There is no better way to learn a second language than hearing
it from birth. Yet when parents set out to pass two languages on
to their children, many find it more complicated than they had
assumed. Children exposed to two languages often start to speak
later, which can worry their parents. Children fluent in two
languages will often refuse to speak one of them, because they
realize it makes them different from others in their world.
Melissa Campos-Hernandez is just getting her first glimpse of
what it takes to raise a bilingual child, and she has asked me
to ask Motherlode readers for guidance. She writes: My husband
and I are both bilingual (Spanish/English) and are trying to
raise our daughter to be the same. We’re taking the same
approach our parents used: all Spanish at home until she’s two
or three and then start teaching English. It worked well when we
were growing up, and neither of us (nor our siblings) ever had
need for bilingual education in school. The differences this
time around, though, are th