If you are an expat parent and English is not your first language, you should consider how you and your partner can encourage your kids to use and retain their heritage language.
Lingua franca
Over the years, many parents interviewed by Global Collection have told us that exposing their kids to a more international environment was one of the biggest reasons they chose to move abroad. But there is a caveat to consider for non-English speaking families. “At an international school, English will be your kid’s first language, even if they never spoke it before. They’ll use it to communicate with teachers, classmates, and perhaps even siblings,” says Gisi Cannizzaro from Heritage Language Education Network. “This can lead to a situation where their ability to speak a parent’s mother tongue deteriorates.”
Chat to your partner
“For the Global Connection community, I would say it’s a very good idea to sit down with your spouse/ partner and talk about how you can stimulate your kid’s relationship with your mother tongue. It’s not just about being able to chat with the grandparents on a video call. There are long-term academic, socio-emotional, and economic benefits that come from retaining a heritage language. In the future, when third-culture kids want to study, work or even just travel in their motherland, they will always have an advantage, if they can speak with fluency.”
Keep it social and fun
There are other strategies and starting points, which many expat parents may already do. For example, try speaking your mother tongue consistently with your kid, even if they answer in a different language, or reading books in your native language with your kids. “To further expose your kids to the language and culture of your home country, you can organise meetups with other parents who speak your mother tongue,” suggests Gisi. “Sometimes there are after-school lessons for children in heritage languages, which are definitely worth checking out. If these are not available, perhaps you can share books and other resources with other families. Parents don’t want to be teachers to their kids, and kids don’t want that either! So it helps to keep it fun with play-based activities, creative projects, music, film, etc. There is unfortunately no one-size fits all solution. If you and your partner agree it’s a priority, try to come up with a strategy that will engage the whole family.”
This article was originally published for the thousands of expat partners that Global Connection supports around the globe. It is reproduced here in its original form.
