7 Reassuring Facts About Raising Bilingual Children
If you’re raising multilingual children, it’s easy to feel like we aren’t doing enough for each language or any aspect of parenting, really. For reassurance, I’ve gathered these facts about raising bilingual children that parents like myself need to hear.
My kids have been acquiring English and Chinese languages for the past decade, but we had to drop Korean. Despite countless obstacles, we’ve celebrated surprising language milestones with both children.
However, my daughter has long surpassed my Chinese fluency and literacy, and I still feel the heartbreak of pausing Korean.
Despite all this, I’ve decided to stop worrying and have faith in encouraging my kids to embrace minority languages. I redirect my energy to my reason for raising bilingual children and reassuring facts about our efforts.
7 Reassuring Facts About Raising Bilingual Children
1. You can start and stop anytime
You aren’t late, and you’re exactly where you need to be.
For each family, the right time to start raising bilingual children is different because our circumstances are unique.
Some mothers and fathers have read all of the bilingual parenting books before their kids were born. On the other hand, some people (like my husband) have no intention of starting.
Other families start their bilingual journey when a grandparent or nanny cares for the child or attends immersion school.
Immigrant parents like mine gave up on teaching a second language, but many adults in our generation are learning a “new” language with their children.
God plans everything, and language opportunities will come at the right time.
And when your kids aren’t acquiring other languages, they learn other important skills.
Try this: 5 Things Parents Should Do When Raising a Bilingual Baby
2. Every step is necessary
Raising bilingual children is a marathon. There are no shortcuts.
That means you can’t watch Chinese Disney movies and Korean cartoons all day and expect your child to be fluent and social without adverse effects.
Just as it takes a baby a year to take her first steps and say her first words, a great deal of interaction and consistency normally precedes bilingual milestones.
Acquiring two or more languages is supposed to take more time and effort than one!
3. You decide how far to go
You and your spouse determine what goals are reasonable and affordable for your family. Maybe your children are world-schooling, or perhaps they’ve never left the state.
Some kids will become fluently bilingual and bi-literate, and others might retain a few common greetings.
4. Being bilingual is normal
Raising bilingual and multilingual children is common worldwide. Around half of the world’s population can speak two or more languages.
No matter how awkward it might feel to speak minority languages in public, habits develop with practice and time.
When you confidently speak minority languages to your children around monolingual friends, you help normalize diversity and empower other multilingual families to do the same.
5. Language mixing is normal for bilingual children
My kids and yours will mix languages.
They will reply in a different language.
When it comes to raising bilingual children, this is par for the course.
While we should consistently optimize their minority language skills with these various speaking strategies, the other language(s) are part of them.
To encourage the minority language, you can recast mixed sentences. However, concern and punishment are unnecessary because language mixing is common and normal.
6. Bilingual exposure is good for the community
Regardless of how far you go on this bilingual parenting journey, language exposure has the potential for positive changes.
Learning a language – even a few words – brings awareness to cultures with diverse customs, ideas, and perspectives.
When our children hear more languages, they’ll realize that we all have different accents worth listening to.
In addition, bilingualism is associated with cognitive advantages, such as memory retention, multitasking skills, attention control, and problem-solving.
7. You deserve grace
Raising bilingual children is not easy, especially if you live in a monolingual community.
The process is humbling, the to-do list is never-ending, and it’s okay to take it slow.
You’ve made it this far, whether it’s the contemplation phase or reaching special milestones in the face of challenges.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7 ESV
What else gives you peace of mind about raising bilingual children?
How do you cope with the difficult days? What do you hang onto for encouragement? Please feel free to share in the comment section below!
Hello Betty
When my daughter turn age 2.5 in last December, I know is time for me to start searching Chinese reading and writing material.
I am so lost and overwhelm by lots of Montessori blogs but non share about how to create an environment for children to learn Chinese.
I am glad that I have found your blog. You gave me idea how to start and prepare myself so that my daughter will not miss her sensitive period.
Thank you, Betty for creating and sharing the printable materials too.
You continue to be an inspiring and supportive resource for bilanguage family.
Hi Yin-Cheng! Thank you so much for taking the time to write and sharing a bit about your family. I’m so happy to share the journey with you! Glad to hear the posts have been helpful. Cheering you on! 🙂
I am so happy I stumbled onto your blog and I am definitely bookmarking it for when my baby comes next year! I feel like I can relate to you so much. I am also a second-gen Chinese-American kid who never became fluent in her Chinese but wants to teach her kids Chinese and English. In a way I won’t get much support in teaching our kids Chinese, because my husband is White and can’t speak Chinese (though he wants to learn one day!). We are also Christians and I am so happy to find that you are too! Thank you for providing this blog and resource; I can’t wait to use it more in the future. God bless you!
Thanks for the encouragement. So great to be reminded to have realistic goals but also that ultimately we are not in control, God has a plan and he is a good father who loves to give good gifts to his children.
Hi Betty, thanks for the reassuring facts. They give me courage to teach my daughter Mandarin. Not trying to pry but my husband is like yours who has no intention to teach our kid a second language. Do you mind sharing how you get your husband on board or at least not against it? If you deem it’s too private for you, it’s perfectly fine that you ignore the question 🙂