Hello, there! *waves* This post is dedicated to all first generation expats/immigrants. This might not happen to all of us expats, but ever wonder how some expats' children are really good at speaking their second language? Well, I am stumped. I'm an expat myself (I came from Indonesia), and I've been trying to teach my children my mother tongue with only a very small success. On the other hand, I saw some of my friends' children speaking good Indonesian. *envy alert* I know it's like the case of the neighbour's lawn is always greener or something but I just couldn't help myself sometimes.

On a more serious note, I really admire those parents who manage to teach their children second language. I applaud them. There is a lot of effort involved in trying to ignore the fear of not being understood and just persevere to teach second language exclusively. In reflection, I think what happens in our family is that we are too used to speaking English in our everyday life it becomes awkward to speak our mother tongue to our children, although deep down, we know we have to speak the second language exclusively for it to take roots. It's the whole forget-English-they'll-learn-it-in-pre-school kind of attitude. In public, we don't want to offend people who don't speak our language and thus we start speaking English whenever there are English speakers around. Before long, the children recognised that they actually live in an English-speaking environment and they refuse to answer in any language other than English.

What about you? Did you grow up in a family that speaks a second language? Or are you trying to teach your children one? Are you successful and how did you do it?