Raising children in another culture!

As I wrote in other posts, leaving your home country involves many gains and losses. Most of these will not be so noticeable and it may take you some time to get everything in perspective. 

When a family with children, whether they are small or not, leaves its country of origin, it also affects the pros/cons and new challenges appear.

Raising children in another culture goes far beyond bilingualism. Perhaps this is the first concern of parents when they change their country: the concern to maintain one's mother tongue and the challenge of blending a new language without harming the development of the other.

But changes, do not stop there ... raising children in another culture is living everyday with the question "where are you from"; sharing experiences from your own country and respecting others cultures; recognizing that your child will master the language faster than you and that you will need his help and many other situations.

Some people ask me if there is a way to soften the process of acculturation and as I always say it depends ... it depends on how the individual and the family will face and deal with this change and how the parents will pass it on to the children.

The fact that there is no rule or recipe for it allows each family to invent and reinvent itself when they need it and learn that we do not always know everything.

See you next time,

Laura