By now you may be aware that I am in the process of writing a book on passing on the family languages to your child. Writing a book on the topic of raising your child to speak more than one language has been on my mind for quite a while, but the time has never been...
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....
Is the statement “First generation speaks, second understands and third loses the language” really true? Are third generation immigrants bound to lose the language of their family's home country? Is it even possible to keep passing on the language from one generation...
If you are a parent trying to pass on your language to your son in a place where the majority language is different from yours, what should you do to increase the amount of time he is exposed to the language? You might not have other speakers of your language nearby...
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...
While picking some juicy blackberries in the back garden for my breakfast cereal, I noticed how well the pears are coming on this year and will soon also be ready for my morning muesli. Except for cutting the brambles back once in a while, it hasn’t required much...
Having fun while you are learning must be one of the best ways to keep the motivation going. The same applies for when you are helping your son on his way to become bilingual. You can easily introduce new words when you are playing with your little boy. Today I want...
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...