Always on the look out for bilingual education advice, I found this excellent post by Homeschool Guru on raising bilingual children based on personal experience speaking English and French. What not to do is just as important as what to do. A key rule many of us raising bilingual children often forget is do not translate.
when faced with the common and natural question ‘what does that mean?’ in whatever language you are conversing with your child, avoid the temptation to resolve the situation by directly translating
Homeschool Guru gives two reasons why not: (1) translation shuts down the child’s brain to thinking and operating in the language you are using and (2) it is simply untrue that all words and terms directly translate. Take a look at the full post.
What are your thoughts?
