Raising bilingual children

I am bilingual in English and Russian. While I lack some vocabulary to discuss advanced topics like politics or engineering in depth, my Russian is quite good. I speak without an accent and have no trouble communicating with other native speakers. In my experience, this is exceptionally rare. Growing up in the US with Russian heritage, I met a lot of other children who grew up with Russian parents in the US. While many can speak some Russian, it often comes with a strong accent, issues with basic grammatical rules, and a vocabulary sufficient for only the most basic of conversations.

This can seriously impede understanding in Russian. English is the world’s most common second language and is spoken differently in different parts of the world, so we as English speakers are accustomed to understanding different pronunciations, accents, and making sense of English from those who are non-native speakers. In Russian, there is not as much variability in pronunciation or grammar, so understanding mispronunciations can be much more difficult for native speakers who haven’t been exposed to many non-native speakers.

The issue of children speaking their heritage language poorly, or even not at all, is not uncommon or even specific to Russian. In the Chinese-American community children often do not speak good Chinese, and even children with a heritage language that is considered easier for English speakers, like Spanish, often speak it poorly or not at all.

This is a real shame, because being bilingual in Russian has brought me immeasurable benefits. Firstly, it has allowed me to communicate with my Russian family members in their native language. Many of them also speak English, but my grandparents speak very little English and we wouldn’t be able to have a close relationship if I didn’t speak Russian. Even for my family members who do speak English, being able to communicate with someone in their native language is different than in a second or third language.

Additionally, my knowledge of Russian has helped me in the learning of other languages, even ones you might not expect. When I was learning Spanish in school, Russian had some surprising cognates, like “fábrica” for factory. The sounds I knew from Russian helped me pronounce some new sounds, like the “ñ”. And grammatical rules, like having gender in the language, helped me with gender in Spanish. This isn’t unique to Spanish, Russian’s sounds have helped me with Chinese’s “j”, “q”, “x”, “ch”, “sh”, and “zh” sounds, and Russian’s case system helped me with German’s. Even if the language you speak is entirely unrelated to the one you are learning, having more words in your vocabulary will give you reference points for new ones. And, it’s likely the sounds and grammar might have a bit of overlap.

So, if a second language is so beneficial, how come so few children have a good grasp on their heritage language? It’s not for lack of trying. Many parents complain that they wish their kids spoke their heritage language, whether to communicate with family, be able to visit their heritage country, or understand media in their heritage language. Often parents will speak to their children in their heritage language when they are young, and they can speak it quite well. Then, when the children start interacting outside of the home, such as in preschool or daycare, they quickly switch to English. At this point, even if the children are enrolled in some sort of language class, it just doesn’t provide the amount of exposure needed if it’s the only time they are speaking the language.

I followed this pattern too, but with one difference. My sister and I were required to speak Russian at home to our mother, at all times. If we tried to speak English, we had to repeat it in Russian. This was not always easy for us or for our mother, she had to be very persistent to enforce this rule. But it worked very well, and we both kept our fluent Russian. This is despite the fact that our father didn’t speak any Russian; even one parent was enough exposure to maintain the language. For the parents that complain that their children don’t speak their language, it’s not on the children, it is on the parents to persevere. At their age, children don’t understand what they will miss by speaking only English.

So, if you have young children, please give them the gift of another language if you can. If any of the parents speak another language, even as a non-native, it is an incredible privilege to give to your children. It’s not easy to keep enforcing the language’s use in the home, but I’m incredibly grateful that it’s how I was raised.