Keeping her second language when we move.

[Poppins21]

We currently live in Sweden and my 9 year old daughter speaks fluent Swedish, neither me or her Dad are more than A2 level in Swedish. We are moving to Brussels in the summer and she is going to a French- English school. We want her to keep on with her Swedish.

She speak English natively too.

I have found a local Swedish speaking scout group she can go to on a Sunday afternoon, I have found several local Swedish speaking teenage babysitters for her with the caveat they have to speak Swedish with her. I have also found weekly Swedish lessons for kids. But does anyone have any other ideas how we can ensure she keep Swedish, whilst learning French and then the following year Dutch at school. I do not want it to end up feeling like a chore to her.

I think your ideas seem fine, especially the Swedish babysitter.

But I would put much more focus on her learning french, especially if she is going to a French school. In the long run French is going to be more useful to her ( unless you are planning on returning to Sweden) and if the school is bilingual then she will likely favour her English so will need help and encouragement in French.

I think the Swedish scout group and Swedish babysitters sounds plenty tbh, it'll mean regular Swedish exposure and practice. Make sure she has Swedish books to read, and watch TV programmes in Swedish sometimes if you can. Will she be keeping in contact with her friends in Sweden? That'll also help if you can facilitate video calls and suchlike

I was fluent in another language when we moved back to the UK when I was 9. I can't speak any of it now. It will take lot of effort to keep up the Swedish along with learning other languages and I imagine it's going to dwindle after a few years unless you go back. I think the activities sound fun and will ease transition but it's going to be difficult to keep up the language at a fluent level if she is becoming fluent in 2 others.

Thanks her Dad is a native French speaker so improving her French will be well supported. And we are unsure if we will return to Sweden.

Thanks Princess that has been the sentiment of many people I have spoken too, who lived abroad and now can not speak a word. But we are not sure if we will go back to Sweden so we are going to have to put the effort in, until we are sure of our plans. We will also have access to Swedish language TV and she prefers reading in Swedish currently.

Hi Natsku Yes she will be keeping in touch with friends in Sweden as we are friendly with several families and we are keeping our house there until we know what we are doing long term. My husband needs to go to Brussels for work for minimum a year.

There is a company called Svenska Distance that provides internet tutoring in the Swedish language for children living abroad from age 6 who want to keep up their language.

https://www.svenskadistans.se/

Thank you I have not heard of them. I will check them out.