Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Bilingualism”
35.7%. Reading this figure stopped me in my tracks. My partner speaks the majority language at home (English) and I speak both English and Portuguese. If I’m painfully honest, I probably end up speaking more English than Portuguese most of the time. Judging by this figure, that means that if we carry on as it is, our children will have …
Access to minority language books and resources can be hard to come by and we need to work with what you’ve got. Here are some ideas to try Translate on the spot from a majority or community language book. In this case, I strongly recommend going for books with shorter sentences and simpler words. And of course, stay away from …
If you have consumed any baby-related books, websites, reports, blogs, or other media, you’ll already know that reading to your child as early, as often, and as many books as possible is highly recommended and a key to language development, amongst other benefits. Makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s exactly the same principle to develop the minority language. But how many …
Ok, so by now you know everything you need to know about who I am, my family and our predicament. I’ve got a new found resolve. Yay, fantastic! However… the last thing I want is to alienate my children and risk having our special bond broken, or having them hate all things Portuguese by introducing it into their lives so …
It had crossed my mind many times that I ought to put visual reminders around the house to remind me to speak the minority language. Post-Its being the most obvious ones. But there was always something taking precedence, a distraction, a deadline, an interruption. When I was working full time, every morning on the way to work I would think …
If you read the About this Blog and the About the Author sections, you will already know a little about me and my family and why I started this blog. I wanted to give you more context. Here’s the story so far… Everyone has their own set of circumstances and challenges. These are ours: I’m the only minority language speaker in the family (my family lives …
Strictly speaking this is not really the start, we’ve been intending to bring the girls up as bilingual all along, but life got in the way. We never really planned much the whole bilingual thing. We thought it would just happen! My partner asked if I’d speak Portuguese with the girls, I said yes, and that was it. The commitment had been …
