Reading about that wonderful polyglot, Astrud Gilberto, and her German dad, got me thinking about language learning and childhood. So now I’d like to ask ..
How many of you Afterworders belong to a bi-lingual or even multi-lingual family?
And how many of you grew up in a family where several languages were spoken?
I live in a bi-lingual family with a Swedish partner and two young adult kids who are used to hearing both Swedish and English.
I was thinking about my bilingual family here in Stockholm, where there’s always a discussion about which language we should use. And then it struck me. With an English father and Welsh-speaking mother, I grew up in a bi-lingual family in Pinner. The big difference being that my mother tongue was never spoken.
My mum never encouraged my brother and me to learn Welsh. And despite the fact that we heard a lot of Welsh being spoken when we visited all our aunts and uncles in Dyfed, my dad never considered learning a little more of the language. When I start to think about it, it seems odd to be married to someone and not want to learn their language.
