Raising A Multilingual Family

Growing up with multiple languages Raising bilingual children has become a hot topic over the last few decades. We are starting to understand more about the brain benefits of being bilingual or multilingual, but what does it actually look like to raise a multilingual family? On this episode of the Learn With Less podcast, Ayelet sits down with Erez Podoly and Andrea Scaiewicz, who are the parents of two school-aged trilingual children. Ayelet, Erez and Andrea discuss challenges they’ve encountered while raising a multilingual family, their own strategies for success when it comes to bilingualism and multilingualism, and of course, their best tips and resources they recommend based on their own experiences. Quick access to links in this episode: Learn With Less podcast episode about Musical Patterns Learn With Less podcast episode on raising bilingual babies Text transcript of this episode Ayelet: Welcome to episode 62 of the Learn With Less podcast. Today I am speaking with Erez Podoly and Andrea Scaiewicz, who are parents of two school-aged children in the San Francisco Bay Area. Erez and Andrea grew up speaking Hebrew and Spanish respectively, and decided to raise their children in a multilingual environment. Though their experience is not unique, per se, it is one that gives us all insight into the realities of raising a multilingual family. That’s why I’m so pleased to have them here to join us today to lend us their perspective. So Erez and Andrea, thank you for being here and welcome to the Learn With Less podcast! Erez: Good morning, and thank you for having us. Ayelet: So I’ve asked you to come onto the show today to speak just about your experiences as parents raising a multilingual family. But first I’d love to just hear a bit about each of your backgrounds, so, you know, where you grew up, what languages were spoken in your homes, and community. Erez, let’s start with you if that’s okay. Erez: Sure, sure, and thank you for the introduction and for the invitation. And as you said, I’m the proud father of two kids, 13 year old boy and a nine year old girl, and I’m the proud spouse of a brilliant scientist (Andrea will present herself in a minute). Was born in the US to Israeli students, who took me later back to Israel. So I spent most of my life in Israel, and spoke mostly Hebrew, learned English as a second language at school. Ayelet: It is interesting, actually, your story because you were born here in the US, but then you moved back to Israel where you spoke Hebrew and I assume when you were… Erez: Actually, they insisted on Hebrew, exclusively. So… I had another language, but then I lost it! Ayelet: Right. You had a bilingual experience but then it was gone. But we’ll talk a bit more about that and how that sort of influenced you in, in just a moment. But Andrea, let’s hear from you as well. Andrea: Hi. I was born in South America, in Uruguay. I lived there half of my life speaking many Spanish. I did learn English as a second language. When I went to school there was no English at school, so my parents sent me to private lessons that I had after school. So most of the people my age then, if their parents didn’t pay for English lessons, they don’t know English.