Rita Rosenback; Bringing Up Bilingual Children

Why is it that some people seem to absorb languages like a sponge and others struggle?

This is a question we have asked ourselves for many years. Learning a second, third or even fourth language can sometimes feel a bit of a battle for everyone, adults and children alike

As parents we often feel we need to persist in encouraging our children to learn another language, but it can all sometimes feel somewhat forced and contrived. In an attempt to keep their daughters Portuguese going once they returned to the UK, Louise's family decided to make the language of weekends, Portuguese. Sadly the idea wasn't readily embraced by the children. Having to force brains into action in a different language on a Saturday morning was received with cries of utter disbelief....

In this weeks podcast, Rita Roseback, author of Bringing Up Bilingual Children, empathises but also inspires those who are struggling. She presents sound arguments in favour of bringing up bilingual children, introducing very useful tactics and strategies.

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Rita Rosenback understands our challenge from personal experience. Rita was born into a bilingual family on the Swedish speaking west coast of Finland. She moved to the United Kingdom with her then husband and two daughters. Her daughters became fluent in three languages, the language of both parents, Swedish and Punjabi, and also English.

Rita assumed that everyone who had the ability to speak different languages would raise their children to be bilingual as she had done, but found that this was not always the case and they often faced a number of challenges.This led Rita to conduct detailed research into the field of bilingualism. She discovered that while there were plenty of academic books on the subject, there was little written that was accessible to parents.

Enter: Bringing Up a Bilingual Child, Seven C’s of Multilingual Parenting.

In this podcast Louise talks with Rita about.

• The benefits of bilingualism
• How to make language learning more appealing to children.
• Some myths of bilingualism including my favourite, you don’t need to be fluent to be bilingual.
• The seven cornerstones of multilingual parenting.

We know that this interview will inspire you and we wholeheartedly recommend her book.

You can buy Bringing Up Bilingual Children from Amazon

You can learn more about Rita and her services at her website Multilingual Parenting. Here Rita shares over 200 questions and answers about multilingual parenting. She invites you to visit her website and sign up for her free weekly newsletter.

If you have questions for Rita then feel free to ask away in the comments section below. If you have enjoyed the podcast please leave a review for us in itunes. Every review helps to get the word out about the Inspiring Expat Podcasts.