Today, as on the 6th of November every year, the “Finland Swedish Heritage Day” is celebrated in my home country. On this day all things to do with the Swedish-speaking part of Finland is brought to attention and appreciated. I am one of the Finns who state Swedish as...
We’re in that part of the year when people all over the world are celebrating lots of different traditions: Halloween, Diwali, Eid and Dia de los Muertos to mention a few. Of course I have to include my favourite since moving to England: Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes...
So you have successfully passed on your language to your children and they are happy to talk your language with you. Maybe they have also spoken your language amongst themselves up to now. Then the language pattern changes and they switch to the majority language....
Consistency is important in any aspect of raising a child, and no less so when it comes to passing on your language. While a child can learn more than one language even if the parents are not consistent in their language use, the chance of the child becoming bilingual...
I have mentioned the term passive language skill a few times time before in my posts: if you have a passive knowledge of a language you can understand some or most of it but you are not able to communicate in it yourself. Mostly there has been a bit of a warning...
After meeting a family where the children no longer actively speak their parents’ native language as the parents had decided early on to switch to the majority language, I reflected on how much joy our language skills have given my daughters and myself. Today I will...
Like any other “project” in your life, bringing up your son to become bilingual is much more likely to have a successful outcome if you plan ahead. You may ask: “Why do I need a plan? I grew up to become bilingual without anyone making a plan for me!” This is true – I...
We’re enjoying a relaxing holiday in Finland at the moment and I took the chance to speak to my younger daughter Daniela about her languages. Which languages do you know? - I know English, Swedish, Punjabi, German and a bit of Finnish. How did you learn all your...
Bringing up a child is never without its challenges – the types of things we have to tackle just varies depending on the age of the child. Adding another language to the mix will bring its own stumbling blocks. In this series of three blogs I will discuss the most...
I don’t know how many times I have heard comments along those lines – someone regretting that one of their parents didn’t pass on their language. I have never heard the opposite though, anyone regretting that they learnt a language when they were small. This speaks...