Ask HN: Raising your kids bilingual

[grammakov]

Good day HN! I'm about to become a father pretty soon (first time!) and was wondering whether it would make any sense to try and raise my kid bilingually (Russian + English). The thing is that I am not a native English speaker myself, however I believe that I have a pretty strong speaking level (and good accent), as I communicate in English daily due to work. Also, we do not live in an English speaking country (but we do travel a lot). I've read about most common bilingual upbringing techniques (OPOL, etc.), however I found very few first-hand articles where people were actually raised bilingually by non-bilingual parents. I also have a slight fear that I will be missing out on sharing my native culture with my child, but on the other hand the situational upbringing method takes care of that. I would appreciate any advice on the subject, especially from parents and bilingually raised folks!

[ajeet_dhaliwal]

I was billingually raised. I spoke in an Indian language called Punjabi with my parents and I spoke English outside of the house. My English is much better due to the lack of people besides family I could speak Punjabi with growing up in then west. Now I have my own children and although my wife also happens to have a similar background to me, having spoken Punjabi with her parents she too grew up in the west like I did and we speak English with each other. I’ve realized now that our own children will not grow up billingual because of my wife and I speaking English with each other. This does make me sad but unless I were to migrate to India (where I’ve never lived) this is the practical reality.

The lessons are, kids will definitely learn the language their parents speak with each other and also the language of the local city/state they live in. Other than those it will take an enormous effort to teach anyone another language. If you can afford an English speaking nanny or tutor or a program at a school that might make things easier. Good luck.