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Categories > Your Questions — General > Are 3 languages at this point the right thing to do?
 
 


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Katerina
  Posted   Reply with quote  #1 
Hi everybody!
I live in Sweden for the last 8 years, but I come from Greece and I’m married with a swedish man for the last 5 years. We have 2 adorable girls, the older one is two-and-a-half years old and the other 5 months old. I have a big interest in literature, history, mythology, I like books in general and from the beginning my aim has been to strengthen the minority language (greek) as much as possible. I speak strictly greek with my children, read greek books to them, sing greek songs together, have a lot of contact and visits to my family in Greece. My husband has also been trying to learn greek under this period so he has been talking until now both the languages with me and the children. Our older daughter has not been going to any playschool in Sweden, she’s been at home with me. The result until now is that she speaks fluently greek with rich vocabulary and even recognises all alphabet, etc. but speaks no swedish. She is going to start at playschool in some months and I ponder how it will be. There are a couple of playgrounds in our city which are bilingual swedish/english and the big question for me is if this would be too much for our daughter. I would rather avoid the classical swedish playgrounds; I want our daughter to get a wider education and point of view for the world and in my own opinion the classical swedish playgrounds are very narrowminded. We are not sure if we are going to stay in Sweden either so the idea of a bilingual playschool is more familiar to me.
But the big question is: will it be too much for our daughter to be simultaneously exposed to 2 more languages except greek (one familiar just by hearing at home, but not able to speak yet -swedish- and one totally new -english-)? Can this harm her psychologically? She is an adorable child with a lot of energy and interest to the other children but she always a bit shy when she meets new people and things. Please help me with your opinion!
 
BLINGuals
  Posted   Reply with quote  #2 
Sounds like you have a really good thing going!  In your case, I would go ahead with your plans for the three languages.
 
Most young Scandinavians have good fluency in English.  It’s probably a combination of formal education, high web usage and just being members of small countries without the critical mass population required to get by life without needing a second language.  So your kids will be covered for Swedish and English.

You should focus on Greek as much as possible.  Since you’re considering daycare options, you’ll have less time to spend with them.  Good luck!
 
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