Linda's story

1. When did you arrive in Dubai?

Linda and her husband arrived in Dubai in January 2004.

1. Please introduce your family and the languages spoken by each family member.

Linda is Malaysian and speaks Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese and English whereas her Scottish husband grew up in a monolingual environment with English. They have one daughter, Rebecca who is 16 month old. Linda and her husband speak English with each other and Linda’s husband speaks only English with his daughter. When Rebecca was born, Linda wanted to teach her daughter English, Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese but soon realized that her strategy of teaching “one hour this language and one hour the other language” did not work out as it was too confusing even for Linda. Ever since, she only speaks Mandarin to Rebecca. Linda and her husband don’t have any concrete plans at the moment regarding the other languages.

1. What are the language goals for your kids? Why is it important to you that your children learn these languages?

Linda and her husband want Rebecca to be fluent as a native speaker in English and Mandarin. Speaking Mandarin is convenient for Linda as she has a Chinese heritage and with China opening its doors to the west, Mandarin will become more important and a real career bonus. English with its international significance was a “natural” choice plus the fact that Linda’s husband only speaks English and they are living in an English-speaking environment.

1. How did you hear about the multilingual network?

A friend of Linda who also knows Silke told Linda about the multilingual network.

1. Did you attend the “How to raise children bi-/multilingual” workshop? Did attending the workshop have any impact on your language goals? Did you implement any changes afterwards?

Linda attended the workshop roughly 10 months ago. It didn’t have an impact on how many languages she wanted to teach Rebecca but she thinks the workshop is still useful as it increased her knowledge and provided her with a more systematic approach to raising Rebecca multilingual. In Malaysia there are no workshops and it is just compulsory to learn different languages. After the workshop Linda offered to set up a Mandarin playgroup for the multilingual network.

1. Do you attend the multilingual network meetings? What motivates you to attend?

Linda tries to attend the network meetings, mainly the evening sessions because then her husband can look after Rebecca.

Linda thinks the meetings are very helpful because there is great support and you get lots of new ideas and at every meeting new language resources are mentioned.

1. How often do you use the multilingual website? What do you use it for?

Linda doesn’t use the website very often, maybe two or three times a month. She mainly looks at the language resources section and at the moment she is looking for a good nursery for her daughter.

1. Where are you now in relation to the language goals you have set?

Linda is happy with the progress and although Rebecca can’t talk just yet, she can see with Rebecca’s reaction to “Give me a biscuit” in English and Mandarin that she is on the way to understanding both languages.

1. Do you face any problems that keep you from achieving your language goals? What else would help you to achieve your language goals?

Linda still feels bad and being rude to speak Mandarin to her daughter in front of her husband or her in-laws when they are visiting. A big problem is that there are no schools in Dubai offering Mandarin classes and no tutors. Linda can only buy language material such as books and DVDs when she is back home for holidays. Linda also struggles to find enough mothers and children for her playgroup. A nursery offering Mandarin classes would be very helpful.

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