My husband and I are no different. We think it is practical and mind-broadening to learn a foreign language. So far, the most practical option for us is Spanish, because so many people speak it in the United States and because I am somewhat proficient in it.
More and more, in my reading of literature, I wish I knew French so I could get more out of the quotes and references in some books. My Spanish gives me huge advantages in that regard, but I would love to get the French references, too. I would also love to know Japanese, at least in some small measure...but that is one of the hardest languages for English-speakers to learn!
What We Do
If we had not recently moved, we would have been placing our oldest child in a kindergarten dual language program that provided partial immersion in Spanish. That is not an option for us anymore.
At this point, I don't plan to try even partial immersion at home. Our son will be going to public school this year. We do plan to supplement his learning, but we won't have many hours available to do it. (I'm thinking three and a half to four hours home learning time per week, at the most.) Immersion seems to be out.
So, we do the following things:
1.) TV Shows and Games
Every once in a while, we watch children's programs or play computer games that involve Spanish or Chinese words. (You probably know which popular TV shows I'm talking about.) We have even watched entire documentaries in Spanish.
Other ideas to try are renting the Spanish version of movies we already know, writing letters or talking to a friend who speaks Spanish, or turning on the Spanish subtitles on DVDs.
2.) Vocabulary
We have a calendar written in Spanish so we can read off the day and date in Spanish. There is a small section for the day's weather so we can also talk about that in Spanish. I made the calendar following the instructions at Children's Learning Activities, but substituted the Spanish words.
I also have some homemade flash cards with simple English-Spanish words. I have the English word on one side and the Spanish word, with a picture of what it is, on the other side. In addition to easy vocabulary words, I made some for the numbers 1-10 and for major colors.
I don't often incorporate these into our daily learning, after introducing them one week. I leave them handy and my toddler likes to bring them out and "play" with them. I teach him the words at those times and he thinks it is great fun. So does my preschooler, who has an amazing capacity for remembering vocabulary, whether it is in English or Spanish or another language.
By the way, that capacity is one of my major motivators for exposing him as much as possible to foreign language. If it's going to be that effortless, why not? I think a lot of parents feel this way.
Other things I want to try are having entire (short) conversations in Spanish after learning a little more vocabulary, and having a Spanish day a few times a year when we eat "Spanish" foods, listen to Spanish music, watch Spanish entertainment, and speak only in Spanish as much as we are able to. Unfortunately, my husband won't be able to speak for very long using only Spanish, but it is amazing how much Spanish anyone living in the United States knows. Especially food words. :)
3.) Music
This category is similar to TV shows, movies, and games. On the one hand, this can be a fun and easy way to learn some Spanish, especially if we listen to familiar children's songs in Spanish. On the other hand, popular music in another language tends to be challenging because it uses idioms, "regular" pronunciation rather than the careful speech of someone teaching a language, and different phrasing due to it being sung rather than spoken. It can be a good strengthener of language learning and/or an easier way to memorize some Spanish.
We have a CD of Spanish children's songs called 50 Kids Grande Spanish Songs that are popular English nursery rhyme songs. The children love listening to them and even singing to them.
Other ideas to try are listening to Spanish stations on the radio and borrowing from the library or buying music that is Spanish in origin. Those will be more typical of the native language than music that is marketed to English speakers.
4.) People
Before we moved, we had local friends who spoke Spanish fluently as well as a Spanish-speaking neighbor, so that was our fun exposure to the language. I am sure it is only a matter of time before we have similar resources here, in the form of foreign language teaching that is the most effective: talking to people who speak the language!
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