My dh and I pick up languages quickly but we really stacked the deck with our kids as far as doing two languages from the beginning, thinking that it would give us a foundation for giving them more challenges at home later. As a result they are native speakers of two languages.
I have found that having a special babysitter who is willing to pretend to not understand the majority language is great with kids who can speak the language but don't HAVE to speak it that often.
Preschoolers can learn languages quickly but the same plasticity of the brain that lets them pick up languages fast also lets kids lose them quickly so in our case the work has mostly been about keeping the language up. It isn't a "set and done" kind of thing but more on going than we first anticipated.
If you want your child to be fluent I would go the immersion preschool route first and add the babysitter to mix.
As for kids who speak back in the majority language, we made that a parenting issue. Once you hit 3, when you are addressed in a language, you need to respond in that language. Just like you need to use your silverware when you eat, etc. Every family has to pick their own battles though and I am just sharing what was successful for us.
Last edited by titubeante; 02/14/14 09:38 PM.
