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 two children speak to each other mainly in Italian or Farsi. If I hear them speak in English, I remind them to try to use only Italian or Farsi.
— Father of trilingual 8-year old and 3-year old (Italian & Farsi)The children are speaking in English together. But too soon to tell.
— Mother of bilingual 4-year old and 1 1/2-year old (French)No second children. Mom is the eldest of 4 children, and she is the best Chinese-speaker in her own family. Her younger siblings did not pick it up as well.
— Father of trilingual 2-year old (Chinese & Japanese)