Len from San Antonio in U.S.

Hello, my wife Laura and I have introduced Spanish, German and Mandarin Chinese into the lives of our otherwise English-speaking children, now ages 7 and 9. Actually that's not exactly perfectly accurate because in San Antonio, Texas, Spanish is almost as much of a community language as English. Both our children are in Spanish immersion in the local public schools and we rely mostly on babysitters for Mandarin and German exposure since neither parent can really claim to speak either of these. We've found that weekend Chinese schools are pretty widely available and we've tapped into this amazing resource. German has been the most difficult language in which to find conversation partners, but since San Antonio is a "military town" we've found an adequate number of "military spouses" to help us out. If we had it to do over again, though, we might choose Arabic or French instead since there are so many refugees and immigrants in the country who know these languages. New citizens who are just getting established seem always to appreciate a little extra income from a "babysitting" gig.

I'd have to say that our secret formula is that we DO NOT try and do all the work ourselves. Both Laura and I always speak our primary languages with our children. We feel that there are some good reasons for doing this. We find outside human resources for conversation...affordable ones at that, and the approach seems to have served us well enough. Another thing that works very well for us is the use of free YouTube videos and cartoons. I know the pediatricians discourage excessive "screen time" but when there's language learning going on (there is) then I think the time watching Disney movies in Mandarin or German is sufficiently well-spent.