Bilingual Kids and their attitude towards languages growing up

3-4 y.o. – kids understand what language is spoken to them and are capable of distinguishing between different characteristics of pronunciation and speech.

4-5 y.o. – kids choose to speak a certain language while playing a game, based on the situation and their surroundings.

6-7 y.o. – first crises of bilingualism; public opinion about “mother language” becomes a decisive factor and reaches critical importance in child’s decision to speak a certain language.

12-14 y.o. – second crises of bilingualism starts at adolescence. Teenagers and their desire to be independent determines the attitude towards languages and its speakers. Teenagers start asking such questions as:” who am I? Why do I need this?”.

16-18 y.o. – third crises of bilingualism; teenagers grow up and become more self-reliant, they start thinking more as adults and their professional interests may define language priorities. They choose languages, which bring more social recognition and are considered to be more popular among future employers.

Many people speak more than one language in our society, it is wonderful to know that they were taught to speak them from an early age. It is a great asset and a hard work to speak a second language!
But we are up for a challenge!