It’s what immigrants are taught when they come to America.  It’s what they teach their children.  It’s practiced in immigrant households throughout the nation.

And what a shame that is.

I grew up with 2 French parents.  Who spoke only French with us when we were born.  In America.  And slowly started speaking English with us as well.  When we got to school we stopped speaking French at home, choosing instead to increase our English vocabulary, grammar and syntax.  And slowly started losing the ability to think, speak and write in French.

Embrace language.  Teach whatever you know to your children and encourage them to use it, practice with others, read it, write it, etc.

Please, please, if you speak a 2nd language and are raising children in this blessed country, speak to them in your foreign tongue and make them respond to you in it, as well.  It’s not enough to hear you speak it.  Sure, they’ll understand but they won’t feel confidant enough to speak it themselves.

This is America.  And the language spoken here is English.  Make sure that you know how to speak English.  But don’t give up your native language.  Ever.

Speak English at school.  At work.  With friends.  Speak your native language at home…