Raised Between Languages: Why Multilingual Kids Learn Cultural Context Faster
Knowing many languages is a luxury available to few, even today.
Sure, at least one foreign language is a part of almost any school curriculum, but how well can kids really learn it in an average classroom setting, having the class one or twice a week?
Not well!
After all mastering a language is nothing similar to learning just any skill - working with a video editor, excel spreadsheet or a computer.
However, there is a big difference between speaking or knowing a foreign language and being bilingual or, better yet multilingual.
It is especially a pressing matter for modern parents, with so many barriers being crushed down, and lines blurred between cultures, countries and nationalities.
Modern families look different now, with parents being of different cultural and national backgrounds. Add living in a third country, and you get lost in which language becomes important and with the culture it represents.
Why Language Matters In Terms Of Cultural Context
Dating back to ancient times, the culture formed in the tribes, later on, in cities, kingdoms and civilizations.
People didn’t have the technology to be so interconnected as we are today, and lived far away from each other, not knowing of each other’s existence, and developing in parallel to each other.
However, in this setting, language became an indispensable part of the culture. It not only reflected the world around the people, but also their thoughts, ideas, humor, ideologies, and belief systems.
When you want to study a foreign culture, you have to study it together with the language, as knowing it opens a door to the people’s souls, to their inner worlds, motivations and drives in a way no book on history or a translation of a literary piece can ever reveal.
Let’s take Spanish and German as an example, as I am familiar with both, and lived in both countries for a period of time.
Spanish is flowing, easy-going, easy pronounceable and melodic, as if you are singing a love song every time you open your mouth. Spanish is a language of romance, or attraction and of fun.
As a huge contrast, German is something of an instruction. The language is harsh, very logical, very technical, descriptive and literal. A perfect language to give orders in, write a manual, a law, a manifesto. You catch my drift.
When you compare a philosophy of life, the general vibe, their attitude towards laws, towards society, and their role in it, and overall lifestyle, the two respective languages reflect those differences perfectly.
Worries Surrounding Bilingualism
Psychologists and doctors cannot as of today reach a consensus on bilingual environments. Many argue that having to learn more than one language deprives you of an opportunity to learn either well.
Others say that bilingual kids excel in memory, reasoning, and problem-solving skills, among many other advantages backed by multiple studies. Kids between ages of 0-3 are the most susceptible to learning a new language as their brain is in its most flexible stage then.
When it comes to multilingual kids and cultural cues, I know a thing or two firsthand, as I was raised in a bilingual home, and then learned 3 other foreign languages as I lived my life in many different parts of the world.
And being raised between languages, there are times I know the world in 3 and there are times all of them run away from me, as if I had a sudden episode of onset dementia.
Multilingual Kids and Cultural Context
As we have already established, culture and language go hand in hand. However, learning to decipher cultural cues and context comes from rapid exposure to it and a deep knowledge of the language.
This is exactly the reason why multilingual kids can learn cultural context faster. They are simply exposed to more languages and cultures. They know there are many ways to go about the same problem, many different approaches to the same idea and ways to look at it. Their mind is simply more flexible when it comes to understanding and being tolerant to different points of view and ways of life.
Plus, there are more similarities in different cultures than we think. So kids can rely on their intuition when it comes to adapting to a new culture.
Here is a small table to illustrate the differences of monolingual and multilingual kids in different situations.
A Personal Experience Being Multilingual
I was raised knowing Russian and Armenian, as we spoke both at home. Knowing both gave me an opportunity to learn cultural differences and nuances as well as gain a first hand understanding of both language and culture. It was easy to find things to talk about to kids that came from Russia, as well as those at home. I knew cultural references, I watched the same movies and cartoons, read the same books.
I started learning English when I was about 10, and at the age of 15, went to the US as an exchange student. It was hard in the beginning, but I adapted fast to new culture and language.
By the age of 20, English became my own, and I started watching movies and reading books in their original language. It became a natural way for me to communicate to many of my friends. At the age of 24 I went to do my Master’s degree in Europe, and since then English has become my first and main language of everyday life. It remains such today, and I am 39, with 2 more languages learned under my belt.
I have a very international family, where we speak 3-4 languages at home. It can surely be a challenge and sometimes it is…
My older daughter is half Armenian, half Cuban, and grew up speaking Armenian, Russian and Spanish, and hearing English. At the age of 5 she spoke all the above mentioned ones, plus German.
She adapted to German life and culture super quickly at the age of 3 and is attending a school now. She is very social, can play with kids of multiple cultural backgrounds and has international as well as German friends.
I can firmly say, that in my family, being multilingual is a way of life, and a superpower, that helps us adapt to different cultures and places, which ensured a comfortable and smooth transition and life abroad.
