Reply to If your kid's school is bilingual but you are not

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My grandmother decided that French was inferior to English and so she spoke to my mom in English only. Now my mother doesn't speak French and neither do my siblings and I. We don't feel the culture pride and connection to my grandmother's heritage and we aren't accepted because we don't speak French. I'm way too old to actually feel less because of this, but I truly feel my culture was stolen from me. Please don't underestimate what happens to a child when a parent decides to alienate him/her from the culture, starting with denying the child the right to learn the language. It can truly affect self-esteem, etc... My two kids are in French aftercare and they're only pre-schoolers, so I'm hopeful they will have the language skills I was denied. The language of a community truly is the culture. I don't understand why parents don't seem to understand that.[/quote]

Exactly! Glad someone else sees it this way.[/quote]

I don't feel this way at all probably b/c I was born and partially raised in another country and my parents and relatives still live there.  Even though I'm completely bilingual and born there, I know my countrymen consider me American.  Certainly, my biracial child will never be considered "one of ours" even if he spoke the language fluently with a perfect accent, was born and raised there, etc.  He'll have the culture as a part of his heritage but there is simply no getting around that fact and while knowing the language is nice, it is the way it is.  Currently people in my native country send more students to China to learn Mandarin than to English speaking countries to learn English so I'm certainly following their cultural norm.  Asians are pragmatic if anything.[/quote]
Your child speaking your native language hear would garner respect. It's not really about what happens abroad. However with that said, you cannot tell me that there wouldn't be greater respect for your child and more sympathetic treatment of him/her if he/she spoke your native language to your family in your home country. I don't think you know because like many who speak the language, you take it for granted. It's the child who loses out. Why not give your child the choice to decide how important knowing his heritage language is? Why are you deciding for him?[/quote]

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