With this article, we start a series of interviews with people who are closely connected with bilingualism. Among our guests will be babysitters who themselves were raised bilingual, parents who are raising bilingual kids, etc. We hope that these interviews will help you learn interesting facts about bringing up a bilingual kid in a smooth and easy way.
Our first guest is our bilingual babysitter - Gabriela. Gabriela started working with Barnakademin in June 2020. At the time of the interview, she was babysitting for two different families. Gabriela speaks French and English as native languages.
Natalia: Hi Gabriela! Nice to meet you. Please tell me about yourself.
Gabriela: Hello! I was born in California in a bilingual family – my father is American, and my mother is French. I have 2 siblings, all of us were born in the US. For the first 5 years of my life, we lived between France and the US, traveling back and forth. From what I can remember, my father always spoke English and my mom always spoke French with us. Until I was 3, our family lived in France and French was my native language, I even spoke it to my dad (my mom told me this), although my dad spoke only English with us.
When I was 4, we moved back to California, and I then picked up English quite quickly as I was living back in an exclusively English-speaking environment. My mother still continued to speak French to me and my brothers all the time. Additionally, my mom started a French-speaking preschool in California that we all attended.
Natalia: How was it for you – to be raised bilingual? Did you realize in your childhood that you were using 2 languages at the same time? Was it difficult or normal for you? Did you feel it was normal that one parent speaks one language and the other parent speaks another language?
Gabriela: For brothers and I it was the norm to have two ways to communicate at the same time. I didn’t fully understand that I spoke two different languages until the age of five or six. Up until that time I just knew that there were two ways of communicating in my family.
However, I felt that the situation in my family was not common in comparison with my friends’ families where only one language (English) was used to communicate. At that time, around 6 years old, I also realized that my mom had a strong accent when speaking English to our friends and neighbors.
Our parents always used the same model with us – my dad spoke only English and my mom spoke only French with us. It was always like that. Interesting fact – my dad and my mom spoke French to each other!
Natalia: Did you use both of the languages on the same level? Did you ever feel that one language is the majority language for you and the other one is a minority language? Did it happen during some specific periods in life when you felt that?
Gabriela: While in California, I of course used English more and I felt that it is my majority language. I used French when speaking to my mom and I also took French classes throughout junior high and in high school which helped to maintain my knowledge of French a lot.
Also, my mom played a significant role in my brothers’ and I’s maintenance of the French language. She herself would organize French classes (grammar especially) for my brothers and I outside our lessons at school. She would help us learn grammar rules and practice them.
One of the main things in learning and maintaining French was the fact that once a year, in the summer, we traveled to France and spent the whole month there, visiting our relatives and communicating with them only in French. This I think helped me a lot in becoming fully bilingual. While in France, especially at the end of my visit, I always felt as if French was my majority language.
Natalia: Were there times when you wanted to use only one language and you had no desire to speak the other language?
Gabriela: I really cannot remember any times like this. I can only remember a few situations when I felt a little frustrated about having to only use one language exclusively.
When my family moved back to California and I only spoke French. My mom told me that the first week of preschool I came home crying because I was speaking in French to the other kids and they didn’t understand me. I picked up English quite quickly after that!
Additionally, as a preteen, I occasionally felt embarrassed that my mom made minor pronunciation and grammar mistakes while speaking English to our friends or neighbors. But I also realized how amazing it was that she was able to communicate so well in her non-native language.
Other than that, speaking two languages at the same time has always felt cool and interesting to me! And now I really understand that during my elementary, junior high, and high school years I had such good practice speaking French thanks in large part to my mom being so consistent!
Natalia: What helped you learn both of the languages and use them on the same level? Or better to say – what helped you learn the minority language and use it on the same level with the main language?
Gabriela: As I already mentioned, there were several things that helped:
- My mom and dad always spoke to us in their native language;
- Spending time in France during my childhood and school years, visiting our relatives and communicating with them only in French;
- When I was 16 years old I moved to France and lived there with my aunt for the whole year, attending a French high school and living in a French-speaking environment. Each of the 3 kids in our family spent a year in France at some point. For me, this was a great step forward in my development and in the assimilation with the culture of the language.
Natalia: Please tell us more about your experience living one year in France when you were 16. Was it easy for you to assimilate to their culture considering that you spoke the language of this culture fluently?
Gabriela: Yes, the assimilation was quite easy I would say. There was no cultural shock, I just knew and saw that some things were different of course, and I was prepared for this.
I had spent one month in France every year before moving, so I pretty much knew what to expect. During this year I improved my writing skills and was able to catch up with colloquial words and phrases in French which I could not learn back in California. I never felt uncomfortable while living in France. And I’ve always understood that the world is not one-sided.
When I was 17, I returned back to the US. I finished high school there and completed a bachelor's degree, majoring in International Relations. My second major was French. I continued to take French classes throughout all my studies in high school and during University. I’ve always wanted to move back and live in France, closer to my mother’s side of my family.
I decided to pursue my master’s studies in Europe and was really impressed with Linköping University’s Child Studies program. I moved to Sweden and completed my degree at distance while living and working in Stockholm. I have really enjoyed living in Stockholm, closer to my family here and in France. I hope to pursue a career related to helping children around the world.
Natalia: Tell us about your current families where you work as a bilingual babysitter. What languages do you use?
Gabriela: I’ve been working with two families now, one of which I only speak in English with the kids, and the other, I only communicate in French with the children.
The 1st family is Swedish/English-speaking. They have two boys: one is 4-years-old and the other is 7-years-old. Since I cannot speak much Swedish, I am unable to communicate with them in their native language and they understand this.
The 2nd family is Swedish/French-speaking. They also have two boys: one is a newborn baby, and the other is 5-years-old. I exclusively speak in French with the boys, and again, I cannot speak Swedish, so we only communicate in French.
Natalia: What feelings do you have about working as a bilingual babysitter? Do you use your personal experience from childhood when teaching the kids you babysit the minority language?
Gabriela: I think I am able to relate more to the children I work with because I can draw on my own experience growing up bilingual. In my work, I use a lot of what my mom practiced with me and my brothers when teaching French. We play games. For example, spelling games! Kids especially like the game when I draw a number or a letter on their back and they need to guess and say what letter or number that is. I also try as much to get them speaking as much as possible. So I try to engage them at all times by asking questions, naming things or objects, and sometimes singing songs.
I believe it is important to have fun together – so there is a lot of humor and jokes in our activities. Repeating is also very important in the process of learning. But I try to make it fun and easy!
Natalia: Can you share some tips from your own life experience with the parents who are raising bilingual kids? Any hints?
Gabriela: Sure! Learning a second language should always be a positive and fun experience for your child, especially the younger ones. I remember my mom always told me that being able to speak French was like having a secret code that only my family understood. She said that if I needed to communicate something important to her in the supermarket, in the street, or anywhere else in public no one else would understand me if I spoke in French. This made me feel like speaking in French with my mom was super special and fun!
So, my advice to parents is this – make learning or speaking a second language fun and positive for your child. Additionally, whenever you can, give your kids agency – let them teach you about what they know in each language. I often ask the kids I babysit about words and expressions in Swedish; they love to teach and explain things in great detail – all while using English or French. Win-win!
Natalia: Thank you so much Gabriela! Thank you for working with us and good luck with your career in Child Education!
If you want to learn more about bilingualism and its benefits please read our article "5 major benefits why you should raise a bilingual child".
Would you like to learn more about bilingual babysitters? Click here
Send us an email if you need help with a babysitter! Or please give us a call 0851783143.