Sami Grover, the son of the founders of Multilingual Matters, a publishing house dedicated to multilingualism, grew up bilingually in Finnish and English. He is the editor of the well-known “Bilingual Family Newsletter” and currently lives in the United States with his wife and daughter.
We hope you enjoy this exclusive interview he gave to Multilingual Living Magazine about growing up in a bilingual family.
MLM: Sami, thank you so very much for taking time for an interview! Please start by explaining a little about what bilingualism was like in your home: which parent spoke which language with you and your brother and which language(s) did they speak together? What percentage of time was each language spoken in your home?
Sami Grover: My mother is Finnish and my father English, but we grew up in England.
From an early age, Mum would always speak Finnish with my brother and myself, and Dad learned some Finnish too so we could use it together as a family. I think this was important initially – it showed us that Finnish was important to him too, and it wasn’t just Mum’s “weird language”. As we grew older and started school, English became more prominent, eventually becoming the main family language when we were all together. However, we would still speak Finnish with Mum, and regularly visited our grandparents there, including attending the local village school for a number of months. These “language baths” usually strengthened our abilities in the Finnish language, and our enthusiasm for Finnish culture grew also.
MLL: Were your parents consistent in their languages? Did they ever switch languages with each other or with you children? Did they speak with you in a different language when in public or with other friends and family members?
Sami: They were pretty consistent, but they didn’t impose any absolute rules. Sometimes when we came home from school, excitedly speaking English, Mum would allow us to tell her about our day naturally, then gradually steer us towards Finnish. Other times she did use little tricks likes pretending not to understand.
When we had friends over, Mum would still often speak Finnish to us, but she would try to translate for the other kids, and even get them involved by teaching them a few simple sentences. Some of my old school friends still great Mum in the street in Finnish.
