Hello from Italy

Dear Antonia,

Welcome to the forum! It's a great one to be a part of, for sure

I'm a native speaker of Spanish (born and raised in Spain) who has been living in the US since 1996. My now 5-year-old daughter was born there. I teach Spanish at the university level, and for sure, I knew she'd be bilingual in Spanish and English because I wasn't going to give her a choice about that Being the (apparently) crazy person that I am, I also decided that I'd raise her (I'm a single mother by choice) multilingual, since back, back in the day I had learned some German that I hadn't practiced for at least 20-something years by the time she was born. Without the practice, and considering the fact that I had never traveled to any German-speaking country (transferring planes either at Munich or Frankfurt doesn't really count), the odds were pretty much against my desire to raise her multilingual.

I basically had most of the fears/concerns that you expressed in your post. How could she possibly learn German when her "source of knowledge" (i.e. yours truly) couldn't speak it? However.... I was determined. I began (re)speaking the very little German that I could remember. I began to purchase German books for kids and read them to her, and we began watching cartoons and movies in German. Fast-forward 5 years, and while my daughter's German command is not as good as her command of Spanish, and certainly not the command of a native German-speaking kid.... she does speak German quite fluently, considering her circumstances, and is currently learning to read it (my German has also signifincantly improved, I guess I have to thank Peppa Pigg for that, ha, ha!). The thing is, I had doubts and concerns and, even today, am worried about whether I'm providing the right (and grammatical) input.... but the important part is that, in spite of those concerns, I've kept trying, and now she speaks German.

As Adam pointed out, perserverance is the key. I'm doing my very best to raise her bilingual and biliterate in all minority languages that she's learning. So far, it has paid off, and although it can be quite a daunting task sometimes, it's also very rewarding. I don't know whether she'll achieve the same competency/literacy in German as she'll have in English/Spanish, but the closer she can get to that goal, the better! As I always say, some proficiency is better than none at all.

In your particular case, since English is your ml, I'm guessing it's easier to find resources (library books, songs, language programs for children, etc.) than for other languages, so I strongly encourage you to use as many as available in your bilingual journey. Most of the times I'm not sure whether I'm doing the right thing or not, but somehow she's speaking in her mls, so..I think I'll continue trying

Good luck in your bilingual journey, and above all, wish you the best for the wonderful time when your bundle of joy enters this world!

Best,

Marisa