Raising multilingual children
I grew up in the one of the smallest and probably one of the most multilingual countries in Europe. And oddly enough, the three countries that are close to my heart and that I call home in some form or another - Singapore, Switzerland and Luxembourg - all have 3 to 4 official languages. The one big difference is though that in Luxembourg, when I went to school, we had to learn all three official languages (Luxembourgish, French and German). In Singapore, English is most widely spoken, with every person having a second language depending on their family heritage, while in Switzerland, you speak the language of the region you live in (Swiss German for our children) and learn a second national language in primary school.
So it’s no big surprise that I am raising multilingual children too. I may have had my worries about this when my oldest son was younger, but today all I see are the benefits of teaching them two languages while they are still young. My son will tell me something in English, turn around to his Dad and answer him in Swiss German just a few seconds later. This still does not fail to amaze me, especially when I see how little effort is has taken us in our daily life to reach this point.
Now that I have a 4.5 year old who successfully speaks two languages, I feel confident that this has been the right path for our family. I worried that the kids may not be able to speak one language as good, that they would only speak one language (mainly Swiss German as it’s the language of the country we live in) and refuse to speak the other, that they would have issues communicating. The fact is that both our kids were and still are late speakers. Once they start speaking, they don’t stop anymore, but until then, patience is key. Is this due to the two languages? I don’t know, and at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter.
What matters is that I have a 4-year-old whose teacher tells me that he has the same language skills as the kids his age who only speak one language. That I have a kid who can talk to my parents and my family in Singapore without any issue. That we can travel to visit our friends abroad and there are no communication barriers. That’s the big value for me - that they are able to be part of most of the conversations that we are having in our lives, be it at home or less frequently during holidays. Sure, the sentences, especially in English, are not 100% perfect. There are German words popping up at times, the grammar is not always correct, and yet it’s a learning process.
I am not at all an expert on languages, but I can share what has worked for us:
being consistent with the languages that we speak
each parent speaks their mother tongue (or one of them as mine are Luxembourgish and English)
being patient with the kids, as my son mainly spoke Swiss German for 3.5 years, until he suddenly switched to English with me on a longer holiday in Singapore
exposing them to language as much as possible, mainly by reading to them and having them listen audio books
we have an unwritten rule in our house that when possible, TV shows will be watched in English, so as to give them some additinal exposure to the language that is not our country’s language
taking the pressure away from the learning process and just trusting that they will go at their own pace as long as we are consistent in how we communicate with them
These are some tools and ideas that have worked for our family, but I also believe that they have worked because of who we are and the way we do things. Many of these things are just important to us as parents, like reading books to the kids or exposing them to audio books. This is just my personal experience, but do let it inspire you on your own journey around languages and children!
Are your children multilingual? What has your experience been? I’d love to hear more about this, so feel free to drop me a message and share your story!