Multilingual mites: how toddlers can excel at picking up new languages
Babies and young children benefit from being exposed to new languages, and have shown they can master them with apparent ease
Olivia Ng signed up her 10-month-old baby girl for French lessons a year ago. It was obvious that her daughter was having fun, and that was all Ng and her husband cared about.
“It’s a kind of play for her,” Ng says. “We never questioned whether she was learning this or that. One time, we were in the car and she suddenly started saying the days of the week in French, going from Monday to Friday, and we were so surprised.”
Ng and her husband are Hong Kong Chinese, and French is a third language for their daughter.
There is a general myth that learning too many languages might confuse a child. But Ng is among a number of Hong Kong parents unfazed by such beliefs; she appreciates that French lessons are available for children at such a young age.
Another parent, Natalie Cheng, has had her 17-month-old son taking lessons for the past 10 months.
Apart from learning from a native French teacher, her son is also coming into contact with other students who are from mainland Chinese, French or other cultural backgrounds. There is greater diversity within the group than there would be at a regular Hong Kong playgroup.