How do children in multilingual households differentiate between the two (or more) languages they’re being taught?
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My son (4yo) speaks 2, understands 3 languages. Khmer (cambodian) and English he speaks fluently, Norwegian he understands mostly – but doesnt speak. I (his father) dont push Norwegian on him, as we dont live there and there is no use for him to have to know, but I sing lullabies, I speak to him telling I love him and so on, and sometimes when Im angry as well, In Norwegian. So he understands 90% of what Im saying. I test him once in a while by saying “give me the red towel” in Norwegian, and he does.
He never gets confused on who is who in terms of understanding. He never speaks Khmer to me, but usually to his mother. If we are all three together eating dinner ie. its in English. I have no feeling he even thinks about this, it just is..
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