The Top 5 Bilingual Parenting Mistakes You Must Know to Raise Successful Multilingual Children

If you’re raising your children in various languages, you're embarking on a wonderful and fulfilling journey. However, raising multilingual children is no easy feat, and as parents, we're bound to make parenting mistakes along the way. But don't worry! In this video, we'll be discussing the top 5 most common bilingual parenting mistakes when raising bilingual children, so you can avoid them and ensure your children become confident and proficient in multiple languages.

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Time Stamps:

00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Mistake # 1: learning automatically
02:35 - Mistake # 2: TV and other media
04:30 - Mistake # 3: it's expensive
07:16 - Mistake # 4: correcting mistakes
09:20 - Mistake # 5: giving up
12:27 - Conclusion

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Language Activities & Games (0-3)

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[MultilingualFamily]

Mistake #4 can be avoided by striking a balance between correcting and allowing the child to be themselves. It's only a mistake when we overdo one or the other, so the challenge is finding the right equilibrium.. Is it hard for you to find a balance when it comes to correcting mistakes?

[reborka]

I’m an English speaker currently learning Spanish. My bf’s first language is Spanish but living here in the US has really weakened his Spanish speaking. We’re currently living with his parents who speak majority in Spanish. We’re expecting our first baby end of September and I have made a big deal out of making sure our baby knows both languages!

[kachnabox]

We’re a Polish-Mexican couple and we’re nervous about our first kid. Your videos are very helpful and calm us down, they make it all sound possible. Thank you :)

[rqmvmro]

Thank you for your video. I am Japanese and my husband is Romanian, but we live in Czech Republic. We both communicate in English 😅 4 languages environment is super challenging for us, but we will try …

[ngotri]

thanks for sharing, it was very helpful

[jackybraun]

My friends and I just got on with it and brought up our children with both languages 40 years ago. There wasn't much advice about in those days so we winged it. In fact, we were just emerging from the theory that using more than one language from the start would "confuse" and "damage" the child, so everyone in the same position was experimenting or just getting on unscientifically.

We must have got something right because they are now bringing up their own children bilingually.

Over 50% of the world's population is bilingual without any effort or theoreticising on the parents' part. It's the norm in large parts of the world. No need to overthink it.

[MultilingualFamily]

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[Olivettevictorique]

Thanks for sharing your history, it will definitely help us raising our baby!

[mub]

Thank you for the video! Could you do a video about how to manage situations where the whole family is together and parents use OPOL? How to establish the joint language for the family?

[silversleeper]

I'd love a video with tips for raising a multilingual child in a single parent family (either because you are a 100% solo parent or the other parent is away for long periods of time). I will be raising my children as a single parent and want to be able to teach them my first language of Sign Language, but also English as it will be the primary social language and French as it is my family's language. They will get English through child care, but I don't know how to teach them both French and Sign without confusing them but also giving them enough exposure (my family does not live nearby so will only be able to speak to them in person a handful of times a year).

[lifewithkurbin]

Wow! Thank you so much for your videos! Me and hubby are learning a lot and good to know what to expect and try to be prepared for raising our child with multiple languages.
I did have a question and hope to hear what you think. For background, we are in the US and am planning to speak to our baby in my native language, Tagalog (Philippines), which will be the minority language. Me and my parents and brother will be her main source of Tagalog as we don't really have a lot of other resources in that language.
I just thought about me singing in general. I have not been singing songs in my language and I only sing songs in english. I love just singing in general everyday and we also have praise in church. Will you recommend i refrain from singing in english to her or around her?

[tinarhz]

Thank you for useful information 🌹🙏🏻 I’m from Iran so my first language is Farsi but I speak also English Turkish French Almost arabic and Spanish and Azerbaijani. My husband speaks English French and arabic . We speak English at home so I want my baby to learn all of them what do u suggest ?

[nataliamichalska]

Hi, we are Polish couple. I speak fluent English ( lived 15 years in UK) but my accent is still strong . How this can affect my child ? She's 11months. Thanks

[mpeniak]

I am Slovakian but living in Spain. I speak to my kid Slovak and his mother Spanish as we should. However, I speak to my son sometimes Spanish when we are outside around other Spanish…intuitively this seems the best approach, also when I teach him words sometimes I mention the Spanish version but 95% of time it’s pure Slovak…could you please confirm that this is in fact ok

[giuseppinadimartino]

Thanks for different advices. My children 8 and 6 understand the minority languangue (English) but always reply back in majority languague (Italian), I don't know to increase the minority language. Thank you

[ginaali]

I wonder how dangerous it is that the child can not tell the different languages apart and gets really confused if the parents are not consistent in their language use...

We don't aim at both languages to be perfect, but that he gets the basics in the minority language urdu at least.
And it's hard for my husband, who is the native speaker in that language, to keep talking urdu to our 3 month old son ...he keeps falling back into german.
I am also learning urdu...
So sometimes we talk in urdu, sometimes german.
It's hard to stick to rules like speaking urdu at home or something...

I am really worried that in the end, our son won't even be able to tell the languages apart...
Any experience or advice concerning our struggles?

[KamilaSousamusic]

We are a family Brazilian × argentinian/japanese living in EUA.

[sanaali]

I M from pakistan and English is not native language and I m not sure from where to start because kids are 11 and 13 yrs old..

[cristinarodriguez]

You are a Spanish speaker, right? Mexico?