How to raise kids in a multilingual home

Life Kit: Parenting

NPR

Kids & Family

4.4 • 634 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

There are a lot of benefits to raising a child speaking two or more languages: a better understanding of their culture and their relatives, cognitive benefits and expanded job opportunities. But raising a kid is hard enough in one language. How can a parent be expected to do it in two or more? Reporter Julia Furlan explains that raising a kid in a multilingual household isn't a burden — it's a gift.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.6	You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.
0:21.6	Hey everybody, it's Mariel.
0:23.9	When reporter Julia Furlan and her spouse had a baby,
0:27.5	they knew they wanted their child to be able to connect with Julia's Brazilian family
0:31.3	and to grow up speaking both English and Portuguese.
0:34.6	One, two, three.
0:39.3	After four, it's two, three. Five. After four, then what?
0:40.3	Four,
0:41.3	But Julia is the only Portuguese speaker in the house.
0:44.3	And for whatever reason, she felt a little weird speaking Portuguese to a baby who couldn't talk back.
0:49.3	Until she did, Julia says it was exhilarating to watch her kid light up like this.
0:55.3	Garcou.
0:57.4	Cinco.
0:58.7	Dice.
1:00.6	Sartre?
1:02.7	Even though I was the one who was actively trying to make it happen, my mind was still blown when Leo started speaking Portuguese.
1:12.1	It also made me kind of emotional in a way that I did not expect.
1:15.9	It's like all of a sudden, I remembered being a kid in Brazil in a different way.
1:22.5	And I think that one of the things that's really wonderful about it is that there's so much
	...

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