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8 ways to help your children, and yourself, retain language learned abroad 14. January 2015An expatriation often means that you have improved, or learned another language. The same is even more common for children; which is a fantastic gift which will help them learn new languages in the future; regardless of how much they retain what they learned abroad. However, maintaining, or even building on the language skills in the years after an expatriation is even more valuable. The advice given in the article on how to learn a foreign language are highly relevant also when returned home, with just a little adjustment. There are other opportunities as well. 
Buy books, comics, audio books, games and DVDs in the applicable language and enjoy them as a family. This can be listening to audio books on car journeys, reading children’s books, or watching a film together on “movie night”.
If you as parents also learned the language, pick a day or two a week, such as “Spanish Sunday” or "French Friday”, and use the language all day, when talking to children and with the other parent. Do not be too strict, this has to be a fun day, not something children dread!
Go on frequent holidays to places where they speak the language, 2-3 times a year. They need not be long trips, for even a long weekend will help maintain language. It need not be to the city where you lived, but rather a place where you can explore the culture and use the language. For example, go to Portugal instead of Brazil or Angola or to the UK rather than Houston. Another benefit is that the focus will remain on language, culture and exploration, rather than catching up with friends. IF the children are old enough, use the weeks or months leading up to plan the trip as a family, thus making the children read up on web pages in the relevant language. For young children, look at, and discuss pictures.
For languages such as French, German and English it may be possible to send your children to kindergarten where this is the language spoken. While this will immerse your child in the language, keep in mind that it is at the cost of the child learning the current local language.
In many larger towns and cities, there are “language groups” where children come together for classes and play. Contact embassies for relevant classes. Examples include Russian, Mandarin and Portuguese classes held in Oslo.
A good Au Pair from a country with the applicable language represents a natural language partner for your children in the afternoon. Here it is important to check references and focus on quality, rather than cost, when hiring.
Many of these suggestions either require the parents speaking the language or living relatively close to a country where the language is spoken. For languages like Chinese or Korean, it may be better to find someone to practice with or buy private teaching lessons, either in bulk a couple of times a year, or on a weekly basis. Keep in mind though, that for this to be effective it requires parents to follow up with homework between each session.
As mentioned in the previous article, games and online classes are worth trying; such as https://www.duolingo.com/ |
