Starting Early: How I Taught My 1 Year Old to Speak in 4 Languages

Posted by Jul 27, 2017 Family Fun, Raising Readers, Toddlerhood

Kids are sponges. We hear it all the time.

“They will repeat everything you say!”

“They learn even when they don’t seem like they are listening.”

As a teacher, I had lots of plans for teaching my daughter when she was born. I had dreams of us reading together, doing crafts and science experiments, and learning new things. I read to her while I was pregnant and built up her library. On the night she came home from the hospital, I read to her out of the same book that my parents read to me on my first night. After that, I realized I didn’t have many plans for teaching her until she was older!

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Starting Young

I didn’t start out meaning to teach her multiple languages. She was a slightly difficult sleeper, so I spent many nights rocking her back to sleep and singing to her. I ran through my ridiculous supply of memorized Disney songs, camp songs and pop songs. I sang the alphabet to her several times, then started practicing my German alphabet. After taking German for 5 years, I like to try to remember as much of it as I can. Some days I would switch to counting. I counted in Spanish, English, German and French. Anything to keep me awake and keep her happy.

My mother has always encouraged us to talk to kids instead of just using baby talk or talking down to them. (Not that I didn’t slip into that baby talk voice sometimes – we all do it around a cute baby!). As she got older, I continued to count to her in various languages, partially to change up our daily “conversations” and to keep myself entertained. Once she started talking, we practiced numbers and the alphabet in English, but I sometimes threw some other languages in there for fun. I was blown away when she started repeating them back to me! Before she was two, she could recite numbers 1-10 in English, Spanish, French and German with minimal help. She also recites the English alphabet, and some of the German alphabet.

In much the same way that reading to babies can help their language development, speaking to them has many of the same benefits. Counting or reciting the alphabet to babies gives them repetition and helps them to build their vocabulary. The sound of your voice is also soothing to them, even if they don’t know what you are saying. I know my daughter wasn’t falling asleep because she was lulled by my counting in German. She was comforted by the sound of my voice, no matter what I was saying. Somewhere along the way, that turned into listening and learning.

Taking Advantage of the Little Learning Moments

Sometimes we practice counting in the car, or while I push her on the swing, or while she takes a bath. She likes to cheer when we get to 10, then shouts out the next language she wants to count in. “More German?” or “More French!”. We recently got a Google Home and she has fun asking it how to say things in other languages. She giggles when it says “Ciao”, and loves when it says “bathtime” in Italian. Just today, she shocked me again when she thanked me in Mandarin for helping her in gym class! As an educator, I know the benefits of teaching languages to kids while they are young, but I am still blown away seeing it in action!

I am always trying to introduce my daughter to books about the things that interest her, and foreign languages is no exception. We have included books with different languages into our daily read aloud time as well. My daughter is becoming a big fan of Dora the Explorer, so we have read several of her books. She also watches the show sometimes and picks up words from there.

Now, I am by no means claiming that my daughter is fluent in many languages. At the age of 2, you can barely call her fluent in English! But even if she doesn’t continue on with any of the languages I am teaching her, I love that the foundation is there for her to build on. If you learned Spanish while watching Sesame Street as a kid, there is a good chance that you still remember some of it. I hope that my daughter will be able to recall some of these skills as she gets older as well. You never know when they may come in handy!

Raising Kids with a Love of Learning

I think the most important thing I have found about teaching my daughter another language is to have fun with it. We are not drilling vocabulary or practicing sentences, but having fun learning new phrases and words together. The other members of our family have gotten involved too. My mom helps teach her French, while my sister is teaching her Italian and her godmother will hopefully teach her some Japanese. I’ve heard the argument that learning different languages may confuse her, but I haven’t seen that at all. If anything, her English is even better. She structures sentences properly (most of the time) and tries to use proper tenses way before I expected her to.

This is not to say that this would be true for every child! Again, as a teacher, I absolutely know that every child learns differently. The main thing I hope parents take away from my experiences is how to use the little moments in the day to teach something fun and new. When we are counting on the swing, my daughter doesn’t even realize that she is learning. Take advantage of the little moments to have some fun and build a foundation for learning that will support kids throughout their lives!

Do you have any methods you use while teaching languages to kids? Share in the comments!


72 comments on “Starting Early: How I Taught My 1 Year Old to Speak in 4 Languages”

  1. How exciting! My friend put her daughter in a Mandarin Immersion class (where the teacher only speaks to them in Mandarin) when she entered first grade, I believe. Now she can speak it quite well! It’s so fascinating to see a child catch on to languages quickly. I know I’ve seen research saying that younger kids have an easier time learning languages. Seems pretty accurate to me!!

    • I have definitely seen that to be true, with younger kids picking up languages better. It makes sense, since they are still learning one language!

    • Thank you! It is really amazing how they can pick them up so fast. Although since they are still learning one language, it makes sense that adding others is easier for them than those of us already stuck in our ways.

  4. this is so impressive! My uncle was a french teacher and I was always so bummed that he didn’t teach my cousin to speak french from an early age. Not to mention the fact that they went to france every year for two months, and she can’t speak french! it makes me mad lol. My best friend says she always remembered me telling her that and has made a point of getting her husband to teach her spanish (she’s french) and they all spend one evening a week speaking only in Spanish. And the she comes here with the kids to help them with English. Keep up the great work!

    • Thank you! That is a great idea to spend one night speaking in Spanish! I’m not fluent enough in any other languages to pull that off yet, but maybe we will have to try it someday.

