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You just reminded me of another potential problem: if I feel disconnected from the old water, it would def affect the next generation, I see so many second-generation immigrants who already don't even speak their grandma's language. 🫠
Fortunate for us that the Anglosphere is so enormous. We’re far from home but still speaking the same language.
I know a few parents who are trying to raise their kids bilingual. It definitely looks like an uphill battle.
When I lived in Egypt in an expat zone, my neighbors were a Dutch/Italian couple. Their kids spoke 4 languages (Arabic (local), English (what parents speak), Dutch (mom), Italian (dad)) and according to those for those that could judge their language that I couldn't, they were fluent in all 4.
Not all kids can do that though.
I was trilingual by the age of 10.
My brother (at around 7), on the other hand, struggled a lot with it and would mix words from each language into a sentence without realizing it.
At some point, his teacher asked my parents to agree on using one language at home and reserve the use of others (and then only those exclusively) to specific events or locations.
They never managed to uphold the discipline required for that, so we stuck to one language from there on out.
hahha I do that from time to time.
Also, some words are quite difficult or almost impossible to translate into other languages.
Love to see kids like this! it would be really interesting to see how they feel about themselves, like, do they feel more Arab or more Dutch/Italian.
Remembering how it went there back then, they will probably always feel a bit outsider. There's a big religious barrier and from what I hear it only got broader. However, I traveled a lot in my teens due to parents' work myself and I most often just don't feel the tribal roots thing that much; I expect that to be similar for them and I expect them to travel. They're coming of age now, so it'd be interesting to find out what's what.
I know it’s possible, if the parents are really committed to the effort and/or there’s a lot of exposure to the languages being spoken natively.
It’s something that has to be whole-assed though.
Maybe. I think we’re going to go back sometime in the next couple of years, because we want to show our daughter around and introduce her to our friends.