My Thoughts After 2 Years of Raising a Bilingual Daughter
joeprevite.com
My daughter just turned two, marking 730 days of speaking only Spanish to her as we navigate her bilingual upbringing. Here are my reflections on this unique parenting journey.
  • Lvxferre@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    OPOL works rather well because people instinctively associate languages with other people; in her case mum = English, dad = Spanish.

    I use something similar in spirit, as I speak with one of my cats in my German [L4]. Obviously I don’t expect her to learn the language, but it feels natural for me to switch language as I speak with her or the other cat (I use Portuguese [L1] with her), I expect it to be the same for the child and the parent from the story.

    One thing to keep in mind however is that children are lazy. (Like adults, I know.) Once they realise that they can be understood without learning another language, most will ditch it. Still useful later on, if the child wants to pick up the language again.

    • GiantRobotTRex@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      He only spoke to her in Spanish, but he’s not the only person who speaks to her. The article explicitly says the daughter now speaks both Spanish and English.