How to raise a trilingual child when one language is rusty
Raising a child with three languages becomes overwhelming when you are not fully fluent in one of them and have to look up words. Because children default to the dominant language as soon as they realize it is not strictly necessary, it is hard to get them to practice enough or respond without switching back.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Switching between languages on different days (e.g., 3 days German, 4 days Russian)
- 2Associating a specific language with a particular activity like bathtime or naptime
- 3Reading books in all three languages and integrating into local language communities
- 4Doing video calls with family
- 5Watching media and reading books in the weaker language
- 6Enrolling children in formal language classes
- 7Hiring a fluent babysitter who only uses the target language
- 8Setting up video chats or finding friends who speak the minority language
- 9Feigning a lack of understanding when the child responds in a different language
- 10Doing video calls with family members abroad
- 11Having kids watch media in the weaker language
- 12Trying to read books in the minority language
- 13Using flash cards and vocabulary words
- 14Applying the OPOL (One Parent, One Language) method
- 15Switching media time like songs, TV, and audiobooks to the minority language
- 16Exposing children to books, nursery rhymes, and peers who speak the minority language
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“English took over the second school started. Spanish is okay, but French doesn’t get enough practice time.”source ↗
“They answer in English unless the person literally can’t speak English back to them.”source ↗
“The issue is there’s only so many hours in a day, and two of the three languages are getting more of those hours, no matter what we do.”source ↗
“Now I’m questioning myself if that was the wrong decision because my German is like my native language and my Russian is Rusty.”source ↗
“I can have regular Conversations in Russian but I don’t think that I’d be able to give her life lessons in that language. Sometimes I have to google a word.”source ↗
“Is there a way I can teach both or Is that too much? I was considering 3 days German 4 days Russian.”source ↗
“English took over the second school started. Spanish is okay, but French doesn’t get enough practice time.”source ↗
“They answer in English unless the person literally can't speak English back to them.”source ↗
“I have a 3 year old and 5 month old that we hope to raise bilingual, any advice would be really appreciated.”source ↗
“My 3 year old was doing really well when she was around 2 and a half, learning the numbers, random flash cards like fruit, parts of the face and colours but she's really forgotten everything so quickly”source ↗
“I'd like to encourage her to learn full sentences, she's a really chatty toddler in English but haven't had much success in another language.”source ↗
“the dominant language spoken will prevail above all others simply due to daily use.”source ↗
“It's very hard to get kids to speak a language if they know that it isn't actually necessary.”source ↗
“I do generally speak in another language to her maybe 75% of the time, she generally understands but only responds in English”source ↗
Where this came up
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