I’ve dropped hints over the years, particularly if you follow me on instagram (if not, why aren’t you? 😀 ), but after more than 2 years, I think it’s time to talk about how I’m trying to raise my children bilingual. When I don’t speak a second language.
It feels kinda weird to be talking about it on here, because it’s one of the few things that’s a huge part of our lives that I haven’t talked about very openly. In the last few years, I’ve managed to keep our learning to those in our closest circle—and physical proximity—but I’ve been in more than one social situation where I realized no one knew we were doing this, and I liked not sharing it? But, now, I’m ready to talk about it. I want to help others who may be on a language learning ~journey~ as well.
Now, you may be thinking—because I definitely would if I were you, instead of me—“Why are you acting like it’s such a big deal?”. Well, because it’s a part of our every single day. For over 2 years. And not just for me. For my kids, too. When you’re learning in half a dozen ways throughout the week, and actively choosing media to try and support your language learning—so even your downtime is helpful—it feels almost like religion in it’s everywhereness.
So, why have we been doing this at all?
Before having kids, Todd and I talked about how we were both keen on having our kids learn another language. We didn’t make any decisions, but Todd served an LDS mission to Ukraine (Russian speaking); as well as taking several semesters of Japanese at BYU; as well as Welsh. I had done French through middle school and high school, but totally flunked out of the beginner level at BYU; and Todd had taken French in high school, too. So those were just some familiar options.
What we’ve decided to learn is Korean.
In the future, I’ll go into more details about how we came to this decision, but since this post is just about the fact that us learning a second language is happening, and has been going on, I’ll keep it brief.
Basically, I had started very lightly dabbling in Korean entertainment (nothing like I did with Indian stuff in college), and, despite not really being drawn to it, decided to sort of do a ‘cultural study’ (so, like, 3-4 shows, and some more music) for fun whilst pregnant with my oldest. Since Korea is relatively small, and this was right before the big Korean Wave, my interest felt pretty niche. Through this concerted effort, I went from thinking the language sounded like ‘bubbles’, and everything feeling foreign, to finding so many delightful things to appreciate.
After having my daughter, I didn’t think about language learning too much, though Todd suggested I try learning Korean. Since I’d crashed and burned spectacularly in a romance language, I turned him down. But, when Duolingo came out with its Korean language program in 2018, I decided to try it out, since Todd said Duolingo was pretty reputable (hahaha I used to know nothing about it, isn’t that funny? That owl owns my soul now). Before signing up, I learned that Korean was projected to be one of the most in-demand languages in the future, and that was enough to make me say, “Okay, this is what we’ll teach our kids.”
However, it wasn’t until our daughter was almost 5 that I realized that if we really wanted our kids to be bilingual, we’d need to actually do it, and right then. We found a lovely and wonderful student to come and play with the kids, while incorporating Korean; and connected with one of my now-best friends, who has a daughter the same age as ours.
From there, we’ve just been consistent. Not every week—and certainly not every day—is a shining moment of learning and getting better at Korean. But we just don’t stop.
Last year, BYU offered free Korean classes being taught by some Korean students, which me and my daughter attended. Then, we discovered a 1 week, 4-day summer camp, and jumped on that opportunity, too (thanks to one of our lovely friends who got the email about the class and sent it on to me. It has changed our lives). It turns out, they had an ongoing, never-ending, weekly class, and my experience that one week was so good, I’ve been going to in-person classes for over a year now.
Though this isn’t the easiest route, since we don’t have the kids, for example, having Todd speak solely in Welsh to them, while I stick with English, we’re working with what we’ve got. Just because you don’t speak a second language, doesn’t mean that you can’t teach your children one—or learn one yourself, as an adult.
In general, I tend to really follow the child when it comes to their interests. But, when it comes to learning a second language, this is the one area I w i l l n o t budge on. Do the kids always like it? Absolutely not. Do the kids surprise me frequently with what they have picked up? Yes. I believe really strongly in the benefits they will gain through this process.
We have tried so many things, and learned so much in the last few years, if you’re looking to teach a second language to your kids—or want to figure out more about Korean language learning, specifically—please, check back soon, because I have a bunch of related posts in the works.
Now you know. Now it’s on the internet.
