Helene,
¡Muchas gracias de escribirme en español! Tu historia es fascinante. Es muy interesante lo que dices sobre la importancia de tu relación con la gente que habla un idioma. Te sientes diferente con ellos y del mismo modo con el idioma. Gracias de compartir tus experiencias con nosotros 
Yeah, I’m definitely lucky to have had access to high-quality French Education.
And yes, my mom is from Montréal, Québec 
(I was also born in Montreal and have been back for the past 6 years). One of the good things about being in Montreal now is that my very French name is not butchered… 
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Anne,
That’s really interesting. I lived with a Basque girl in France and she and another Basque guy who was there used it a lot. It’s definitely a point of pride for them. Do you feel that way?
I’d love to learn more about Basque for lingusitical analysis and comparison (I know it’s unlike any other language out there, which is what makes it’s so interesting to me).
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We’re hoping to move up to Québec by next year 
maybe we’ll see each other some day!
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Joanna,
No worries, I don’t mind repetition (or even notice ). That’s close to what I hope will happen for our kids. They have some exposure to English through my side of the family and friends, but now with corona we see people a lot less. I’m glad you don’t remember struggling with schooling. I’d feel awful if my kids struggle in school with my own native language 
I’m sure we’ll exposure them to more English as kindergarten approaches. My son was supposed to start pre-k at the end of March 
but never went.
Veronika,
I really understand your dad because people can be very judgemental. And if his Czech was advanced it’s even harder not to roll with it and go with the community language. That’s really great that you took German classes to keep it up. I’m sure you could easily get your level back up
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People did speak Ukrainian, Georgian, Latvian, Kazakh etc. in the “Soviet republics” but there were periods of an agressive language policy to use only Russian in education, administration, cultural life… Basically native languages were pushed out of many social spheres, surviving only in rural communities, family kitchen talks, informal underground social events. The Soviet government wanted to eradicate nationalism in the republics and oppressing native languages was one of the tactical moves. My father had to switch to Russian at work and it was not that easy for him, but at home, he spoke Ukrainian, so did my grandparents (whom I am really grateful for preserving and keeping up my Ukrainian). My mother’s family on the other hand comes from Russia so she used Russian back then… Now it’s 90% Ukrainian at home.
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I was born in America to a Mexican mom and a bilingual American dad who spoke both English and Spanish. I guess you can say my first language was Spanish but I learned English quickly with two older sisters and a father who spoke English. I normally say English is my native language because its my strongest. =)
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I grew up trilingual with Dutch being my official native language.
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Almost same experience, but mine happened in Mexico. Saludos 
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I studied spanish in Mexico 
(CEPE)
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I’ll tell, Growing up in more than one language is a beautiful experience no matter the order in which you learn all of “your languages”.
I do not know how bilingual or polyglot most of people will be in the future, I can only tell that languages and their popularity evolves and moves as far and fast as their speakers’s communities… While I see some languages expanding across regions and countries I also fear many of them could be lost against the rise of new “lingua franca”. (speaking about Latin America, Asia or Africa)
My experience?..
Most of my life I have used Spanish, mais, ma mere m’a appris francais et anglais depuis d’avoir arrivé à parler mes premières phrases en spagnol donc nous étions habitués a parler ces trois langues chez-nous. Après, j’étais mis a l’école où j’ai été tombé amoreux par l’anglais. Then English became my favourite language, even now it easier for me to express my thoughts and feelings in English. Aunque uso más español, siempre cuando quiero comunicarme con mayor claridad recurro a mi inglés. 之后,我在学校学习普通话, Despúes onitlazalo itla nauatlajtol tlen niilnamiki noneluame i-tezcatlamati uan axa ninemi miak paki ikuak nimotlachiz niueya nitlajtoua nauatl nozo nikaki miak kuali nin tlajtolli.
And at the end, I there is no part of me that feels confused or detached to certain people to whom I speak instead I think it is just a matter of linking certain feelings, attitudes and thoughts more to each language and their own “style” of describing reality.
Thank you, gracias, nimitz tlazo, merci beaucoup.
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Oh great, I would love that! I always enjoy meeting fellow language enthusiasts and love showing people around. Don’t be a stranger!
Tu penses vivre dans quelle ville du Québec? 
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Merci beaucoup Antoine ! C’est très gentil de ta part. Je postule aux programmes de doctorat alors tout dépend de si je suis acceptée et où 
I love what you said at the beginning - it really is beautiful no matter what your journey looked like.
How cool that you grew up hearing and using those 3 languages. Qué suerte. As-tu dû étudier ou était-ce plus naturel ?
Saludos
Hola Heather. I’m a daughter of immigrants. Parents immigrated from Navarra, Spain to WA. They only knew Spanish when I was born so I only knew Spanish when I went to school. When I started Kinder (1979}, there were no ELL/ESL classes so I was mainstreamed. I don’t remember the transition. I never struggled and then I was the one who would help my parents, my lil brother and any other new immigrants since teachers always chose me as the helper.
The struggle was in math classes and later on as a science teacher I would learn that all countries learn math differently. What an ah ha moment! All the arguments with my parents about math was finally solved.
I also had exposure to a 3rd language, Basque. I wanted to learn it since my dad knows it and all his family does, but on my mom’s side only the youngest generation knew it. I would be driven to learn that language throughout my life. I ended up learning a Basque and now get to teach it also.
Now, my nieces have been exposed to Spanish their whole life. Both since the day they were born, my parents & I try to only speak Spanish to them. Their mom doesn’t know Spanish very well, but her and my brother know it’s important. They maintain culture and this year all 3 (mom & daughters) are focusing on learning more Spanish. The oldest (11 year old) understands a lot more, but the younger one (9) is quickly improving.
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Thank you so much.
La vérité est que, j’ai demandé de l’aide dans ma université pour trouver avec qui parler en français.
Parce-que, quand j’etait mis à etudier Mandarin et Nahuatl aussi je donnait mes grands efforts à devenir un athlète donc à cette epoque « ma adolescence» j’avais laissé mon français ailleurs. Après et sans aucun système d’étude , chaque langue dans ma tête devianait un peu et aussi s’ont métisse entre eux un peu. Even now some people still asks me which is my “true” first language.
Mais, alors que j’applique la même attitude «sportive» à mes études je me fais plus la confiance. Vraiment, I thought it was ambitious to come here “this site” and try code switching.
Greetings.
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Hi @basqueinlanguages I remember you from WIL ! Thank you for sharing your story here. It’s so wonderful that you reclaimed Basque and can now teach it! I would love to learn more about it. Also, so happy to hear that your SIL and nieces are embracing their Spanish heritage!
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Je te souhaite bonne chance alors! Tu me tiendras au courant
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Hi Heather. I grew up bilingual (you might want to check out my speech (“Teaching multiple languages with a plurilingual curriculum”) where I speak about this in the beginning where I introduce my bilangual /trilingual region South Tyrol in Italy). In the family we spoke 2 languages: my mother tonge is German (or rather the South Tyrolean dialect as Standard German came only later at kindergarten) and my father tongue is Standard Italian (I learnt an Italian dialect from my granny). My brother and I adopted two different family language policies with our kids. In the family we spoke only German dialect with them, but sent them to Italian kindergarten and later to German schools. My brother opted to speak Italian to them, his wife spoke German dialect. His kids went to Italian school since secondary school (which they attend at a German School. (My explanation might be clearer after watchin the video). - The results are the same. All kids speak both languages and dialects fluently. Mine being older had looked also for opportunities at university or by doing a year abroad in England or in France during their study.
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