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...
Non-native language
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 choose the languages for a baby in a multilingual family?
Question Dear Family Language Coaches, I have a question about raising our first born (due in two months) multi-lingual which I was hoping you could kindly help us with. My wife is Ukrainian and speaks Russian (native) and English (not fully fluent, but quite...
Q&A: How to add English as a third language for a 1-year-old?
Question Dear coaches, Thank you for the great website and taking time to help parents. Reading your answers to others' questions gave me some general ideas about my concerns but still I have some topics in mind to ask you. So first I give a summary of our situation....
Q&A: Which language(s) should a multilingual mother speak with her child?
Question Dear Multilingual Parenting team, I am still in my early pregnancy, but like all ambitious mother to be, I’m already considering all kinds of scenarios regarding the baby’s future education. As a multilingual person, which language shall I speak to my...
Q&A: How to choose the additional language to teach a toddler?
Question Hi, My husband and I have an 18-month-old son who we would like to raise bilingually in Austin Texas, USA, but we are having a hard time deciding which language to teach him. Predominant languages in our city environment: English and Spanish...
Q&A: How to juggle several languages in the home – what if you move?
Question Hello, congratulations for the excellent website! It's great to hear about the experiences of other multilingual families and be able to get advice from a Family Language Coach, as it is often difficult to decide how to handle this subject. I would...
Q&A: Switching from OPOL to mL@H to maximise the exposure to the minority language?
Question Hi, I am wondering whether it would be helpful to change our approach. My daughter is 23 months old and I've been speaking German with her, while my husband has been speaking English. I am a stay-at-home mom and we are living in Germany, so German is...
Q&A: If a child loses a language are all the benefits of bilingualism gone?
Question Hei! I am a German single mom to a soon 4-year-old boy. He was born in Finland and we've been living here all the time. At home I only speak German to him. He started to attend Finnish daycare at age 1.5 (part time), full time from age 2.5. Although...
Q&A: About language exposure, family language strategy, speaking a non-native language and confusion
Question Hello, I am Italian but I know English very well so I really want to try to teach it to my one-year-old daughter. I speak English to her since she was three months old. In the beginning I thought to use the OPOL method but it's really hard for us,...