Which language to use at home with baby?

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Baby growing up in a bilingual household

Hey guys American here with a 6 month old baby. What is the best way to go about making sure the child hears enough English as it continues to get older? All of my wife’s family are constantly talking to the baby in Chinese 24/7 and it only ever hears English from me. I’m really starting to get worried that it’s going to grow up speaking broken English and that I won’t be able to understand my own kid. Is it something as simple as playing some English music for the baby often? Any tips would g…

I’m from a non-English speaking country, and my wife is Taiwanese. We have three kids, ages 4yo, 2yo and 6m. My wife can also speak my mother language, so we all try to keep our conversations in my mother language when I’m at home.
Kids are picking up quite well, but they tend to prefer to speak in Mandarin when they started to go to kindergarten.

Addressing your options:

@lazzzlie

Options one: Mandarin from one parent and english from the other. I could see how this works well for families with, say, American dad and Taiwanese mom, or vice versa. But isn’t it a bit artificial for two parents with very similar ethnic and cultural backgrounds to arbitrarily decide to speak different languages? Would kids favor one parent over the other because of it?

No and no. It will only be artificial if you don’t feel natural speaking the language. And kids may find easier speaking in one language vs the other, but that doesn’t mean they will favor one parent over another. Just don’t cave in if they insist in not using the language they are supposed to when talking to one parent.

@lazzzlie

Option two: Mandarin as the home language and English as the school language (as least until age 6). One big problem we see with this route is that it might be difficult/cost-prohibitive to find an actual English speaking daycare (not those with one foreign-looking teacher and 20min “English corner” every day) if we have younger ones in the future.

Even if they go to a full English school (which can be expensive) not all staff will be native speakers. It can or not be an issue, depends on how much you mind about accents.

@lazzzlie

Option three: Mandarin from grandparents + elementary school, English from parents + childcare center. This seems like the best option for us so far.

I think that’s the best option. Cheaper and get all your bases covered.