Posted by From the perspective of an administrator of various web pages on bilingualism and from the perspective of a mother who has been educating her children for more than 14 years bilingual, I can say that learning two or more languages or cultures is a process that requires “time and perseverance” . Children learn fast but they also forget fast!
The most important thing to educate bilingual children successfully is to provide sufficient stimuli for children to be able to learn from them for years. We as parents can be the authors of these stimuli; for example, when we speak to our children directly in a second language. Or we can rely on third parties that provide these incentives, such as when we send our children to a bilingual boarding school. However, it is important to emphasize that it is our children, with their level of motivation and cognitive abilities who really define how far they want and can go in the development of different languages.
In bilingual education there is not a single recipe, path or strategy, however the common denominator is “time and perseverance”. Educating bilingually means being willing for years to provide impulses for our children to learn our language and our culture and this in a consistent way. I have had very good experience with the rule one person one language (1: 1) and I can recommend this rule enormously.
Languages are means of communication and as in all good communication, you must listen carefully and be clear in the message you want to send. Communicating means exchanging information, ideas, opinions. The greater the range of topics that are addressed, the more extensive will be the vocabulary that children will learn and the higher the level of language development.
Bilingual education is a special gift for our children, which brings many advantages and not only when it comes to finding jobs with international profiles. Who grows up in a bilingual way is tolerant to the world and to diversity, has a window or an open door to other cultures and is a bridge builder and link between different human groups.