I live in the United States in an area where English and Spanish are mostly spoken. My home language is French. My father grew up in France and came the US as a young adult. He speaks only French to us. My mother speaks mostly English to us as she is from the US. I like having a home language and get excited when I meet others that speak French. I wish I did more to develop my French grammar and vocabulary skills when I was younger. I feel that my French is good, but is more like that of a younger person. I try to read French magazines online and listen to news in French to keep my skills up. I feel lucky to have this home language and hope to teach my children, one day when I become a parent, to speak French.

My parents were born in Oxaca, Mexico. They came to the United States when they were teenagers. They put down roots in Texas. Growing up in Texas, we spoke Spanish at home and lived in a neighborhood where most people also spoke Spanish. I was very relaxed speaking both Spanish and English. I didn’t really think about Spanish as being my home language until I went away to another state for college. At college, I didn’t know anyone who spoke Spanish. I missed not being able to use Spanish and not being able to talk about Mexican food, shows, and sports with people as I had at home. After college, I chose to go back to Texas. Although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, having others that spoke Spanish around me was important to me. I think my home language is more important to me than I realized. It makes me feel very connected to others.

I grew up in California and was the only one in my small town that spoke Persian. My parents both grew up in Iran and and spoke Persian at home all the time. We were really the only family in our town that seemed to speak anything but English or Spanish at home. I felt like the language bonded me to my family still in Iran. As I got older and moved out of my family home, I spoke less Persian. I found Persian again later when I met my wife. I believe one reason we are such a good fit together is that we share our home language and the culture that comes through knowing the language.

My parents are both from India. However, they left India when they were young and were mostly educated in the US. They are more comfortable speaking English than their home languages, which are Gujarati and Punjabi. They would speak English to me as I grew up. However, when my grandparents came to visit from India for extended periods of time and stayed with us, there would be Gujarati and Punjabi in the house. I remember being fascinated by the languages and always wanting to learn more words. My ability to understand both languages is at the level that I can generally understand what is going on, although I miss a lot of words, but my ability to talk is limited. I wish I would have learned more of these languages when I was younger. It is hard now to find the time and motivation to learn them better. I do though feel happy I have some basic skills in both language.

I was born in China. My family moved to the U.S. around the time I turned 2 years old. My parents spoke to us in English at home and we went to an English school. They really wanted us to fit in and told us that we could speak English like Americans if we just focused on English. I understand how they wanted us to be immersed in English, but I am sorry we were not exposed to Mandarin when we were little. In high school I started going to a school to learn Mandarin. I learned a good deal, but am not at all fluent. I felt very good when I went to China last summer and was able to understand almost everything people said, but I really struggled to speak back to them. I want to work on my ability to speak more Mandarin. I think having a heritage language is a really special and I am glad I have one. I hope to improve my ability to speak Mandarin little by little.

As a child it felt special that my brother and I could speak German and none of our friends could. My parents, both of whom grew up In Germany, spoke German to us at home. It was our “secret” family language because nobody else on our town in Pennsylvania spoke German. When I was 8 we went to visit family in Germany and I was amazed that they also spoke German. It sounds silly, but I hadn’t realized how our home language could help me connect to our family in Germany. I loved that I had a language that made me fit in when I was in Germany, but made me feel unique when I was home. When I married, a man who does not have a home language, I made a great effort to talk with my children in German and found a program that helped them progress in their German. I think of my home language as a gift I was given when I was little and one that I have helped nurture by looking for opportunities to use it. As an adult I volunteer at a school to help students learning German. I am also an outreach volunteer for an elderly German woman, and I make sure to speak with my grown children in German as often as I can.