Is there any hope for my kids?

[TheElementsSong]

Hello everyone, first post on MN and it is a bit scary! (although I have been lurking for a long time)

I grew up in Malaysia where people take multilingualism for granted, so I always thought my future kids would also speak more than one language. Then I moved to the UK in my early 20s and met a gorgeous English guy at uni...

Fast forward almost 20 years, I've basically spoken only English for my whole adult life now, and we have lovely DTDs aged 3.5 years. They speak only English as I am no longer comfortable speaking my other languages, DH of course can't help. I did try a bit of Chinese and Malay when they were born but it felt unnatural.

Is there any hope that our DDs could learn another language? Have we left it too late?

Same background as you. When DS1 was born I started speaking Mandarin to him. At first it felt weird, but now it's natural. Can't speak to them in English. Never too late, I think, but a certain amount of bloody-mindedness is required.

Thanks very much LordCopper. Looks like I have to overcome my "inhibitions" and just do it! I tried to speak Chinese (my dialect is Hakka) to DDs over the weekend, but DH's family had come to visit and it felt really awkward. Worst thing was DDs just stared at my blankly and then told me to stop speaking Chinese!

Most of my school mates in primary school were hakka speakers but we got sucked into the speak-mandarin campaign and I ended up forgetting all my dialects ... but my brother speaks hakka, teochew and hokkien and I am SO envious.

You'll have to practise with the kids when in-laws are not there. :) But frankly we carry on whoever is there. Then I translate (or paraphrase if necessary ).