The story of raising Multilingual Children.
Why I have decided to write my first book.
I went from being a dad to a dad of two multilingual kids. I couldn’t believe how simple this switch was. It was not so easy at the beginning, but I was lucky to learn a few important pieces of advice at the start. Then I followed those and added some more key points along the way.
It was 2015 when I and my wife were expecting our first child. We were so happy and couldn’t wait when we’ll become a real family. Everything went well and later that year we were taking home our baby from the hospital.
Our home is bilingual as we have two separate native languages and speaking one of those together. We live in a country that speaks another language- the local language.
We realized that it’s normal for us to speak in our native language to our children. It is important for us to hand over our heritage to our baby.
This realization came long before our baby was born, as according to some research, the fetus after some stage of development can hear the voices from the outside.
Doing the ‘research’
I speak the minority language at our home (the language which is used the least in our household) so for me, it was clear that it won’t be an effortless journey.
I spent quite some time searching for some educational materials on the internet, including books, blog posts, forums to find the best ways to do it.
I realized that it can take some time to do your research and not many parents have the time to read long books or browse the blogs and forums.
It is especially true lately, in the fast-paced lives of this century.
The decision to write a book about this topic
I concluded that there are not many books written by actual parents who have real-life experience with raising bilingual or multilingual children.
I have decided to collect my personal experiences, lessons learned, and tips along the way and pack it into an ebook. To write my first book. I set up this goal and planned a working habit to write at least 500 words per day for the next few weeks. I’ve started the next day.
I wrote a total of 8000 words for almost 3 weeks so my book ended up having 40 pages. My system was to spend about half an hour each morning writing those 500 words. It wasn’t easy on each day (especially on weekends when the children are awake very early), but on average I’ve succeeded in my goal.
The goal of my book
- I aimed to put my thoughts and experiences about raising multilingual children into one simple easily readable material. My book focuses on the first 4 years of raising multilingual children as my oldest one was just four years old.
I believe the beginning is the most challenging, but for sure there will be more adventure coming up. The key is to remain consistent and persistent. I’m confident that my children will thank me for that later on.
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela
The benefits of raising a bi-multilingual child are endless. It would require a separate post to list the most advantages. In our case, it was a no-brainer to start.
- I wanted to share and help the other families to decide why you should talk to your child in your native language.
- To give some practical ways how to boost your child’s bilingualism in 7 simple steps.
- Written for bilingual or multilingual families who don’t know which book to pick or where to start
Who can find this book useful?
- Bilingual or multilingual families who don’t know which book to pick or where to start.
- Couples speaking different languages planning to have a family.
- Anyone interested to learn the main steps about raising a multilingual kid.
What’s Next?
If you liked this article, follow my Twitter account @MultilingualCh as I continue to document my journey.