  5. This is fantastic! I love finding learning moments throughout the day. We haven’t started learning any foreign languages yet but talk about Spanish (I can count and say a few words) and have kept up ASL as the kids have gotten older. They love learning new signs.

    • I regret that I didn’t keep up with ASL! I took a course in college, but the teacher was replaced halfway through and they didn’t offer a second level. I have always wanted to get better at it. Maybe that will be our next project!

  9. That is amazing! My daughter will start taking Kindergarten Spanish classes at school next week. I am so glad that I was able to get her into an elementary school with a language immersion program. I can’t wait to see how she blossoms.

  12. We’ve been doing this with the little bit of Spanish we know for our 4 year old here recently. We just say things like ‘Did you know the Spanish word for dad is padre?’ And then when daddy leaves we say ‘adios padre!’. We just try to work it in naturally where we can, but she is learning fast! I’m going to have to brush up so I can keep up with her…

    • It is amazing how quickly they can pick it up when it’s dropped in here and there! I don’t speak any of the languages fluently, so now I’ve been finding lots of books and apps to help me learn too so I can keep up with her!

    • Congratulations! I hope you have a lot of fun with it! There are so many opportunities to teach them early.

    • I hope you do! It’s a lot of fun for both of us to use some of our new vocabulary in every day life!

  15. Very impressive.
    My husband and I come from different cultures and languages. We ensure we speak to our son in both languages plus English. He seems to be picking up well. I wish the adult brains would process new skills as easily.

    • Right? Me too! She picks up all of these languages so much faster than me. That is fantastic that you are teaching him so many languages from the start!

  17. little ones are so smart and I think people tend to forget to take advantage and teach them more when they are young! Great article!

  18. That is amazing! It’s so true that they pick up on so many things when they’re little! Keep I up momma!

    • Aw, don’t feel that way! It was accidental! She blows me away with how quickly she picks things up.

  22. Books are such a great way to encourage children to learn another language. Our son speaks both English and Maori. We have chosen to speak Maori to him every day and he hasnt had any trouble learning English as it is all around him.

    A real fun thing for us has been using books to encourage him to speak in Maori more. All of his favourite characters (Batman etc) all talk in english. A local publisher translates books like the Gruffalo into Maori and our son absolutely loves it. It has also taught us alot of new words too.

    Reading is such a great way to share an adventure with your little ones. What a great post!

    • Thank you! That is awesome that you can get books translated into Maori! I would love to get more books for my daughter in other languages. I am enjoying learning new words right along with her.

  23. Wow, this is amazing! When my oldest was a baby, my grandmother lived with us. We typically spoke in Marathi (an Indian language) and some of my kiddo’s first words weren’t English! It’s so amazing what kids pick up from us.

  24. This is awesome! I’ve seen quite a few of your blog posts and I just love them. The teacher in me loves reading books with my kids, and then trying to do activities that relate. Thanks for all the ideas!

    • There are lots of great resources for teaching Spanish! I’ve found that adding a little bit into every day has really helped.

  26. Woohoo for you! I’m also a teacher – a Spanish and ESL teacher so I am more than thrilled to read this post of a parent and fellow teacher gifting her child with the love of other languages! I wish more parents understood the importance of this. – Amy

    • Thank you! I have always loved languages and wish I had taken more of them in school! I am enjoying learning right along with her though.

  27. this is so incredible! I remember my mom sticking us in front of a Muzzy – Spanish VCR tape for hours. We never did learn Spanish. I learned some from HS, but very little stayed with me. I think you should give yourself a giant pat on the back for this one!!!

  28. This is fantastic. Your kids are lucky to have you as a mom. They will be so lucky to multi-lingual.

  29. That’s awesome! It helps kids with so much to know more than one language, and at such a young age is brilliant! I keep telling family to speak to her in another language so the kids learn it and know it. I’m only half decent with English 🤦‍♀️

  30. My two year old has really taken to language and is about a year ahead on her vocabulary and sentence structure. I want to teach her French and my husband wants to teach her Japanese. I was afraid that she would get confused and it would delay her English. But I may start trying to teach her other languages now! Unfortunately, neither of us are very fluent. I took 6 years of French in high school and college, but I never learned how to properly speak it. Just understand it. Do you have any programs or apps that you use for teaching language to a toddler?

    • I don’t know any specific programs yet unfortunately. Since I accidentally started this, I didn’t have a set plan. I started teaching her with the little bit of each language that I know, and that our family members know. I have not found it to hurt her language development at all, since she is also ahead in her vocabulary and sentence structure. I’d be interested to hear of any programs that you do find to be helpful though! That will probably be our next step.

  31. How awesome is this! I teach my 1 year old sign language when I can. It’s very rewarding watching them catch on to another language! I wish I knew French or German to teach my LO! That may be something I learn in the future! Thank you for the tips!

    • Thank you! I hope you have fun with it. I mostly taught myself little bits here and there of French. There are lots of resources available now!

  32. That’s so incredible! Being familiar with other languages and cultures makes our children so much more well-rounded! Awesome job!

    • I hope she will want to stick with it! Especially because it is forcing me to learn in order to keep up with her!

  35. My niece is 18-months, and my mom often talks about putting in her a program that teaches her fluent Spanish AND English. (We’re primary English speakers.) I often thought that she was too young, but this makes me feel a little better about it. We speak a little Spanish to her. I’m nowhere near fluent, but I understand a little.

    • I’m glad it helps! I think the earlier you start getting them comfortable with other languages, the more it will help them in the long run.

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