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Categories > Family Language Systems > trilingual family
 
 


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monica
  Posted   Reply with quote  #1 
Hello everybody,

Im Polish, my partner is Brazilian and both have been living in an English speaking country since we were teenagers. In the future, I want our kids to speak Polish, Portuguese and English. I speak Portuguese but my partner doesn’t speak Polish. We speak English together most of the time but sometimes mix it with Portuguese. My plan was for me to speak Polish to the kids, for him to speak Portuguese and for the whole family to speak English when together with the kids. Does anyone have any opinions if such a system can work?
 
daria
  Posted   Reply with quote  #2 
Hi Monica,

It absolutely works. Me and my brother were raised by Greek-Iranian parents in Sweden. We now speak Greek, Farsi and Swedish fluently (as well as English). While growing up, our mom only spoke Greek, our father only Farsi, and we learned Swedish in kindergarten. 

I should also add that I also have a Greek-Iranian cousin that grew up in Canada. He speaks Greek, Farsi, English and French fluently.  

Best of luck!
 
Lisbeth
  Posted   Reply with quote  #3 
Hi Monica,

You have wonderful chances for your kids. Children learn with the person. So stay on the language you talk, and your husband with his language. Our children speak three languages because I always spoke German with them, my husband spoke Spanish and now we live in an English speaking country. They do well with all three languages. They get the language of the place they live in really fast, you don’t have to do anything but bringing them to a public school when they are 6 for 3 month and they get it easily.

God bless you
Lisbeth
 
Ala
  Posted   Reply with quote  #4 
Hi Monica,

I’m in the exact same situation. My husband is Brazilian, I’m Polish. We live in an English speaking country. We don’t have kids yet, but I started reading about different language systems etc. I speak Portuguese, but my husband only knows very basic words/expressions in Polish (although I’m hoping he will pick up more when we have kids).  My plan is to speak only Polish  to our kids and for my husband to speak only Portuguese to them. We speak a mix of English and Portuguese between each other and I think it is just natural for us to do so so I don’t think we will be changing that in the future. We know a few other Polish/Brazilian couples here and they also don’t have kids yet but are also planning on having them in not that distant future. I think exposing kids to Polish/Portuguese speaking friends and also to their bi/trilingual children  will be very good for promoting the use of all three languages. Also, my closest family live nearby and they speak only Polish at home. At the moment these are only plans. I hope to be able to report on the results in a few years time [wink]

All the best of luck to you!

Ala
 
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