Raising a bilingual child without knowing English?

Hm, so, raising the child bilingually or teaching it a second language from birth is not a bad idea. But having one parent to only speak in "bad" english is a bad idea. They should rethink this. At least the parent who will be designated English speaker will in my opinion suffer because of this, because they might not feel as close to the child (bad communication) What if they just find some resources in english? There are soon many English nursery songs on YT, that they all can listen to (I liked Super Simple Songs yt channel) and get children's books in English (I am reading curious George to my son like 20th time already), basically any media content can be in English. My child (5) learned English like this (we don't speak English at home),

That sounds like a lot of unnecessary stress that will fall apart when they actually have a kid. I haven't tried it but I do have two kids and some knowledge of a second language and I just can't imagine trying to do that.  If they're able, maybe they can find a nanny or au pair who speaks English, or an immersion school. 

If the only time they use a language is with them, the child will only learn the language as much as they can speak it. I think they're gravely mistaken. If there is no readily available English education in school, then they need to learn more English themselves *and* find English teaching materials on the internet.

Being raised by a parent who can’t truly communicate with you sounds like it could damage you. How are they going to pick which parent can barely console the kid when it wakes up from a bad dream?

If they manage to stick with it (I have a feeling they'll be far too exhausted by age 3 to keep trying to communicate in a language they don't speak with said 3yo, and that's a generous estimate) they are destined to produce a child who is a very limited, not-fluent English speaker, and who weirdly has these mistakes and issues \*ingrained\* in their brain, which may cause more issues than yk, your kid just learning a foreign language at school like everyone else. Not to be mean, but I don't think your friend understands how language acquisition works. (People do this with "baby sign" (using ASL to communicate before a child can physically speak but can understand language) and that's okay, but they're not actually trying to raise fluent ASL speakers. They're trying to get their toddler to stop melting down by giving them more accessible vocabulary. I think "baby English" will probably only confuse their kid, and the non-parent adults around them, who are faced with a kid trying to communicate in a language that no one in the situation, not even the kid, speaks.) (Also! I'm tangenting! I know some parents in Spain do this, where the fathers often speak English and the mothers do Spanish, for some reason, but the fathers are actually fluent. Even then, you're going to wind up with weirdness from no one being a native speaker.) Anyways, I think this is an "idea" (problem) that will "evolve" (solve itself) "over time" (extremely quickly).

They could learn together and both improve over time. Better than nothing. They'd probably both need access to other English speakers/lessons/schooling in English to get to a functional level.

My parents refused to speak English with me because they're too lazy to learn it and also because "the Jews and Christians speak it." However, my English is better than that of people born here. Furthermore, when I worked in retail, the 5 year old children would translate what I said to their Hispanic parents (who couldn't speak English). They'd also translate what the parents said back to me, but I had put in minimal effort learning their language, so I already understood what they meant when they'd say like "cuando es leches" and whatnot.  So, yes, the children can easily master English despite having parents that don't speak it. But they have to watch Sesame Street and Barney and Mr. Rogers and Gargoyles and DarkWing Duck to do so. 

Not possible. Natural bilingualism requires a bilingual environment. What they re trying to do is closer to artificial bilingualism, but it will be veeery basic at best. The kid might pick up a few words, numbers, expressions, and that's all.

I agree with you. I think the parent would have to be at least C1 for effective communication.

That child will maybe learn very basic words, but they will not be bilingual at all and is going to make lots of grammar and pronunciation mistakes that will be so much harder to correct later on, because to that child THAT will be the base in which they will learn all the english. If your friend pronounced Hello with a spanish J instead of an aspirated H, it wont be just an inference of their native language to that child; they will truly see the J sound as the normal sound. If your friend regularly forgets to use the -s at the end of the third person singular of present simple, the child will struggle later remembering to add it... And so on.

Check out r/multilingualparenting

That doesn't work, at all. The child will quickly pick up on the fact that the parent is using a language that they cannot fluently communicate in and will refuse to use that language.

It feels very dumb imo. Their best best is to hire a native au pair and let them speak to the child in English

One of my friends in high school was the child of two traditional Chinese immigrants. I didn't see her parents often but I only remember her talking to them in Chinese. Anyways, she was so fluent in English that she had difficulties convincing other students that she had **very** traditional Chinese parents. I think people here are: 1) Greatly underestimating how much English a child can pick up from people who aren't their parents. 2) Underestimating how much English the designated parent will pick up along the way. 3) Overestimating how much a child will rely on the designated parent as a source of accurate English.

You don't need to worry, they won't go through with it. I'm originally from Spain but I've lived in France most of my life. I'm bilingual but my mother tongue is Spanish (both my parents are Spanish and I was born and raised in Spain). I speak perfect Spanish but I live in a 100% French speaking environment. I thought it was going to be so easy for me to speak in Spanish to my children. Turns out it's not. I'm really struggling to teach my kids Spanish, because Spanish doesn't come naturally to me when I'm in France 100% sorrounded by people who speak French 100% of the time. So yeah I wouldn't worry about someone who is not fluent to be able to go through with it 😉

My Swedish friends ( live in Sweden-both speak multiple languages including English) wanted their children to be fluent in English so once they got to be 4 or 5 they had them start to consume media in English. When I first met the kids they were 3 and 6. I could communicate with the oldest. Three years later and the youngest is pointing out a lava lamp and calling it by name. It helped immensely that they went to International school starting at age 6 or 7 which was taught in English. Obviously it depends where OPs friends live -but if they have unfettered internet access the kids can learn English pretty easily by watching YouTube, movies,etc in English.

Does this family live in an English-speaking environment where the child will also get exposure outside the home? If not, then it will likely get very difficult, very quickly, and as mentioned previously,y the parents will likely stop trying. However, exposure to sounds of English(preferably audio/video from native or advanced speakers) might help the child in the future if they have a chance to learn English when they are older.

This is a truly terrible idea.

I agree that seems like it would create problems.

Are they living in a country where people speak English? If so, their child might be able to learn more advanced English by immersion from school/childcare - but in that case, it could be easier for the parents to learn English too