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@alenharry My kids have been exposed to 4 languages more or less since birth and we haven’t had any issues. As far as the scientific research about multilingualism goes, there’s no need to wait until the other languages consolidate. The advice is rather that earlier is better. Of course, there’s...

@seanh43 That’s a good question. My older child is 5,5y right now and when she and my husband talk between themselves I can understand everything. Every now and then I hear them using a new verb or a word that I don’t know and I always ask my husband right away what it means. So basically I’m at...

@seanh43 We’ve had the complete opposite experience. I’ve been able to learn Portuguese and my husband Finnish by doing OPOL without any prior knowledge or additional studying. In the beginning it’s more translating (yet simpler language) but the longer we’ve done it the easier it has gotten...

@matt11confused Nothing wrong with having a bit of fun! Most likely he already understands that you are speaking a language that you normally don’t speak, and he finds it hilarious. If you want to do OPOL, then it’s better to stick to your own languages as speaking a language that you’re not...

@pollyton My kids are being raised with 4 languages and we don’t have a family language that everyone speaks together. I’m Finnish, my husband is Brazilian, we live in French speaking Canada and us parents speak English between us. We didn’t know each other’s languages at all in the beginning...

@brittanyolee No, they only hear English passively at home because that’s what me and hubby speak between us and that’s one of the majority languages where we live. I agree that it becomes trickier to keep things in balance when it’s minority vs majority language at home

@brittanyolee I’ve been doing OPOL with two kids (2 and 5) and at least for us, following their interests has been the best language strategy. We do listen to a lot of music and watch some tv, we read books in both mine has my husband’s languages every night, we try to hang out with other...

@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...

@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...

@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...

@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...

@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...

@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...

@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...

@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 🙂

@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...

@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...

@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

@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...

@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...