If you wish your kid learns a language you’re not fluent in, helping him gain confidence while learning may be difficult for you. However, it’s not impossible. Embarking on the journey of teaching your kids a language you’re not fluent in makes you nervous and decreases your self-confidence. But don’t sweat it! It is a challenge you can ideally overcome! And this is how. Think about which part of this adventure is affecting your confidence.
Is it that you think you won’t be able to teach them correctly?
Or is it perhaps that you think your children won’t have any immersion at home?
Either way, we have valuable tips for you to regain and grow your confidence in your ability to influence your child’s education. So, let us show you how to teach your child a language you don’t know.
Learn With Your Children
Experienced teachers know it. The best way to deliver successful lessons is to address the students’ concerns, questions, and insecurities from their perspective. In the same way, you can convey a wise demeanor while reviewing something you don’t know with a simple trick – learning about it!
Yes, it seems pretty obvious, but let us explain how you can ace it in the shortest possible time. Adult-targeted language resources can be intimidating or overwhelming to a busy parent. Thus, why not start by learning with your kids’ program and alongside them?
You can study the same content and vocabulary as your kids. Overall, language courses for children have an easy and fun structure. Children’s-aimed syllabi are as unintimidating as possible. Therefore, they are a perfect option for total beginners.
Approach Language Studies as Playtime, Not a Chore
As adults, we often take life way too seriously. Kids see life with a bright and innocent eye. In contrast, we tend to overthink the situations and events surrounding us. Being the breadwinners of our homes undoubtedly motivates us to reach goals quickly and efficiently.
However, kids see the world differently, and it’s essential to put ourselves in their shoes when teaching them anything. Learning a new language is not as straightforward as one may think, which can be frustrating. For that reason, you should not approach your child’s language learning as work time or a task to complete but as playtime.
Make it a fun activity to do as a family, such as word games, jokes, tongue twisters, rhymes, storytelling, and songs. In other words, turn language learning into positive emotional stimuli, and you will succeed. As a result, your kids will be able to recall with greater accuracy and readiness foreign vocabulary and grammar rules.
Give a Twist to Bedtime Stories
Bedtime stories are ideal for your children’s language development and establishing a healthy sleep cycle. Immersing yourself with your children in an exciting story can hone their listening and comprehension skills in an engaging environment.
Besides, stories open our minds by triggering the regions of our brains that process mental envisioning, thus boosting our imagination. Bedtime stories promote a passion for reading and reduce the pressure of figuring out the meaning of individual words. Instead, you can focus on the context of sentences.
Moreover, reading a text in the language you’re learning creates the illusion that you are already fluent, increasing your confidence. One can read a Spanish text and only understand 30% of it, right? But your kids don’t know this, and you can use it to your advantage.
Fool Around with Pronunciation
You can make significant progress with your pronunciation if you make a game out of it where you can fool around with your kids. Find a moment of the day where you and your children feel comfortable, like when you are in the car or go shopping, and tease their knowledge. If your kids are shy, you can try helping them relax their faces by making different funny shapes and sounds with your mouth.
Picture Jim Carrey’s facial expressions, for example, with Spongebob Squarepants’ voice. Experiment with sounds, and mimic characters of their favorite cartoons, if you like. Many sounds in English don’t exist in other languages and vice versa, which reveals our native accents. For example, Bugs Bunny speaks perfect English but may sound strange in Spanish, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz has a German accent in English, which makes us think he may speak excellent German.
You can get familiar with the introductory phonetics of the language your kids are learning and play a character trying to learn with them to help them practice speaking.
Connect with Other Parents
Teaching your child a language you don’t know must have made you skeptical at first. You may have felt like you were the only one going through that situation or that you had no idea about how to start. But, even if you feel like you can’t do it seamlessly, you can do it right. You’re not alone in this. Many parents set challenging goals for themselves, which is something to be proud of.
Do some research, join some parents’ social media groups, and connect with other families going through the same adventure. They can advise you, share experiences, and tell you what works and what doesn’t. Therefore, you’ll get proven and tested methods to overcome common problems or obstacles you may find along the way. As a result, you’ll learn what to expect from their firsthand experiences. Once you connect with other parents and discuss language teaching methods, you’ll have peace of mind and clarity about the process.
Make Mistakes
Making mistakes allows you to make groundbreaking discoveries. Quit the perfectionism. Not being mistaken is impossible, and that’s OK. You have to be wrong sometimes in order to learn and improve in life.
Nobody expects you to be a top-notch language teacher if:
1) you don’t know anything about languages, and
2) it’s the first time you’re teaching your kids something you don’t really know.
The goal is to reach a point where you feel comfortable enough to guide your children throughout their language journey without fearing being clumsy or a disaster. You will be amazed by how much freedom this will give you. Plus, you’ll get familiar with your kids’ learning styles and, with trial and error, will find the best method to teach your children a language you don’t know.
At TruFluency Kids, we provide free consultation on how to teach your child a language you don’t know by purchasing a language trial lesson. Maximize your children’s opportunities in life by giving them the world-class education they deserve. Here you can check how our method works. Feel free to ask us anything through our contact form or a phone call.
