Ep. 33: Mama's a linguist - Interview with Lera

Episode 33 - Today's interview is with Lera, a multilingual mom, linguist, and investment banker.  Lera and I cover a wide range of topics during our talk.  We start with how she learned her many languages (Russian, English, German, Korean, Polish and Dutch) and touch on some similarities and differences between languages that we've noticed.  We also dive into her family's goals and plans for their multilingual and multicultural children, and why their plan has changed.  Lera is full of linguistic knowledge and answers some burning questions that many multilingual parents have such as: - Is code-switching a good idea? - Should I speak the minority language out in public? - What percentage of input needs to be in the minority language to raise a bilingual child? - What is the difference between active and passive engagement with a language? Immigration, assimilation and white privilege come up during our talk (we recorded this episode right after the killing of 8 people in Atlanta, GA).  Lera shares with us how she keeps their minority language alive and strong as well as some common phrases you'd hear in her house in Russian and Dutch. --- You can follow Lera on Instagram @growing_up_inbetween as well as @futurelingual Stay tuned for an exciting project she's been working on which should launch in May 2021. --- Follow @TheFutureIsBilingual on Instagram and be sure to tag us if you share this or any episode.  We really appreciate your support