Article about the BBFN published in Phinney Ridge Review, Summer 2004, page 19:

Raising Kids in Bilingual Family Poses Questions

A new Seattle support group helps parents find answers

By Sharon Heiber

Learning a second language is a life goal for some; others are born into it. And like all birthrights, being reared in a bilingual household has its attributes and challenges.

For PNA member Corey Heller and her German-born husband raising their two sons (ages two and one-half and eleven months) speaking German at home brought unexpected issues to the surface: Will children growing up in bilingual households ever feel 100 percent comfortable in either? How will children relate to relatives elsewhere who cannot speak the same language that the children speak at home?

When Corey’s curiosity about bilingual and bicultural parenting outgrew the local resources available to address these and other questions, she brought a group of like-minded parents together and formed the Seattle Bicultural/Bilingual Family support group.

"I’d found parenting groups focused on ESL parenting support, or parenting support groups where they discuss general parenting issues in a different language, but I hadn’t found anything for our group’s situation: two parents from different cultures raising children bilingually and biculturally," says Heller.

Though the group has only been meeting since March of this year, Heller already has an email list of approximately 15 interested families, with five to ten parents attending each meeting. Members hail from a number of countries including Germany, France, Israel, Columbia, Turkey and The Netherlands.

At each meeting, Heller typically presents literature representing two views of a particular issue affecting bilingual/bicultural parents, which parents will then discuss. Topics range from dealing with different holiday traditions to assuaging grandparents’ concerns about being left out of the language mix. (Heller recalls particularly challenging questions posed by her own mother, including whether her grandchildren would know that she was part of their family since she spoke a different language than they spoke at home.)

Group members consider expert opinions, share their own experiences and discuss solutions to the issues and choices facing them as parents.

"We get together and see, here is what the experts think, here is what we think. And through these conversations, we realize that it does not matter which stream of thinking we follow. As long as all languages and cultures are respected, there is no right or wrong way of dealing with these issues," says Heller.

Future plans for the Bilingual/Bicultural Family support group include holding less structured social meetings, gathering for weekend potlucks and developing resources including a lending library of foreign language videos and DVDs.

For more information about the Seattle Bilingual/Bicultural Family support group, contact Corey Heller by phone, (206) 517-4723 or email, info@biculturalfamily.org.

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