What Happens When You Grow Up Between Two Cultures?

Añadido: 2026-05-07

[00:00:01]What happens when a child grows up between two languages and two cultures?

[00:00:09]Do they choose one or become something else entirely?

[00:00:16]>> Hi, I'm Kaitlyn.

[00:00:20]And hi, I'm Maggie.

[00:00:23]Today we're going to talk about animals.

[00:00:29]specifically the noises that animals make.

[00:00:36]Did you know that animals make different noises in different languages?

[00:00:46]Actually, they make the same noises, but we use different words to describe them.

[00:00:58]Can you repeat you can repeat after us?

[00:01:04]Well, let's listen to some examples.

[00:01:08]In English, a horse says neigh neigh. But in Russian a horse says in English a pig says oink oink oink. But in Russian a pig says we have twin daughters who are now 20 years old. They've been bilingual and bicultural since birth, Russian and American. Now, that was recorded when they were 9 years old. That was a podcast. They started a podcast teaching kids Russian and English.

[00:01:59]At the time, I didn't think much of it, but looking back, it says more than I realized.

[00:02:07]We wanted our daughters to be bilingual.

[00:02:10]Well, we felt it was the perfect situation for this. The girls were born in Russia and they lived in Russia. We felt that in life being bilingual would always be a plus. Now, of course, I can't be objective about this, but I think a Russian American blend is something special.

[00:02:29]We gave a lot of thought to the bilingual factor, but really didn't think much about the bicultural factors.

[00:02:36]We decided that I would only speak to the girls in English and my wife would only speak to them in Russian.

[00:02:43]Apparently, there's even a name for this, which we didn't know this at the time. It's called the Opal method, which just means one person, one language.

[00:02:55]Some things we didn't expect about this process. So although I only spoke to them in English and my wife only spoke to them in Russian, most daily communication in our home was between my wife and I and this was in English.

[00:03:10]Because of this, their first words were in English and this became their stronger language until about age three.

[00:03:17]At age three, my wife went back to work and her parents took care of the girls while she was gone. Now, her parents speak no English, so at least now during the day, Russian language would dominate.

[00:03:32]In later episodes, my daughters will tell stories about trying to adjust at that point in their lives and other points. I actually learned a lot during these interviews with my daughters.

[00:03:44]Now, as they grew a little bit older, the girls would occasionally hear me speak Russian. I mean, like if I took them to a store with well, just me. They thought it was so funny and they really mocked me for my pronunciation and my language skills. No sparing my feelings.

[00:04:03]They said, "Nobody can understand what you're saying." But yet, I said, "Look, I've got everything here I came for, so somebody understood."

[00:04:12]We thought we were just teaching them a language. We didn't realize we were shaping how they would see the world, but we learned that later and we're still learning it today. Now, for some disclaimers.

[00:04:27]This isn't a scientific series. It It's not a language lesson. It's just an honest look at what it's like to grow up between cultures.

[00:04:37]So, I'm going to do this in multi- multi-art different episodes. And let me tell you what they're going to deal with, okay?

[00:04:47]Language and thinking, identity, belonging, advantages, and challenges.

[00:04:56]And again, I want my daughters to really do most of the narration in these because it's much better hearing it firsthand from the people who experienced it. I'm not bilingual.

[00:05:08]So, if you've lived between cultures, you've probably recognized some of this.

[00:05:13]And if you haven't, you might understand it a little better. Please return as I publish new episodes of this series. But my daughters will be narrating several of their experiences firsthand.

[00:05:24]And I've really enjoyed working on this project because I've learned a lot of things I didn't know before. I mean, interesting things. And I hope that you'll feel the same way.

[00:05:35]Well, until I release the next episode.

[00:05:38]Paka.