Artificial Bilingualism

These days you won’t surprise anyone marrying a foreigner who speaks a different language. In this case, your potential child is likely to be a bilingual. A naturally brought-up bilingual whose relatives might come from the opposite corners of the planet. The one who already has it inside.

But the world has moved further. They have started practicing “artificial bilingual upbringing” aka implementing a new psyche. How does it work?

 For instance, if someone in a family has a nose for English, they kinda start encouraging the children to use it during a day. For a child it’s like when I talk to mum, I use English but with dad I switch to Russian. The mother tongue still remains Russian, at least for the parents. But does it for the children? 

Among all languages English still crowns the top. Though Spanish, German or Chinese are getting quite widespread. It can also be even a mix of some in one family. And with the languages always come cultures, sometimes absolutely different.

Will it be healthy for children’s identity to start splitting into two completely different worlds when they are still children? Will it help them in the future or make a mess with their native culture and values? Eventually, is it really natural or just another trend now?

Comments

  1. Ellie ASeptember 23, 2021 at 11:14 AM

    As a bilingual person I can say that learning languages as a child is very useful, because it develops important thinking and logical skills. I personally know a family where the parents speak English at home on purpose, even though they are Russian and live in Moscow. This way they want to simplify the process of learning the language.

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  2. natyioSeptember 23, 2021 at 11:33 AM

    If this is a trend then i think it's a good one. I'm in two minds about this, will it help children or not, I don't know . But still, it seems to me that children's brains work in such a way that they don't care how many words to learn in what language or whatever...

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  3. peoSeptember 23, 2021 at 12:16 PM

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  4. Lena GSeptember 23, 2021 at 12:17 PM

    I'm also in two minds about this. On one hand, even "artificial" bilingual upbringing is very beneficial and useful. Additionally, it'll give children more opportunities (education, friends, future work and much more). On the other hand, there might be a situation when the other parent doesn't speak English, so it can turn out stressful for the whole family. Besides, I believe that a child raised like that may be bilingual but not bicultural, because parents are not natives.

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  5. PollySeptember 23, 2021 at 12:52 PM

    I see your point but I'd like to point out the fact that in many cultures it is quite widespread to bring up one's children in a multicultural way where grandparents speak one language, parents use a different language, and teachers opt for some other language! Many children grow up speaking more than one language and this does not affect their development or language skills in any negative way. On the contrary, picking up more than one language from early childhood usually means better development and more opportunities later on in life.

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  6. YasyaSeptember 23, 2021 at 3:40 PM

    I’m in two minds about this 🤔🤔🤔 On the one hand, growing up in bilingual family really develops the skills and can be very useful. On the other hand it can cause some troubles to a child

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    Replies
    1. YasyaSeptember 23, 2021 at 3:45 PM

      why every my comment is published 384858 times and i have no idea how to delete them help 😖😖😖

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  7. ElenaBSeptember 27, 2021 at 6:57 AM

    I decided a long time ago that I would speak to my children in English because it would make it easier for them to learn two languages and it would only make their lives easier in the future. And in general, it will broaden their thinking abilities

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  8. dasha platonovaSeptember 27, 2021 at 9:34 AM

    I think that bilingualism in early childhood will help a child to master two languages in the future. It seems to me that there is no way the child will feel bad from communicating with parents in two languages. It will not spoil their native culture. When children are small, they only learn languages, and they begin to understand and absorb culture later. If parents can convey to the child that the world is diverse, and that every culture is beautiful it will, on the contrary, benefit the child.

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