Talking to my child in front of people who speak English vs. people who do not speak English

This Christmas we have been traveling around the North and East of Switzerland. How beautiful everything was! And how cold!

One of the days we visited Zurich and we used the opportunity to meet some Swiss friends who live there. We had a great time. It always feels good to spend some time chatting with people with whom you share things. In addition, we introduced our son to them, as they didn't know him yet.

The Swiss couple that we met speak German, but we spent all the afternoon speaking in English. They even talked to my little one in English, which was great. They spoke a lot to him and said a couple of cute things in German. That was very funny to me, because I repeated those things, although I had no idea what I was saying. It was fun and it was really nice to be able to communicate in a language with which we all felt comfortable and could express ourselves perfectly.

And what was the best of all? That, in this situation, speaking to my son in English felt very natural to me.

Around me, many people speak English well. However, some relatives and friends do not master it or do not speak English at all. Personally, I think that this is not a problem to continue to bring up my baby bilingually without being native. However, I have to say that I have different feelings talking to my son depending on being surrounded by people who speak English or being surrounded by people who don't.

Embarrassed talking in front of native speakers? Knock, knock!

I have already written about my feelings when speaking to my son in English in front of native speakers. As I imagined, there would be more situations where I would find myself with English speakers for various reasons. Well, I haven't had to wait a long time for a new moment to come.

What will native English speakers think about my experience? Fears and doubts

The first few times I thought about having children and speaking to them in English, I had the main ideas clear and very few doubts. It seemed to me that it made sense, that it was interesting and that, just as I talk to my students or to other people in English, I would do it with my son. All the questions and doubts came when I started. I had my son in my arms and I was going to start speaking to him in English all the time.

How to overcome challenges talking to your children in a foreign language

Raising children is not an easy task. It is stimulating, exciting, thrilling... one of the greatest experiences that we can have, but definitely: not simple. Sometimes we don't know if what we are doing is right or wrong and the future scare us a bit. However, we improve day by day and we try to do our best to bring up our offspring safely, healthily and affectionately.

The parents that want to speak in English or in any other language to their children since they are little, without being native in that language, add new challenges. While bringing up nonnative bilingual children, parents may go through different periods that can be anticipated.

When my baby gets fussy

Sometimes my poor baby gets a bit fussy. Who knows why... sometimes I think he may be tired and wants to sleep, sometimes he may have gases and other times I think that he wants to play and I am not paying enough attention to him.

First day speaking in English in front of friends

Today has been a very important day. For the first time I have spoken to my son in English while being with other people.

It has been some weeks that  I wanted to meet some friends and I have finally done it. My friends and I have meet to have a coffee and chat a bit. One of them is expecting a baby and the other two have one baby too. Can you guess what did we talk about? Of course! Babies’ clothes, food, toys, gadgets... you always learn new things from your friends.

Today is the day, or maybe tomorrow...

It has been two weeks since I said these words for the first time. 

I had definitely decided to raise my child in English and that was the day to start speaking to him in English. Somedays before I had started