How to raise kids in a multilingual home

如何在多语言家庭中养育孩子

Life Kit

自我完善

2025-03-27

22 分钟
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单集简介 ...

There are a lot of benefits to raising a child speaking two or more languages: a better understanding of their culture and their relatives, cognitive benefits and expanded job opportunities. But raising a kid is hard enough in one language. How can a parent be expected to do it in two or more? Reporter Julia Furlan explains that raising a kid in a multilingual household isn't a burden — it's a gift. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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  • Hi.

  • This is Steve Inskeep.

  • Our team is in China,

  • inside a historic Chinese trading city where people come from all over the world to buy wholesale goods to import to their countries.

  • And we're here to find out, among other things,

  • how people are responding to tariffs on goods that go to the United States.

  • Listen for that report on up first from NPR News.

  • You're listening to LIFE KIT from npr.

  • Hey, everybody, it's Marielle.

  • When reporter Julia Furlan and her spouse had a baby,

  • they knew they wanted their child to be able to connect with Julia's Brazilian family and to grow up speaking both English and Portuguese.

  • But Julia is the only Portuguese speaker in the house, and for whatever reason,

  • she felt a little weird speaking Portuguese to a baby who couldn't talk back until she did.

  • Julia says it was exhilarating to watch her kid light up like this.

  • Even though I was the one who was actively trying to make it happen.

  • My mind was still blown when Leo started speaking Portuguese.

  • It also made me kind of emotional in a way that I did not expect.

  • It's like all of a sudden I remembered being a kid in Brazil in a different way.

  • And I think that one of the things that's really wonderful about it is

  • that there's so much Brazilian ness in Portuguese.