3720 Kids teaching Italian to Mums and Dads

There has been interesting past discussions about how quickly children pick up the Italian language once they start going to an Italian school.

I am a non Italian speaker, my wife is an advanced (not fluent) speaker. So my question is.......with having 3 young children in the house, coming back from school with newly learnt language, how much of a help will that be to someone who wants to learn, but currently finds it difficult.

Any Mum's and Dad's out there with experience of this??

Category
Che significa? - Italian Language Queries

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/22/2006 - 06:42

Mia figlia, who is six years old.. learns Italian very quickly and shows no hesitation when correcting me on some of the pronounciation.. with a "I'm cleverer than you" smile.

Kids!

:) :)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/22/2006 - 09:34

My nieces moved to Italy with their parents at the ages of 3 and 5. Within a very short time they were speaking Italian to the extent that my sister-in-law, when shopping or at the post office would say, "Sarah, ask the nice man ....", and Sarah would duly trot out the request and translate the reply for her mum. In the short term I'm not sure that this helped my sister-in-law learn Italian however?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/22/2006 - 12:58

My children were educated in Italy from the age of 3 to 11 and were fluent within a few months. We lived in a totally non English community and I found that I had to 'sink or swim'! My best advice is to buy childrens's comic books with pictures and words eg Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse etc. you can word associate with pictures. I also kept the t.v. or radio on all day whilst around the house, it's amazing how much sinks in. After many years away from Italy I am still bi-lingual and looking forward to practising again in June when we tour La Toscana.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/22/2006 - 15:01

We moved to Emilia Romagna 2 years ago and I am still not fluent but my children are amazing, they ofen interpret for my friends. Millie is only 7 has a perfect accent, If I get anything wrong I get corrected. A good way for us old folk with kids to learn is to spend 1 hour a day speaking only in Italian. And the kids can rescue you when it all goes wrong!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/22/2006 - 15:06

We arrived last year. My children didn't speak any Italian prior to September. My daughter (8) is fluent getting optime in her verifice. My son is 4 and is a bit slower but still very good. I have been told they are both accent perfect and are very happy to correct the crappy Italian their parents speak.