[Aunt Clara]

We are raising a multi-lingual child, so far, as expected, she's behind other children her age in her language development. Some time in the next year she's supposed to catch up, although for many reasons I still think it'll be years before she masters all three languages to the same degree.

Were your children (or yourself) raised bilingual. Who spoke what language where? How did everything turn out? Any advice?

[Elsa]

Well Aunt Clara , I have a 4 years old boy and a 9 month old girl, he is multi-lingual too, and as you said, he too was behind other children his age, but now he is at school (french school)and he is doing great in French, and english too(Tv, friends, music, toys, games).
Spanish not so well because I am the only one who speak the language with him, he understand me completely but to speak he has some dificulties.
My husband speak only french with him, me , only spanish, at the daycare was english, and now at school in french.
I think it is giving us good resultes so we will do the same with our daugther.
The only advice, something I read on the internet: One Person, One Language, but there are some other methods you can chosse from.
The internet page: Getting Started; Multilingual Children's Association

Something I forgot, my husband and I, we speak english between each other.
isnt that confusing

I hope this info can be helpfull for you.

Elsa

[Aunt Clara]

Our home is a veritable Tower of Babel. Husband's native language is Danish, mine is Spanish but between us we've always spoken English. So I figured, if the kid doesn't learn English she won't understand us, if she doesn't learn Danish she won't understand half her family and, well, Spanish she'll learn anyways. So I speak to her in English, husband in Danish and almost everybody else in Spanish.

She can't speak a word of Spanish, except "guandules!", because a guy who sells veggies passes by every day. I don't speak a lick of Danish, but according to my husband her Danish is pretty much on par with her English, which is not that much really. She seems to understand much more than she speaks, but she knows about two dozen words in both languages, and once she learns it in one language she uses it throughout, which is really funny.

Everybody I know who has raised multilingual children say I have to be patient, in the end it all works out. Her paeditrician agrees her development is normal, all things considered, a a few whackos have suggested I have impaired her forever, or worse, that this is offensive to them.

I imagine because of the subject matter, and because of the language of this site, there's a good chance I'd hear from some experienced people. I am interested also in how everybody around them have reacted to their decission of raising a multilingual child.

[Aunt Clara]

By the way, Aunt Ilana writes for a magazine about multilingual families.

[Elsa]

Aunt Clara, I was worry to about it, but now I am so happy he can speak and understand three languages, I am even telling my neibord who is Romanian to speak only romanian qith my son.
The people around us are fine with it, they understand why we do it, because as you know, here in Montreal, all the new generation will speak more than 2 languages because of the inmigration, so here someone that only speaks one language is out of date and cant fine a job either. We have to speak 2 languages, french and english, other languages will be an asset.
So, I can asure you that what you are living now is normal and you have to be patient, beause at the end your daugther will thank you.

[Aunt Ilana]

There's this, which is the Multi-lingual Living Magazine - subscription only, but it's a snip at US$12 a year. It contains articles on the theme, ranging from the academic to the anecdotal, as well as other aspects of bi, tri or multi-cultural family life like celebrating the holidays combining different traditions, cooking, which will be of special interest to our readers here, and more.

The magazine is published by the Bi-lingual/Bi-cultural Family Network, and their website is open to all and has plenty of interesting information on this topic.

My case: I'm an English speaker who has always also known Spanish; my husband is a monolingual Spanish speaker. We live in a Spanish-speaking country (the DR) and speak Spanish at home, but I've always spoken to our son in English. We sort of follow the one-person, one-language rule, to the point where he looks at me in a funny way when I address him in Spanish. This is something I do when we are in Spanish-speaking company, as a way of showing him that it is impolite to exclude people by speaking a language they don't understand. His English is also boosted by spending summers with my mainly English-speaking family.

As a result he is 100% bi-lingual. He was only slightly late in learning to speak compared to some children. He is interested in learning a third language now he is six and I'm keen to encourage that, because children learn so easily at a young age.

[ROSAny]

HI I am new to this site and I just looooooove it I've been making my mom proud with these recipes!
I just want to say that I was born and raised in NY and I thank my family for teaching us a slogan, iIngles en la escuela, Español en casa! My mom only spoke Spanish so when it came time to go to school I did not know a word of English and the school's principle want to put me in a bilingual class. But, my mom didn't let him; she said I had enough practice at home with Spanish and that I should go to an English only class. I am glad she did this, the same girls that were in bilingual the first year were still in a bilingual class by the time they went into High School and their English was not very well spoken. I am sure it must have been hard for me at first but you know what, I don't even remember, and I am most definitely not traumatized by it. And when I was finally tested for a Spanish class in High School I was put into the highest level where I was thought about the greatest Spanish authors. So do not worry about your child being traumatized or confused as long as you give him a specific regimen and not have him think that its ok to speak 2 words in one language and the rest in another. My language is one of the only heritage that I have, it is so beautiful, I am proud to have something I can passed down to other generations.