Parent to Parent
Some people say that their second child understands the second language but never learns to speak it as well as the first child since the children speak to each other in the community language (i.e. English in the US).
Have you found this to be true? If so, were you able to overcome it? How?My second child definitely understands French, but does not speak it with me as often. Her speaking skills are certainly advanced for a 2 1/2 year-old. However, she is still young, so I cannot yet fully judge at this point how fluent a French-speaker she will become.
In general, I would say that the statement above is true. This is how my parents explain my French fluency and my younger brother's complete lack of knowledge of French. (He is 3 years younger than I.) However, persistence on the part of the parents is vital. My parents also gradually stopped speaking French a few years (or less) after my brother was born. I intend to continue speaking to my children only in French.
— Adult raised in bilingual home/Mother of bilingual 4-year old and 2 1/2-year old (French)Yes that is very true. Our older child spoke fluent and only Marathi until she was three. However the younger one never spoke that much Marathi. She learned it in our cultural/language school.
— Mother of bilingual adult children (Marathi)No, the girls play in a mix of the two languages.
— Mother of bilingual 7-year old and 5-year old (French)It is true. We did speak Mandarin primarily to our first child when she was little. However, our second spent long days at the babysitter’s starting at age of 2 months. He was exposed to English from the beginning. Slowly, we replaced Mandarin with English without even knowing.
— Mother of bilingual 15-year old and 13-year old (Mandarin Chinese)