How to raise a bilingual Polish-English child

NHS children’s speech and language therapy services give parents the same advice: speak to your child in the language you feel most comfortable and confident in. What matters is the quality of the time you talk and play together.^[1][2]

For many Polish parents abroad that language is Polish. Switching to English at home will not improve your child’s English, and if your English is less fluent than your Polish, it can make things harder.^[1][2]

Children pick up English quickly at nursery, at school and with friends. At home, Polish has to come from you. If the two parents speak different languages, each can stay with their own; there is no single right model, as long as your child hears Polish often and in real situations.

No. Bilingual children often use words from one language while speaking the other, or put English and Polish into the same sentence. Switching between languages like this is normal and does not mean that a child is confused.^[1][2]

Their sentences can sound wrong or muddled for a while, and that is also a normal part of growing up with two languages.^[1]

Some children go through a quiet stage when they start nursery or school in a new language. They listen more than they speak, and this silent period can be short or last several months.^[1]

Learning two languages does not slow children down: bilingual children learn to speak just as quickly as children in families where only one language is spoken. A child who has a real speech or language difficulty will show it in every language they speak.^[1][3]

When your child answers in English, you do not have to correct them. Reply in Polish, repeat the word they were looking for, and carry on with the conversation.

Talk about what you are doing while you do it, in your own language: getting dressed, cooking, bath time, the walk to school.^[2]

• Pick one moment that happens every day and keep it in Polish: dinner, the way to school or the time before sleep. A routine that repeats day after day does more than an occasional lesson.
• Sing songs and say nursery rhymes in Polish, and tell riddles and stories from your own childhood.^[1][2]
• Look for chances for your child to play with other children who speak Polish, for example play dates with Polish-speaking families.^[1][3]
• Keep it fun. Playing games, singing songs and reading stories in your first language build your child’s interest in it.^[3]

It happens in many families, often once school starts and English becomes the language of friends. Sometimes your child might not seem interested. If this happens, keep speaking to them in your first language, do not put pressure on them, and praise them a lot.^[3]

• Praise every attempt in Polish, mistakes included. Respond to what your child wants to say, not to the grammar.
• Give Polish a few small perks. For example, a request made in Polish for one more story at bedtime gets a happy yes.
• Make it a conversation, not a test. Polish should feel like a normal part of family life, not one more chore.

Being bilingual is worth the effort. Speaking more than one language from an early age can help children to learn, and schools and teachers know that it helps a child’s thinking and learning as they grow older.^[2][3]

Share picture stories in your own language and read them aloud together.^[2][3]

Stories bring words that rarely come up at the dinner table, and children are happy to hear their favourites again and again.

• Read at the same time every day, for example before sleep, when your child is calm and close to you.
• Choose stories your child can understand in full and will enjoy, so that Polish feels like a pleasure rather than homework.
• After the story, ask what happened and what your child would have done in the hero’s place. The answer can be short and full of mistakes; what matters is that it comes in Polish.

You can also read a story in which your child is the hero, with their own name in the text, even if their name is English. It does not replace talking at dinner, but it gives you a reason to listen to Polish together and talk about what happened.

In many countries, including the UK, Ireland and the US, Polish communities run Saturday schools where children learn Polish and meet other children who speak it.

1. Search the database of Polish community schools abroad kept by ORPEG, the Polish government’s centre for Polish education abroad. It lists Saturday and other supplementary schools run by community organisations and parishes, schools teaching Polish within other countries’ education systems, including bilingual ones, and other places that teach Polish.^[4]
2. If there is no school near you, consider distance learning at the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej schools run by ORPEG: online education for children who live abroad.^[5]
3. Ask the school you choose about enrolment directly. The details are set by each school.

Grandparents who speak only Polish give a child a real reason to speak it: with them, there is no switching to English.

• Video calls at a regular time, for example every Sunday. Let your child tell grandma or grandpa about their week, and then listen to news from Poland.
• Reading together during visits. When the grandparents come over, or when you visit Poland, let the bedtime story be theirs.

Between visits, a story can also be read in a grandparent’s voice. In Fablele, the grandparent records a few short samples themselves, live in the app, and confirms their consent to a digital model of their voice; a visit is the easiest moment to do it. The voice is recreated by a digital model, not a recording of them reading — it’s worth explaining that to your child.

We treat voice recordings as biometric data. You can delete the voice at any time in Settings → Your voices; finished narrations stay in your library unless you delete them together with the voice.

If you have tried these ideas and are still worried about how your child is learning to talk, contact your local NHS children’s speech and language therapy service or your child’s doctor.^[2][3]