How to Get Your Child to WANT to Speak a Foreign Language – Part 1

If you want to speak another language, but you’re noticing that your child just doesn’t have the same passion you do for that language, and it’s making it hard to practice even though you’re creating a very healthy learning environment…

I want to remind you that the word education comes from the word educe,  which means to draw forth, not to pack in.

You’ve probably already noticed that even if you say the language is important or how it relates to them,  these external things that you’re saying aren’t changing how your child feels inside.

You actually have to draw forth that desire. 

There are four ways to do that,  and I’m going to cover the first one in this blog post.

Hey, I’m Adelaide from TalkBox.Mom, where we help families to start talking in a foreign language the same exact day you start the program.

The first way that you can help educe or draw forth your child’s desire to speak another language is to  entice them.

Enticing someone gives them the opportunity to decide,  yes, I want to be a part of this.  That’s internal.

It can be really fun. After all, you’re enticing your family to be part of your family culture, which is speaking another language.

After my family was already speaking Spanish and German with TalkBox.Mom,  we released the Korean program.  I was very excited.

I really wanted to speak Korean with my family, but I knew my kids were going to be like, “Ugh, another language,” and I didn’t want to go through that push-pull dynamic of “ I want to speak it.” / “I don’t want to speak it.”

That’s just not how you make any progress.

For me, though, I wanted to speak Korean because I went to an elementary school where about  half of the kids were from South Korea.

A lot of my elementary school friends growing up were from Korea.  I have great memories of playing gawi-bawi-bo (rock, paper, scissors – in Korean, rock, scissors, paper) on the playground. Greeting their moms like they did by saying, “an-nyeong ha-hseh-yo!” and their moms would just laugh like, “Silly girl.”

I didn’t know what I was saying. I was just copying my friend,  trying to be respectful.

So a lot of my culture growing up was Korean culture.  But my kids didn’t have any ties to Korean.  It would just seem like another thing that they have to do because I want to do it. 

It’s always nice to do something someone else wants to do,  but this is a bigger ask. We’re speaking a whole other language together,  and we’re going to be practicing every day.

So I thought, how do I draw forth this desire for them to want to speak Korean?  How could I get them on board? And I decided to entice them.

So one day in the afternoon, I sat down and I turned on a Korean drama. It was kind of spooky, like ghosts—something boys would like.

My kids were very shocked that I was watching TV during the day, which is not something that I do.

They said, “What are you doing?” And I said, “Oh, I’m watching a Korean drama.” And I didn’t say anything more.

And they were like, “Oh, well, can we watch it with you?”

And I’m like, “Well, it’s in Korean, so you’d have to read the subtitles. You might not like that.”

And they were like, “No, we like that.”

Of course, they wanted to watch TV during the day. So they sat down next to me, and they were watching the show when all of a sudden the doorbell rang.

Ding-dong. They were like, “Who’s at the door?”

Very strange, in the middle of the day someone knocking on our door. And I was like, “Oh, that’s my DoorDash.”

And they were like, “You ordered DoorDash?!”

I mean, this is the afternoon.

So I went to the door, I got my DoorDash, and I put it on the table in front of the TV.

I put out all these different Korean foods that I had delivered to the house.

They were like, “What is that?” and I said, “It’s Korean food. You probably won’t like it.”

They were getting a little offended at this point. They were like, “Um, well, can we try it?” And I was like, “Sure, if you get a plate, you can try it.”

So they came back and they put different foods on their plates,  and they sat down watching the Korean drama, eating the food.

Then a couple of days later, they were asking if they can watch the next episode in the cute little Korean drama.

Now I’m way ahead of them— I’m already looking at taekwondo studios on Google Maps, trying to determine in the photos where I can find a really strong Korean community.

I found one, and we went to their first class. The instructor, Master Kim, was so fun and so amazing.

My favorite thing he said was, “Tryyyyyyy again!”

The kids there were so kind, so studious.

Of course I wanted my kids at this taekwondo studio making friends with these kids!

You have to realize that I’m playing the long game here. Because they have every right to say, “ I don’t like Korean food,” or “I don’t like Korean dramas,” or “I don’t like taekwondo,” so I want to give them time to see if they do like it, if they are interested.

Then they started becoming curious, so we started practicing Korean with TalkBox.Mom.

It got to a point where my kids would get upset if we were not practicing Korean. Something changed inside of them where they decided that they wanted to speak Korean.

And now they’re outpacing me.

When we went on our trip to Asia, one of the places they wanted to go was Korea.  They had so much fun in Korea using their Korean,  because it just delights the Koreans when you speak their language.

They had so much fun ordering their food in Korean, making friends, even with the cute grandmas there. Of course we learned the Gangnam style dance and did it in front of the statue, which was very fun for them.

At the end of the trip, I asked each one of them separately, “Which country would you want to go back to the most?”

Each one of them said Korea.

And Japan was in that list, a country they had been more interested in than Korea.

You can see the power of creating experiences that entice someone  to speak another language.  You can entice at different levels of your practice sessions.

You don’t have to order DoorDash, and you don’t have to watch movies. There are many ways that you can help entice your child to speak another language.

My 15-year-old was commenting that he loved practicing another language when he was little because we always had popcorn or candies or Cheerios or just something yummy that brought him over to the table.

It might seem small, but you can get little gifts that go along with challenges like opening new toothbrushes.  It seems so simple, but who doesn’t love opening a present and then being like, we’re going to use these as we use our new phrases as we brush our teeth.

Imagine even pulling the wrapping paper and pulling out a $1 cup to practice your label card phrases in that challenge.

For one of my kids,  I can just wrap things we already own and he’s excited.

It’s even helpful when you’re practicing to think of situations that would entice your child later  to use their phrase in real life.

That’s exactly why we start with snack phrases,  because your child can choose their favorite snack, and then they’ll be more excited to ask for that snack because they’ll get it.

It’s really fun to help your child grow this internal desire to speak another language. I’m really excited for you as you try out this first way to educe or draw forth their desire to speak.