Raising Bilingual Children

My dad has always wanted to be bilingual and I think that influenced me so that I saw being bilingual as a valuable thing long before I lived anywhere that being bilingual would be a real benefit.  But through studying foreign languages and living among many non-English speakers, I've seen that becoming bilingual is neither as hard, nor as easy as it would seem and that achieving lasting bilingualism is not always possible.  To know a language you need to use that language and not everyone can use the language they'd like to know.

Recently, we befriended our new neighbors who are Cuban immigrants.  Although they have lived and worked in the United States for about 10 years, only the mother speaks English.  They have two children who are really both babies, so I am not counting them; their extended family visits frequently and none of them speak English.  Despite all this, the mother expressed her concern that her children will not speak Spanish when they are older.  Her concern is real - many children of halting English speakers, embrace the English of their friends and can hardly speak Spanish.

My impression is that she wants them to speak Spanish for two reasons:
1.  So that they will be able to talk to their grandparents.
2.  Because speaking Spanish is so central to who she is.

When I try to put myself into her situation, I can only imagine myself permanently moved to a place like China struggling to learn a language my parents and in-laws will never speak and one day my children come home and will only answer me in perfect, fluent Chinese.  I would feel a deep grief over their loss of English.  I would fear that their children would not speak English at all.

But will her reasons be enough for her children to be fluent Spanish speakers?  She does not want them to speak Spanish and not English - she does not doubt they will speak English.  After knowing many families in similar situations, I can see that not every child in a family will make the same choices.  Some will embrace their heritage, others will reject it or be indifferent.  The only thing that I think she can do to ensure they learn Spanish fluently will be to control their exposure so that they are put into situations where Spanish is essential.

Ultimately her reasons for desiring bilingual children is different what mine would be.  Of course I see the potential benefit of my children being bilingual, but I have come to understand that there may be no reason for them to be.  And then again, there might - and it might not be Spanish that they will need to know.  But to want them to be bilingual as a novelty would only be right if it was their own interest.  Anyway, there is knowing Spanish and there is knowing Spanish - as my friend Angela told me - in east Texas, she could teach Spanish in a high school, here - she cannot!