[mootothemax]

My wife (Polish) and I (British) are currently trying to have a child, and very much want to encourage our children to be bilingual.

I've spoken to a couple of people here who have one Polish parent, one non-Polish parent, and all seem to agree that it's easy enough to keep up the "Mum speaks Polish, Dad speaks language X" game for the first few years. Both said, though, that the real challenge was keeping interested during their teenage years.

That appears to be the challenge; thinking long-term, does anyone have any experience being raised in bilingual households? Did you keep interested past a certain age, and if so, how?

[david927]

Don't worry, they'll already be fully bilingual by about seven. After that, it's a question of it they want to speak it or not, but they will already be bilingual.

If you live in Britain, make sure to back up the exposure to the Polish with films, books, trips to Poland, etc. (If you live in Poland, the opposite, obviously.) Your child needs to get the whole cultural experience, not just your wife speaking.

[mootothemax]

Thanks, that's really encouraging :)

Great point about culture; we're in Poland right now (that might change in a couple of years), and aim to continue visiting both countries for a long time yet. We'll be trying to mix and match as much as possible, so hopefully some from both cultures will rub off :)

[mathattack]

You hit it right. Kids are smart enough to know, "This language is for this person, that language for another person." The key is being strict about who speaks each language, otherwise they get confused. It is very doable, you just have to be disciplined.