Question Hi Family Language Coaches! I wanted to ask if, in an OPOL household, it would be detrimental if a parent spoke “the other parent’s language” to the child in certain public environments. I live in Germany and speak German natively (and English fluently). Both of my parents speak German natively, and limited English. […]

  Question Dear All, We are an Italian family living in France. We speak Italian at home (two hours at night and on the weekends/holidays) but sometimes in the afternoons after school, when my husband is not there yet, it happens that I speak French as well to my daughter (I’m very exposed to it […]

“We are doing OPOL and I find it impossible to stay consistent in my language use – is my child’s bilingualism doomed?” – this question (or perhaps a less dramatic version of it) often pops up in forums for parents raising bilingual kids. Among the replies you will find on one hand those who state that […]

I hear you, you are not alone  – come closer so I can give you a virtual hug! Not being able to stay consistent in the language use is the most common reply I get when I ask parents what their biggest challenge is when raising bilingual children. So how important is it to stay consistent, […]

The custom is to make resolutions for the new year, but as we all know, most of them fall by the wayside well before the shops start stocking chocolate for Valentine’s Day. As a parent of a bilingual child, what could you do instead? My advice is to forget about resolutions and think more about […]

Parents who want to bring up their kids to speak more than one language can learn a lot from families who have been successful at bringing up bilingual children. However, I also think that a great deal can be learnt from those parents whose children grew up to be monolingual, as well as from adults […]

You have decided to bring up your children to become bilingual so they can reap all the benefits of knowing more than one language. Exciting! You speak to your family and friends about your decision and ask other parents about their experiences. Others may not be as excited as you are and their questions and […]

Consistency – you have heard it from me and many others: to be in with the best chance of raising a bilingual child, who can confidently speak the family languages, the recommendation for parents is to be consistent with their choice of language. You may have decided that this is the way to go – […]

I am so excited to share with you an interview I did earlier on this month. Thank you to Olena Centeno, one of the co-founders of Bilingual Kids Rock, who did all the hard work for this interview. You can also listen to the interview on the Bilingual Kids Rock website, which is probably the […]

Today I am starting a four part A-B-C for all you parents passing on your languages to your children – or maybe you are planning to do so, but haven’t quite made up your mind yet. A is for Advantages The list of benefits that accompanies being bilingual is long, ranging from the obvious one […]