Bilingualism? Yes!

My daughter's birth is expected for October and I can't help myself stop thinking about this huge opportunity I have to retribute a gift my grandmother gave to me: teach my little girl to develop fluency in English.

I am not British nor American and neither is my wife. We are both Brazilians. "Why worry about teaching your little girl a foreign language?", you may ask. The reason I believe in bilingualism lies on my personal experience. Being able to fully communicate in English as a young kid was an amazing advantage. I definitely want my daughter to also explore the possibilities English makes available. As an example, the extent and quality of information available in English is outstanding, whatever subject one wants to know about.

With that context in mind, I have started a personal research on how to properly raise a kid who will be able to communicate fluently in Portuguese and English. By fluent I mean being able to read, write and engage in conversations using any of these two languages and perform the communication in a similar, native-like fashion, no matter which language governs the communication.

As the subject of bilingualism is of interest to a number of people, I expect to contribute by sharing what I have found and learned as well as receive feedback and references for articles and other materials that might be useful for parents willing to raise bilingual kids.

Interesting information source will be posted on Bilingualism Matters collection. Please, feel free to post or cross-post to the collection as well should you have any material to contribute.