by: Smart Coos Editorial Staff
Marianna Du Bosq was born in Caracas, Venezuela where she spent the majority of her childhood as a monolingual speaking only Spanish. Until one day, right before her thirteenth birthday, her family moved to the United States and her adventure and passion for language learning began! Her love for languages started with her own experience and grew into a desire for teaching others leading her to spend several years in the classroom teaching dual language learners.
She is now facing the most challenging yet rewarding facet of her life, that of a multilingual parent with a mix of English, Spanish and German! Marianna is the blogger and podcast host at Bilingual Avenue where she interviews multilingual parents sharing their best practices along with experts in the field of multilingualism providing actionable tips and strategy. She has a Master’s in Education with an emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction.
Recently, we sat down with Marianna Du Bosq for an interview about the journey she has taken with her husband to raise a multilingual child.
What was the inspiration behind your blog/ page? Why have you continued?
I always knew that I personally wanted to raise multilingual children and so when my husband and I were expecting the arrival of our little one I started to prepare accordingly. What I found time and time again through my own research is that multilingual families often feel alone on their journey. Many times they are the only ones in their circle of friends working on more than one language and feeling alone can be very defeating.
To be honest, I found this heartbreaking. Teaching and passing on a language to your child is such a valuable endeavor. I thought that if there is anything I can do to help, inspire and motivate other parents I should do it. That was the motivation to get my podcast started and meeting families along the way that are finding the information helpful is what keeps me going!
How many kids do you have? What is the age of your youngest and oldest? If more than one, did you plan to have that age gap?
I have a sweet little girl who is almost three and always thirsty for knowledge and I am expecting a little boy this September. We spent the last year in Germany but knew that we wanted to be close to our family in the United States for the arrival of our second and so there was some planning involved in our children’s age gap.
Do your children speak multiple languages? If so, which languages do they speak?
My daughter is multilingual! She speaks Spanish and English and learned quite a bit of German while attending preschool during our stay in Germany. Our biggest challenge is maintaining her exposure to German.
After giving birth, did you create a formal plan for raising your children with more than one language?
My husband and I knew early on in our relationship that we would raise our kids bilingual. When the time came to make the decision on what strategy to use to raise her, the answer was very simple for us. I would speak Spanish to her and my husband would speak in English. We just knew that since I was the one fluent in Spanish, the duty would fall on me to pass my mother tongue to our children while my husband would support it anyway way he could. We have become much more structured about our decisions as she has gotten older and as we have developed more clear and defined language goals. We have taken time to plan for what we would like our children to achieve in their language skills and have used this as guidance for much of our parenting decision making.
What is your fondest memory as a mother of multilingual children? Your not so fondest memory? Why?
My fondest memory is ongoing! Because my Little Peanut only speaks to me in Spanish, I do not always have a great grasp of her English vocabulary. It is not until Daddy comes home and I see her interactions with him that I realize how vast her knowledge of it is! It such a contrast for me because with her Spanish, I am well aware of every word she knows because I have been the one teaching them to her but with English it is almost like a daily surprise! We are in the middle of her vocabulary explosion so it really is an exciting time to wait until Daddy comes home and find out what else she knows!
On the contrary, my not so fond memory is related to the fact that misconceptions about multilingualism are still prevalent! Well-meaning family members and friends have second guessed our decision to raise multilingual children because of some myths they have heard in the past and incorrectly believe. This can feel defeating at times. The upside is now that our daughter is so vocal and she can switch with ease between her languages. Those skeptical friends are starting to see the amazing benefits that can come from raising a multilingual child.
How does motherhood influence your blog? Your business decisions?
Being a mother means I am in the trenches of parenting everyday. Speech and language, especially given my daughter’s current developmental stage, is a huge component of my parenting journey. We have our ups and downs, our glorious moments and are frustrating moments. This allows me to understand many of my readers/listeners struggles. I understand that there are theories behind raising multilingual children but they do not always play out the way we expect for them to play out in real life. Motherhood gives me the empathy that I need to best serve them!
Having had children myself, I know how hectic family life can be. I also know that it is not always easy to follow advice and “do what is right” when you are exhausted by the day-to-day chores and all the social, financial and other pressure that families are under. I always try to be understanding and find solutions that are realistic and possible to implement. I run my business very much with my heart.
If you could give only ONE advice to parents that are planning to raise multilingual children, what would it be?
The language journey is a marathon not a sprint and so it is important to find support along the way. That support can come in different ways, whether it is through family members, friends, other multilingual parenting groups, the internet, blogs, podcasts, etc. We often feel very alone on our journey yet the majority of the word is multilingual! Many families around the world are doing this work daily and it is important to keep that into perspective. We just have to find our motivation and inspiration to keep us going because in the end giving your children the gift of language is one of the most valuables things you can give them.
As a former bilingual educator and the host of your podcast, what is the most common misconception parents have when introducing their child to another language?
Misconceptions can be very discouraging for parents and may even discourage them from introducing a second language to their children. When a child is learning two or more languages simultaneously parents, teachers and even pediatricians sometimes worry that this may lead to language delays in children. Yet this is certainly not the case! Researchers have observed children across the spectrum and have found that being multilingual does not cause additional delays or difficulties. Children that are bilingual and do in fact demonstrate a speech or language problem, will show these same problems. Time and time again, the consensus has been that these speech problems are not caused by learning more than one language.
What does the future look like for you, your family and your business?
We are expecting the arrival of our second, a little boy, in just a few weeks! We know that this will be an exciting time for our family that will come with a lot of change as well. We are looking forward to having a new little linguist join our multilingual crew!
As far as the podcast goes, there are many wonderful interviews coming up with other multilingual parents and experts that I know will serve to motivate language learning families around the world!
You can find Marianna online at:
Twitter: @bilingualavenue Link: http://bilingualavenue.com
Also, you can find her at Facebook or Pinterest
