exposure Archives – Multilingual Parenting

Q&A: How not to exclude others when you speak a minority language with your child?

Question Hello, I am from Hungary and live in the UK with my British husband. At home we speak English, as my husband doesn't speak much Hungarian. We have a 3-month-old baby, with whom I have been talking in Hungarian when it is just the two of us, or if we are in...

Q&A: Deciding whether to speak a native dialect or an almost native language with a child

Question Hi, I have been struggling with the decision of which language to speak to my daughter. She is now nine months old. So far I have spoken to her mainly in French. I am half British and half Moroccan. I grew up speaking English with my mother, Moroccan...

Q&A: How to encourage a reluctant child to use the minority language?

Question Hello, We are a Spanish couple living in a bilingual area where Spanish and Valencian are spoken equally. Our son is 3.5 years old. I have always talked to him in English since he was born. His father has talked Spanish to him. And he has been exposed to...

Q&A: How many languages can a small child cope with?

Question 1 Dear Coaches, First of all, thanks for what you're doing, that's really useful for people like me. I have two twins, boy and girl, they are 16 months old, I'm Italian and my wife is Russian, so far we are using the one parent one language approach, it seems...

Multilingual families – why a child might grow up monolingual

I love the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” - for the purpose of the topic at hand, I would like to expand it to “It takes two villages to raise a bilingual child”. This is of course not strictly true, but it does describe the need for extra...

Q&A: How strict should you be when your bilingual child answers in the “wrong” language?

Question Hello, How strict should you be when your child answers in the wrong language? My almost two year old is learning Spanish, Catalan and English. Spanish and Catalan from nursery (we live in Spain). Spanish from mum and English from dad (native) and English is...

Q&A: Should grandparents avoid code-switching when talking to their grandchildren?

Question I was raised bilingual in Mexico City (and have always lived in Mexico City). My father is Mexican and my mother is from Boston MA. My two boys were raised bilingual. My concern is this: my daughter-in-law (Mexican) and son who now live in Rio Rancho N.M. are...

Q&A: How can monolingual parents keep up with their bilingual children?

Question Hello! My husband and I are both monolingual English speakers living in the southern United States. When our daughter was born, we fell in love with a Spanish-Immersion daycare in our area and our daughter has attended full-time since 14 months old (she is...

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