Question Hi Family Language Coaches, Thanks for sharing so many useful tips and resources – I just discovered your website's Q&A section and I really love it! I have a question about raising a trilingual child. I was...
Rita R
Q&A: Do bilingual parents have to choose one of their languages to speak with a child?
Question Hi, I am Wadha from Kuwait. My partner and I live in Kuwait (Arabic is used in the community) and are bilingual parents: Arabic native speakers, but we both speak English as a second language. We have a two-month-old child and are planning to send her...
Q&A: Language elitism and how to address it
Question Hello, I'm a Russian mother living in the U.S with my two sons, ages 13 and 9. I may be an odd one out compared to other parents in regard to languages. My husband and I speak a mix of Russian and English, and though my boys understand Russian, they prefer to...
Q&A: Should parents of bilingual children not speak the majority language at all?
Question Hello! We are Americans living in Kuopio, Finland (for over 10 years). We have a daughter who is almost 19 months and goes to Finnish päiväkoti (=kindergarten). I was told by the neuvola doctor (paediatrician) to not mix languages and only speak...
Q&A: Should parents raising bilingual children avoid code-switching?
Question Hello, My name is Benedicte, and my husband and I are expecting a baby boy in the next few weeks. We live in France and are both bilingual French-English. My husband was raised by an American father and French mother. I was raised by French-speaking...
Q&A: When others object to you speaking a non-native language with your children
Question Hello I´m a native speaker of Spanish and fluent in English, currently raising a 14-month-old boy in English. I speak to him in English 100% of the time while my husband speaks in Spanish (the community language as we live in Spain). My question is how...
Q&A: How to convince a 3-year-old to answer in the minority language?
Question Hello I'm British, living in France for the past 13 years. I speak French to my French husband, and we have two girls, a 3-year-old and a new-born. Our 3-year-old was a late speaker (first words at 17 months) and I am the only person who speaks English...
Q&A: How to change a situation where one parent feels left out in a multilingual family?
Question Hello, My wife and I were ethnically Chinese, but she was mostly raised in Japan and considers her native language Japanese. Before we had our first child, we spoke a mix of Mandarin and English at home. While I have familiarity with Japanese (just...
Q&A: Which language will be dominant for a bilingual baby being exposed to two languages?
Question Hello! I have a 6-month-old son with my husband. We live in the US, and my mother-in-law speaks only Spanish to my son while she is taking care of him (M-F, 7-4:30pm). My husband is from Mexico, and I am from the United States. My husband and I speak...
Q&A: The other parent does not understand your language – should you speak it with your baby?
Question Hello, I’m so happy to stumble upon this website. It is lovely to see that we are not the only one with many MANY questions about raising a multilingual individual and that there is help out there 🙂 Here is our situation: Our son is 4 months old and we...