Hi everyone - I'd like to get some thoughts and opinions on something that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
For context, I am from the U.S. originally (Black American), but I did not grow up in the U.S. or really live here until my late 20s. I speak 3 languages (I'd say the 3rd I'm at a C1 so not perfect, 2 of them I learned in my teens/early 20s due to living in the Middle East as a child and also 2 Latin American countries. I use all 3 in my daily life due to my family make up and my work and general interests.
I am now thinking about my future with my partner and having children. He is not from the U.S. and also speaks another language as a heritage speaker (not really fluent tbh, but it is something that would be passed on to our children just by exposure to his family).
It is of utmost importance to me that my children are multilingual - it's just not up for negotiation because the benefits and opportunities that it has given me are immeasurable. I want to teach my children, and keep them exposed to both Arabic and Spanish and I am already speaking spanish 50% of the time anyway because I am teaching my partner, I have many only-spanish speaking friends, and I work as a translator.
Passing down languages as a heritage speaker is something that feels like a no-brainer to me, and also an extension of culture, but how are people navigating passing down languages that they've learned/taught themselves later in life? A part of me wonders...do I have the "right" to pass down something that is not a part of my own actual heritage? Is it weird that my family speak languages that technically do not "belong" to us, even if we are fluent? Can it become generational?
I guess I'm thinking a lot about how new generations and linguistic bloodlines are being created, as we become and remain more global and inclined to learn new languages together. I don't want it to stop with just my parents and me, so what does this look like and mean for cultural and linguistic ownership? Do these languages belong to people and communities? Are they now mine too?
Curious to hear anyone's thoughts.
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