Teach children a new language – Children are sponges

Teach children a new language – Children are sponges

So I have been up for about 6 hours now and it’s only just gone past 10am. I’ve spent the time doing this and that and as each second goes, my to-do list gets even longer. I read an article just now that reminded me of something that happened recently with my little human. It was the catalyst for this post to Teach children a new language – Children are sponges

Even though I write bilingual Yoruba English children’s books, my spoken Yoruba is not as great as I would like it to be. Writing Yoruba is so much easier for me . . . well for the way I do my writing, it is. But like with all things in life, there’s always room for improvement.

The global marketplace is shrinking

My personal opinion of the world being a global marketplace is that technology will make it even smaller than it already is.

In other to compete internationally, it is now, moreso than ever before, extremely important to be able to speak more than your native language. I foresee a future where the best job roles would go to those who can speak at least 3 different languages.

My 19 month old is bilingual

Anyhoos, back to my little human . . . whenever I remember to, I speak Yoruba to her. I didn’t even imagine she was taking in what I said to her until one day I asked her in Yoruba to give me what she was holding and voila! she did.

Yesterday I told her to clap for herself in Yoruba. I had never told her this in Yoruba before, so when I said “patewo patewo” I clapped my hands too. Later on, without clapping myself, I went “patewo patewo” and she clapped. I was totally amazed that after only being told once, she not only remembered the word but knew what it meant and she’s only 19 months old.

Yup I know, I have a genius on my hands 😀 Mensa take note

To be honest, that’s all the encouragement I need.

Yoruba Kids TV on YouTube

I recently found this video that teaches toddlers Yoruba words and my daughter absolutely loved it.

Another Yoruba Kids channel we like on YouTube is called Culture Tree TV.

Before I started writing my books, I wanted to make the folktales that are in Yetunde: The Life and Times of a Yoruba Girl in London a 3D animation. Sadly, animation is quite expensive and I was quite inexperienced with marketing then. I will be looking to do this later on under the right circumstances.

Looking to the future

Anyhoos, I digress . . .  I think we’ll start working on learning French next. At least I know a few words of French. My target is by the time my little human is two, she’ll be speaking a bit of Yoruba. If I persevere, I hope to have her speaking basic French words by the time she’s 30 months. Doable? What do you think?

So to all the mommies and daddies (aunties, uncles, grandparents etc etc) out there, other than your native language, do you teach your little ones any other languages? If no, would you consider teaching them any other languages? Do you think it is important for children to be multi-lingual? Should more parents teach children a new language?

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