we did, and the funny thing is that our children didn't say a word of French because their play language is English. The only one speaking French were us. You could have thought the play date was for the mothers (we got along great!).
By the way, this child (5 yr old) understands French perfectly. His nanny (dominican) speaks Spanish to him since birth, so he speaks it, and he goes to a bilingual English-Mandarin school !!!
Dinner time at my parents was very intresting ( yeah old fashioned sit down and eat and converse, very rare today in this sad world ).
English phrases with french words popped in and vice versa.
Start the phrase in english, end in french. Question in english, ans2er in french and vice versa......
Nobody else could umderstamd us !!!! Very practical when ure eateing out in a restaurant......
My wife and I have invented a whole new language which mixes french/spanish/german /italian....... The NSA guys must rip handfuls of hair off their heads if they are listning in to our phone calls........
Haaaahhaaa, maybe!!!
On a serious note we met in a country where there are 3 official languages, german ( well schweizer dutch, which is a bit diffrent) italian and french
.. There used to be a 4th, romansch, but it died with the last inbreds!!!
We are now working on her english and my parents ( my dad just turned 70...) are back in university learning spanish!!
Imagine my inlaws and my family first meetings..... 4 way conversation.... spanish to french, french to english and back again.....l.
Know a bartender who signs in ASL. He's taught the other bartenders numerous expressions so he can sign to them when the noise levels get too loud. Handy skill.
Raeto-Romansch is extinct already?
It's a sad day when a language dies.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
It's a sad day when a language dies.
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Actually in the canton of "les grisons" a couple of thousand of people are still holding out and speak romansh ( or romansch ).
But it is not an official language any more...... civil acts used to have to be in 4 languages, nowadays ONLY in 3.......
But it is not an official language any more...... civil acts used to have to be in 4 languages, nowadays ONLY in 3.......
I was born in Texas and at 18 months moved to England. At 3 I moved to Germany and at 11 back to Texas. I started out with a British accent and then I learned German by playing with other kids my age and in public German Kindergarten. My sister and I would speak Bavarian (which my parents couldn't understand so it was handy) but knew that in German public school we had to speak high "proper" German.
When we moved back to the states when I was 11, I struggled with some grammar issues and English and US/TX History were not my best classes. My sister enjoyed reading books that my mom would get every summer when we were in the states. I, on the other hand, didn't enjoy reading as much so my mom (an elementary school teacher) would tutor me and a German friend for an hour every Friday afternoon. Being tutored with a friend made it seem like more fun than boring class. I am sure I used to speak English with a German accent at some point but now I speak with a midwest accent as my parents are from the midwest. The rule was English in the house and German outside the home. My parents sent us to visit aunt and uncles and grandparents every summer for 4-6 weeks. My paternal grandparents didn't live near any cousins but we got to know the neighbor kids and played with them. My mom would come with us until I was 7 (my sister was 9), then they sent us by ourselves for most of the summer. I cherish those times with my grandparents.
Don't worry about him not learning English. All children go through a phase where they don't want to speak one of the languages but they understand both. I have an American friend married to a Guatemalan who has the English in the house rule and her 4 year old went outside in the yard and would yell to his mother in Spanish just so he wouldn't have to speak English. He now is 6 and loves translating from Spanish to English for people.
His accent will change multiple times. I speak English with a midwest accent, German like a local, and my Spanish is with a Guatemalan accent and I started speaking English with a British accent. It will all work out!
When we moved back to the states when I was 11, I struggled with some grammar issues and English and US/TX History were not my best classes. My sister enjoyed reading books that my mom would get every summer when we were in the states. I, on the other hand, didn't enjoy reading as much so my mom (an elementary school teacher) would tutor me and a German friend for an hour every Friday afternoon. Being tutored with a friend made it seem like more fun than boring class. I am sure I used to speak English with a German accent at some point but now I speak with a midwest accent as my parents are from the midwest. The rule was English in the house and German outside the home. My parents sent us to visit aunt and uncles and grandparents every summer for 4-6 weeks. My paternal grandparents didn't live near any cousins but we got to know the neighbor kids and played with them. My mom would come with us until I was 7 (my sister was 9), then they sent us by ourselves for most of the summer. I cherish those times with my grandparents.
Don't worry about him not learning English. All children go through a phase where they don't want to speak one of the languages but they understand both. I have an American friend married to a Guatemalan who has the English in the house rule and her 4 year old went outside in the yard and would yell to his mother in Spanish just so he wouldn't have to speak English. He now is 6 and loves translating from Spanish to English for people.
His accent will change multiple times. I speak English with a midwest accent, German like a local, and my Spanish is with a Guatemalan accent and I started speaking English with a British accent. It will all work out!
I didn't want to study English, but that was one of the things that wasn't negotiable at home. When I was in my mid teens, I was actually really glad my family ''encouraged" me to.