How to raise kids in a multilingual home

Life Kit

NPR

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Kids & Family, Education, Business

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2025

⏱️ 25 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	When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's ThruLine podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity.
0:10.0	On ThruLine, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism.
0:18.0	Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.
0:23.7	You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.
0:29.9	Hey, everybody, it's Mariel.
0:32.3	When reporter Julia Furlan and her spouse had a baby, they knew they wanted their child to be able to connect
0:38.2	with Julia's Brazilian family and to grow up speaking both English and Portuguese.
0:42.5	One, two, three.
0:46.4	After four, then what?
0:49.0	But Julia is the only Portuguese speaker in the house.
0:53.2	And for whatever reason, she felt a little weird speaking Portuguese to a baby who couldn't talk back.
0:58.3	Until she did, Julia says it was exhilarating to watch her kid light up like this.
1:05.8	5?
1:07.0	10.
1:09.0	7?
1:10.1	4.
1:19.5	Even though I was the one who was actively trying to make it happen, my mind was still blown when Leo started speaking Portuguese.
1:24.2	It also made me kind of emotional in a way that I did not expect.
1:29.9	It's like all of a sudden, I remembered being a kid in Brazil in a different way. And I think that one of the things that's really wonderful about it is that there's so much
1:36.8	Brazilianness in Portuguese. So there are these like little diminutives. Like you say instead of
1:42.4	boom, which is bread, you say ponzino, which is like little bread.
1:47.2	And to hear her doing these tiny little things that are so Brazilian really excites me.
	...

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