Forum Parenting

Bilingual upbringing

4 replies

Tete
Hi!

I'm becoming a mom for the first time and my due date for our little boy is March 30, 2015.
I'm Dutch and my husband is full-blooded Brazilian. We naturally want our son to speak both Dutch and Portuguese, so we've agreed that I'll speak only Dutch to him and my husband will speak Portuguese. We currently speak Dutch to each other. However, my husband isn't 100% fluent in Dutch, which is another reason we chose this bilingual approach.
I was wondering if there are other couples here on the forum who have raised their child(ren) bilingually from birth and how it went/is going.

Thanks in advance for your feedback/tips/advice!

Best, Tete

Replies

  1. madelene #2

    We’re also raising our kids bilingual, at least that’s what we’re trying to do, but not with much success. Only now is the oldest starting to pick up a bit of my husband’s language, certain words, but it’s not going smoothly, and the youngest isn’t either, unfortunately.
    I’ve been thinking about having them learn it at school, but he doesn’t want that yet; he wants to teach it to them himself.
    I think the problem is that he started too late.
    When she was 4, he spoke Dutch at home because he was afraid she wouldn’t learn the mother tongue well otherwise.
    But now he’s slowly starting with sentences and words.
    Greetings, Madelene

  2. Tete started this #3

    Hi Madelene,

    Hmm, sounds pretty intense, yeah. Your husband doesn't want to give up so easily, I can understand that.
    I hear more often that the children indeed still go to language classes on Saturdays, for example, if it doesn't work out.
    For us, it would already be super if our son could understand everything right away. The whole family of my husband, including his older brother (8 years old), lives on the other side! It's important that grandpa and grandma and brother can also have contact, of course

    Has anyone else experienced raising a bilingual child from birth?

    Greetings!

  3. Nikki #4

    We’re bilingual too. I’m Dutch and my partner is English. I’ve been doing it this way from the start. But my son (4) still mixes them up sometimes. He says things like, "I have no hunger."
    But it’s getting better and better; I correct him all day long.
    I think it’ll be fine.

    NIKKI

  4. Tete started this #5

    Hi Nikki, sorry for the late reply to your comment. The notifications that someone replied ended up in my spam box :-/
    But nice to know! I can definitely imagine he's getting things mixed up
    Can't wait to hear more!

    Best,

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