[vermooten]

“Parents were discouraged from teaching their children languages other than English, even if they expressed themselves best in that other language.“ Yes my Spanish-speaking father and English-speaking mother decided, when I was growing up in USA in the 60s, not to speak Spanish to me, in case it fucked my learning and development up. Shame, it would have been cool.

[ninalanyon]

This idea that one language will hinder the learning of another seems pervasive. But experience suggests it's not true. My children learned Norwegian with no effort at all when in kindergarten despite us speaking only English to them at home. They were indistinguishable from native speakers in both languages by the age of four.