How to Raise a Bilingual English-German Child
Our household in Zurich runs in more than one language. I speak English with the children, my husband speaks German, and Swiss German floats in from playgrounds and school corridors. If you are raising a child between English and German, here is what has actually helped us, written as one parent to another rather than as a textbook.
Pick a pattern you can keep
The classic advice is one person, one language, and it works well for us. But the best system is the one your family can sustain on a tired Tuesday. Some families use one language at home and one outside. Some tie a language to mealtimes or to bedtime. Consistency matters more than the particular pattern, because children learn from thousands of small repetitions.
Do not fear the mixing
Small children mix languages. Mine have produced sentences that were half English, half German and entirely wonderful. Mixing means your child is reaching for every tool in the box, and the sorting happens on its own as vocabulary grows in both languages. Correct gently by repeating the sentence back in one language, and leave it there.
Make the smaller language the cosy one
Whichever language your child hears less of needs to be the language of warm things. Bedtime stories, songs in the car, jokes, cuddles and ice cream negotiations. A child does not persist with a language because it is useful. A child persists because the language feels like love.
Read, rhyme, sing, repeat
Books do the heavy lifting in our house. Rhymes and songs give children the sound patterns of a language long before grammar means anything, and picture books supply the words daily life forgets, like anchors, dragons and candyfloss. Reading the same book in both languages is quietly powerful, because the child already owns the story and can spend everything on the words.
Let the grandparents work their magic
Some of our children's best German has come from their Oma, and some of their best English from their Grandma. A grandparent on a video call, telling a story in their own language, does more for motivation than any app I have found. Children learn languages for the people they love.
Play the long game
There will be seasons when your child answers you in the other language. This is normal, and it is not the end of anything. Keep speaking, keep reading, keep the language warm, and trust the years. There is no finish line in bilingualism. You walk for years, together, and the walk itself is lovely.
Stories that grew up bilingual
Every one of our five bilingual picture books began as a real story told by someone we love, written as English verses and German poems that each rhyme on their own. And if you would like something to do together this afternoon, our free Words and Wonder activity pack has matching games, counting and family words in both languages.