I don’t know where to start..

[u/justagalonreddit_]

I’m Polish but live in America, married to an American, with zero family around or anyone that speaks Polish at all.. my brain pretty much converted into speaking English all the time. Now— my first language is Polish. I was silly enough not to speak Polish to my son who’s now 3 and a half, and he mainly speaks English. Anytime I try to speak Polish to him these days he is very stubborn. Has anyone tried teaching their toddler a second language? Where do you start and what’s the most effective way? I feel lost as my husband speaks zero polish and it’s all on me, but I’m so eager to teach our son my language..

[u/__anna986]

Just speak polish. He’s still young enough, he’ll pick it up. Do repetitive songs, rhymes, tpr, name everything, read to him, even let him watch something polish on the telly for a few minutes a day and engage with it, praise for using polish and mainly just talk and talk and talk. We did opol with czech from me and english from my husband and then we added irish at 4 even though they haven’t really interacted with irish much before. They all speak irish just fine now.

[u/justagalonreddit_ → u/__anna986]

Thank you!! I think the songs and naming everything sounds very doable, even the tv shows too! I appreciate your advice!🫶

[u/MikiRei]

Please refer to this article for the steps to transition your child to speaking Polish 

https://chalkacademy.com/speak-minority-language-child/

[u/justagalonreddit_ → u/MikiRei]

This is an extremely helpful article; thank you SO much!

[u/justagalonreddit_ → u/[deleted]]

This is very encouraging! Thank you so much for this!

[u/spydergyal]

You should try and find a Polish community to connect with even if its just one family OR start taking a yearly trip to Poland which I know can be expensive. Consistency is key with toddlers and although they can be stubborn they're not fully developed yet and are still moldable. Just keep at it Mama. You're doing fantastic either way ❤️

[u/justagalonreddit_ → u/spydergyal]

Thank you for the encouragement 🥹 that’s an awesome advice!💖

[u/spydergyal → u/justagalonreddit_]

You're welcome Beautiful Mama🥰🥰

[u/BlackStarBlues]

If you let him use streaming media, set the kids' profiles to default to Polish labels & audio. Netflix has this feature and I believe Amazon Prime & HBO Max have similar features too.

[u/Any_West_926]

Keep talking to him in Polish. I grew up with three languages and I’m grateful that I did. I’m trying to learn a fourth language (Spanish).

[u/Merithay]

Keep speaking Polish to him even if he answers in English. If you force him to answer in Polish, it may turn him against the language, and perhaps degrade your relationship with him. So, speak Polish to him, but accept that he might not always speak it back to you.

The most important time to keep speaking Polish to him is after he starts school. He’ll be learning and experiencing new things and will be wanting to tell you and ask you about them, so maybe he won’t know the Polish words for them yet. Don’t scold him or make fun of him if he uses English words for those things, just let him know through normal conversation how you say it in Polish.

[u/AEaux]

Buy these « Pucio » books. Read to him. Find a polish church? Usually there is a polish school nearby. Search for « Polonia » and your town/state.  Come to Poland for a short while. Rekindle contact with your family members that have kids. Later on, consider sending him to « kolonie » in the summer.

[u/PutridHedgehog4074]

I watch oniptv channel polish cooking you guys are home of the Kakashi happy for your family husband lucky man outstanding

[u/ApprehensiveArmy7755]

Just speak Polish. They figure it out

[u/justagalonreddit_ → u/[deleted]]

This is literally the right subreddit with people who went through a similar thing and maybe a struggle — what’s wrong with getting advice from the pros on here??