those of you with spouses with a different mother tongue..

My Husband is German, I am South African. He can speak English and I am learning German.  He speaks German to the Children and I speak english to them....

I speak the language I'm used to.

my husband is italian and i am south african. He speaks italian with my duaghter and I am still learning. We speak english.

i speak a language which is the language of mountains and a very rare one called brushaski ..spoken in hunza near china border of pakistan side

I'm German and my husband is American, but he understand German and speaks a little too. When I first moved to Hawaii I was too shy to speak English at all, so I'd talk German to him, but he would talk English to me, which I could understand. That lasted for a few months until I finally started to naturally slip into English. Nowadays I only talk in German to him if I don't want anyone else to understand what I'm saying (which can actually really backfire... even in the middle of the Pacific there will always be someone who understands what you're saying)

I am a Malaysian chinese and my husband is a Japanese. He doesn't understand chinese, yet I don't know Japanese at all. Basically, we speak english to each others; Since last Oct, he been transferred back to Japan, and I been "pushed" to learn his language to survive in this "1 nation country".

I was born in India to parents who are both Indian but speak completely different languages, so we spoke English at home and I only ever learnt English.

I moved to Canada, because Canadian and thought I should learn French, but it was difficult, no one outside of Quebec and Ottawa seems to speak French.

Now I live in Italy and am married to an Italian. I have to learn the language since most people don't really speak English here, but we generally speak English at home although we try and switch to Italian now and then so I can learn.

I envy people who have a knack for languages and are able to pick it up fairly easily and speak so many! Good for you! And good for those who speak different languages to their children at home. I wish that my parents spoke to me in their respective languages so I would have learnt something other than English and maybe my brain would have an easier time learning Italian now!

http://worldcitizeninrome.blogspot.com/

I am Chinese and my hushand is German. We used to speak English to each other. But German has been our daily language ever since we settled down in Germany. He could curse perfectly in Mandarin and Cantonese though :-)

i dont think it matters, where your spouse is from as long as u see eye to eye. and have the same goal.

Born South African, mother tongue Afrikaans. Married a Paraguayan born but from German decent Girl and we speak German. She only speaks a few words of Afrikaans (lack of practise the main problem) but unfortunately talking about her in front of her in Afrikaans is no longer possible

My wife is Lao, I am NZ born.I She speaks no english but I speak Lao. Our 5 yr old daughter speaks both languages;)

i have started dreaming in english first time i ve met my husband, and i am still finding it not easy to speak my mother language to him (knowing he can understand)

I am American and my husband is Turkish.  We speak English.  Though I am slowly, very slowly learning Turkish.

A common 3rd lang? or both speak the easier language of the two!!

I’m Indonesian, my husband is Belgian. At the beginning we spoke in English. Now I speak well (enough) French, then we speak French. He speaks French to the children. At the beginning I spoke my language to them. But since the eldest one entered the school which is bilingual French-English, one of us should help him in English then I do it until now. I really regret actually. I do believe that they can take the benefit of speak many languages when they are still young. I feel also by speaking English to them, it against my nature. I intend to start to speak my mother tongue when they have strong basic in French and English because however I don’t want them to get red mark in the school. I’ve been waiting for that moment.

I'm Indonesian- Chinese origin, my husband is French. We met in the UK so we both speak good English. I speak Indonesian to my daughter, put her to a bilingual Mandarin - English school and assist her in her Mandarin homeworks. My husband doesn't speak to her in French, which is a big disappointment for me.

I'm Indonesian and my husband is a Norwegian. We both speak English. I can speak some sentences in Norsk and start learning more with his help, internet, and book. My husband likes to learn my language by listen to the words that I often use when speaking to Indonesian people.

I'm a Filipina married to an American.We talked in English more often at home as he knew only few words in Tagalog.I taught him several words and sentences when we stayed in the Middle East but due to less practice, he soon forgetten words and sentences I taught. Once in a while he speaks some Tagalog words to me especially when he's trying to flirt and says sweet nothings to me, LOL!Later, he bought a CD tutorial for Tagalog language  with English translation and more quite happy knowing most important words/sentences used to communicate with the locals here in Manila in a day to day basis(like directions, purchasing goods etc.).There are times though that I unaware unconsciously I utter Tagalog words in communicating to him thinking he understood well my language, ha!ha!I taught him too some dialects my parents used in communicating to me and he pick up some words easily...Our son speaks Tag-lish(Tagalog and English), which is quite acceptable here in the Philippines.

well...i'm a malaysian, my husband is an algerian, after 12 years of marriage, we still speak english, my daughter age 11 speak algerian to her father and english to me, but my son age 7 speak english to us, even tho he goes to algerian local school. i guess we are use to have zigzagged mother tongue in our family. i do speak algerian to others, just not to my husband.  my family yet to learn my mother tongue which is malaysian.
At the end, i think it does not matter, which language you use to communicate.

