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Reply with quote  #1 
Hi, I need some help motivating my husband to speak to our now 17 month old son in his native language. We discussed this at length when he was born and we agreed that we want him to speak my language (Polish) and my husband's (Spanish) as well as English (we live in UK). My husband found it awkward, he would mostly use English. He says he wants to but then he reverts to English majority of the time! Our son is in full time daycare so he learns English there, we both speak English to each other at home, he has plenty of books and resources in English. My husband recently said he didn't want to confuse him and that he wants him to be able to speak English well first. That's after reading the info on this website! He's just not getting behind the idea that a child can learn 3 languages at the same time with support and consistency. So now it turned from 'I'm not comfortable talking to him in Spanish' to 'I don't want to confuse him'. Whenever I try to gently suggest he switches to Spanish he gets angry and still doesn't. It's hugely important for me to give my son the chance to learn Spanish to some level from his dad for many reasons. How can I get through to him?? It's as if he hit some mental block or something because he still claims he wants him to speak Spanish.. Any suggestions would be very appreciated x
Reply with quote  #2 
Maybe you could connect with other multilingual families in the area, perhaps with older kids, so that he would see that children deal perfectly well with more than 1 language and the benefits of that? My son hasn't started to speak yet but I've alteady joined some international mummy groups and I'm following some expat groups for our target languages who organise kids events from time to time.
There's a facebook group called "raising bilingual/multilingual children" where you can also get some helpful advice.
Amber Smith
Reply with quote  #3 
He sounds a little self-conscious to me. Is it maybe because you don't speak Spanish? Is there a negative stigma of Spanish in the town you're in? Three languages is no more confusing than two. Children learn what to speak with whom rather easily. 
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