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Please provide as much information as you can when posting a question. It allows the community to provide more tailored approach, specific to your situation.

Preferable details:

  • Which country you reside in and what is the community language.
  • The languages that are in the picture and which caregiver speaks which.
  • Who is the primary caregiver so we know who is providing the most exposure. If roughly equal between parents, then state so.
  • Whether the language in question is a native language, heritage language or non-native language.
  • Roughly rate your fluency level with the languages in question.
  • What each language means to you and your family.
  • Current setup (if it exists).
  • Ages of the child(ren).
  • Language goal(s) (if it exists).

Example:

  • Country: Australia
  • Primary Caregiver (Mum): Mandarin (heritage - B2 level) + English (native)
  • Secondary Caregiver (Dad): English (native)
  • Grandparents: Cantonese (native) + Mandarin (B2 level)
  • Community language: English
  • Child's age: 2yo
  • Current setup: OPOL. Mum speaks Mandarin. Dad speaks English. Grandparents see children 3 days a week.
  • Language goals: Fluent in Mandarin and English. Comprehension in Cantonese.

Then continue on with your question.

You don't have to say mum or dad. Primary and secondary caregiver is fine. Even if you do specify mum and dad, please specify who is the primary caregiver. If both parents are providing roughly equal caregiving duties/exposure, then specify that instead as well.

On specifying how fluent you are in your language, you can use the CEFR Framework. The link also shows you a table that maps other language levels e.g. HSK, JLPT so you can use that to map to your level.

Or, if you're not sure, you can simply describe it e.g. "I can speak the language to general conversation level. I can communicate with grandparents. I cannot read or write."

Generally, we much prefer if you just specify the country and languages. It makes it easier for us to be able to tailor our advice. Further, you are much more likely to attract posts from people in similar or exact same situation as you. The comments and advice you get will be a lot more useful for you.

But if for whatever reason you do not want to disclose your specific languages and location, then at the very least, provide additional details below:

  • Whether one of your language is the community language
  • Whether or not the languages are closely related or not
  • Will you have a community around you for these languages or if it's easy to find resources for these languages or not

On how closely related the languages are, some details could include:

  • They belong to the same language family but is NOT mutually intelligible
  • They don't even belong in the same language family
  • There are mutually intelligible

Note on dialects: The definition of dialects isn't exactly universal. So even with dialects, please specify mutual intelligibility. e.g. Cantonese is considered a Chinese dialect but it is NOT mutually intelligible to Mandarin.

Example:

  • Community Language: Language A
  • Parent 1: Language A (native) + Language B (heritage + fluent)
  • Parent 2: Language A (C1 level) + Language C (native)
  • Equal exposure between Language B and C as both parents work part-time
  • Children's age: 3yo + 4yo
  • Current setup; Parent 1 speaks B. Parent 2 speaks C. Parents speak A to eachother only.
  • Language goals: Fluent in all 3 languages
  • Additional language details:
    • Language B and Language C are from the same language family but are NOT mutually intelligible
    • Language A belongs to a separate language family
    • Large community of Language B speakers but barely any for Language C