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Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Sam.

And I'm Rob.

In this program, we'll be hearing about an issue experienced by many child refugees who are forced to leave their home.

The loss of their first native language or mother tongue as they start a new life learning to speak a new language in a new country.

Julie Tadevi and her family left their home in what was then Czechoslovakia and is now the Czech Republic during the Cold War when Julie was a small child.

After several years traveling through Europe, they arrived in Canada as political refugees with no English.

We'll be hearing about Julie's childhood when learning English started to replace a native language check.

And as usual, we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

But first, I have a question, Rob.

Julie's family left their home as political refugees, but every year millions of people are also displaced because of war, persecution, or the damaging effects of climate change.

So, according to the United Nations, how many people around the world are currently living as displaced refugees?

Is it A, 3 million, B, 53 million, or C, 103 million?

I'll guess it's 103 million.

I'll reveal the answer later in the program, Rob.

Like many child refugees, Julie spoke only her mother tongue, Czech at home with her brothers, sisters, and parents who in the beginning spoke no English at all.

Here she describes to Michael Rosen, presenter of BBC Radio 4 program, Word of Mouth, going to an English-speaking school for the first time.

So, you went into school not to start off with really understanding what was going on, is that right?

That's right. I just kind of interpreted things as best I could.

And my memory of that is that that was not particularly difficult or traumatic.

I think by then, I'd had the experience of being dunked into various unfamiliar languages numerous times, and I had faith that it would sort itself out, and that everything would be just fine.

And it was, was of course.

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