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    Do I still try to teach my son Spanish if I'm not fluent myself?

    @iamhereftw Keep going! But if I were you, I would make a serious effort to increase my own Spanish exposure in order to develop. The thing with languages (whether non-native or native) is that the versatility of the language you use with your child makes the biggest impact on their learning. We...
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    Do bilingual kids feel left out at school?

    @lippy1004 I have two girls who are growing up with 4 languages. We speak two minority languages at home, English between us parents and with most of our friends, and the girls go to French daycare and school. My oldest had zero issues making friends at daycare and although my youngest one...
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    How old were your children when they began to use words in different languages for the same thing or concept?

    @kairete That awkwardness is really common and for some people it’s so bad that it prevents them from speaking their language to their kid. Which is such a shame! Not saying this is your case. But hopefully with some practice and time the awkwardness will go away. The language you and your child...
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    Wife feeling excluded

    @x902xxipher I have a feeling that this has everything to do with PPD. I hope she can get help soon because it’s not a good place to be. Your wife is not excluded from your conversations because frankly you aren’t having conversations yet (and won’t be for quite a while), she just doesn’t...
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    How old were your children when they began to use words in different languages for the same thing or concept?

    @kairete My daughter has been exposed to three languages since she was born and another one was added to the mix when she started daycare at 1y. We speak Finnish and Portuguese to our kids and English between us parents, daycare is in French. My daughter was pretty good with saying both the...
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    "Teaching" Foreign Language if not fluent?

    @thomaswhitetw While I don’t have personal experience in introducing a non-native language, I don’t think there’s any harm in introducing such a language. Maybe you have already done it, but if you Google your question I think you’ll be able to find some articles that talk about that. Books...
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    Raising a baby in a trilingual family

    @lamarcook I’ve been in your situation! I’m from Finland and I spent several years not speaking my language actively until I had kids. I have a Brazilian husband that I speak English with and we live in French speaking Canada. Long story short, we struggled to speak our languages to our kids at...
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    How to read books with a small child who makes it impossible to read anything?

    @qian I’m sure it does! 😃 At that point as long as we cultivate their interest in books, that’s all that matters. They’ll be much more likely to pay attention and listen later. Good luck with everything 🙂
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    Non-native, non-heritage fluent 2nd language - OLOP?

    @asaithambi If you are fluent, I don’t see an issue. You also have time to start consuming more German music, podcasts, books, media etc. before the arrival of your child which will activate your German in a different way. Note that not all native speakers speak German perfectly either! If your...
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    How to read books with a small child who makes it impossible to read anything?

    @qian All kids are very different with this! My older daughter wouldn’t let me read to her until she was maybe 2, she just enjoyed turning the pages super fast. It didn’t matter what the situation, she was always a speed reader 😄 Around 2 she started to focus more on the contents of the books...
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    Multilingual Family Struggles: Balancing 4 languages at home. How do you do it?

    @missjenjen18 That bit I understood, but it’s not clear how much French you speak to your kids. If you sing to them, translate stuff here and there and read to them in French then it’s not nothing. You just need to start increasing the amount of French
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    How to do OPOL when 1 parent speaks 2 different but similar (minority) languages?

    @matthew0101 I’m wondering, how was it for you growing up speaking Galician and Spanish, were they both spoken at home? Try to draw from your own experiences and use those tactics when speaking to your son. Were there people in your life who spoke both of those languages to you interchangeably...
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    Multilingual Family Struggles: Balancing 4 languages at home. How do you do it?

    @missjenjen18 How much do you currently talk to them in English and how much in French? Transitioning to OPOL would mean that your end goal is to exclusively speak French to them, maybe not overnight but over time. And same for your husband with Hindi. I’m sure they’ll resist but if you don’t...
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    Multilingual Family Struggles: Balancing 4 languages at home. How do you do it?

    @missjenjen18 Hi! My setup is quite similar as in that we have 4 languages (Finnish, Portuguese, French and English) but we have done OPOL from the beginning. I speak Finnish, my husband Portuguese, community is French (with a bit of English) and us parents speak English between us. We don’t...
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    Another question for trilingual families

    @matt11confused Yes I have been in a similar situation. I’m Finnish and my husband is Brazilian. We didn’t know each other’s languages before we had kids. Family members from my side know English although my mom doesn’t speak it, whereas in my husband’s family nobody knows English, only...
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    Casual exposure two days a week, worth it?

    @sara57 Having exposure to different languages is never bad, but that amount of exposure is low so it’s good to manage your expectations. You can definitely buy some Portuguese books that the caretaker can read to your son, especially if you are planning on extending the time or finding someone...
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