Raising children to be bilingual is a rather daunting task. I think anyone who has been on this journey has felt overwhelmed and not up to the task at one point or another. This is why it’s so important to use all of the resources available to us and one of the most important resources is the community.
When I first begun this journey of raising bilingual children, I thought I had it all figured out. I figured it would be extremely easy to have my children speak multiple languages! I just couldn’t understand why parents who spoke multiple languages had children who didn’t speak those same language. Must be laziness, right? Boy, I just didn’t know how hard this journey would be!
We have all heard how kids are brilliant at learning new languages. Their brains are wired to do just so and the earlier they learn a new language, the greater the likelihood they will achieve native status in it. But if it’s so easy for them to learn, then why don’t more children speak multiple languages? Why do so many second and third generation children of immigrants not speak the native language of their parents?
