Thank you LL, these are very interesting experiences, thanks for sharing. I’m personally sorry for kids losing their parents’ languages, but actively doing so bogs my European mind.

On the other hand, we couldn’t talk about multilingual children in such cases. While a lot of people out in the world strive for bi-lingualism, such kids see a good reason coming from their surroundings to resist even the bright possibilities. I have a good American friend who grew up in Spanish neighbourhoods and now talks Japanese and Chinese fluently above that – he actively sought the possibilities to widen his horizon. So there are examples to everything in such a big country. But perhaps variations of reasons have something to do with the origins. On the one hand, kids of refugee-like people, on the other, intelligent Americans who grow up to want more than monolingualism. Also, age may be a huge reason, the youngest ones wanting to communicate with all and sundry, then later choosing the easiest ways, then growing up to be multis. Have you also got a perspective over time on those families?

When I lived in Madison, Wisconsin, I saw Russian family after Russian family worry about why their children–many of whom were monolingual Russian until 5 years old–started losing their Russian after they started going to school.

Somalis in Minnesota see how their children are unable to speak decent Somali, even those born in Somalia, and they talk of the Somali language disappearing from Minnesota.

When I was teaching my kids Russian, I would set aside time every day when we would speak only Russian. They would cry and resist the entire time.

I have a friend in the US from Egypt, and her kids’ father lives in Egypt. Even though she speaks Arabic to them at home, the kids have a difficult time having a conversation with their father and grandparents in Egypt.

Maybe US children are an exception; Americans are exceptional in their monolinguality. I observe, thought, that children will genrally seek to speak the fewest languages necessary. If they _cannot_ communicate with a parent in a particular language, then it’s a different story. But if there’s wiggle-room, the child will notice and react accordingly.

I’m interested in how my kids’ Russian sticks. They bring up Russian stuff, and they claim they can understand the Russian neighbors to some extent. We’ll see what happens down the road. Maybe the language doesn’t disappear but goes dormant.