Ummmm, I am Pakistani my mother tongue is URDU but i was brought up in Dubai so i can speak Urdu, Arabic, English & basic French but luckily i married to the gal of my life she is From Iran her is Persian but mostly Persians know Arabic and she knows English as well & learning Urdu as well as its some how alike Persian..... while we have a baby boy of 3 yrs, my wife speaks persian to him while is Nanny is British & she communicates with him in English while speak with him in Arabic & urdu and by the Grace of Almighty he can understand and communicate with all of us in the same language........... For kids its not an issue to pick but to me what i learned from life is LOVE has no language no ethnic or geographical boundaries... Love starts with the Silent communication of Eyes and the eyes of our beloved stabs straight in the heart

I agree with the last post, I lived in Turkey for 4 yers and became very good but my boyfriends were all Turkish who wanted to practise Engish so generally we would cross over so we have an equal amount of free lessons " as they say real life conversation is the best practise". I dont have children but I am a teacher and have worked in internationals schools for many years and have several children arrive not knowing one word of English but becuae they are bombarded on a daily basis in English become fluent in no time at all so if you have children speak both languages to them and also try to send them to an English speaking school even if English is not your native language as to be honest this would be very helpful to them in their future choices regarding University etc but childhood is the easiest age to pick up new languages without being shy to actually use it in front of other people for example I have a german friend who's 6 year old can speak fluent English, german, Turkish and Spanish just from moving from country to country but the important thing is it ensure they continue to practise as they could forget within a year if they dont have anyone to talk to in this language.

I'm American, she's Vietnamese. We speak some Eng. some Viet. 1/2 and 1/2 with each other, as she knows some english and I know some Viet. The rest is body language.

I am Indonesian and my husband is Dutch, and since he comes from Friesland, he has his own mother tounge lang as well. At the moment we are talking in 3 different languages everyday, he speaks well enough indonesian and i speak basic dutch and we will substitute words we dont know with english
We are planning to speak in 3 languages as well with our kids later, my husband is thinking bout teaching them some Fries (Dutch Friesland Language) as well. Lets see then

Ik wet wel waar Schiedam is, hoor.

A born Canadian haqving resided in Europe for a long time, I speak Dutch, English, French, Germnan y tambien Espanol........my French Canadian wife learned English when we met in Quebec 26 years ago as she only spoke French.  Now she is also fluent in Spanish as well, because have property in Ecuador where we spend winters.  I found it amazing how my wife could learn two new languages so easily as an adult.  When you put your mind to something, eh?

@Gentlsle

Woonde je ook in Schiedam of misschien in de buurt?

Have you tried to encourage your wife to learn how to speak dutch?
And yes, I agree with you, we need to put our mind to something and we can handle it good

Greeting from Holland!

My husband is Swiss I an=m American.  We speak English together.  He speaks Swiss German with our children and I speak English to them.  I am taking classes for my German, but I think he and I will always speak English with eachother.

Summera,

Ik woonde in Den Haag, van 1968 tot 1980.

I did not encouraged her to learn Dutch as its usefulness was rather limited for our situation. I thought it would be more useful for her to speak English and Spanish in addition to her French.

Groetjes!

Hello everybody!

Could you please avoid using other languages on this anglophone forum so that everyone may understand!

Thank you,
Harmonie.

When my husband and I first got married,he couldn't speak a word of my native language(English)and I couldn't speak but a couple of words of his(Arabic).Mostly our hearts spoke to each other.And it helped that we had a brother who spoke fluent English and translated for us until my husband learned English..which he picked up quite fast actually.

he is Norwegian and I am Filipino (Cebuana). he speaks english, norwegian and german. im studying to speak ang write Norsk. we communicate english and a little bit of Norsk...

Miscellaneous wrote:

My Husband is German, I am South African. He can speak English and I am learning German.  He speaks German to the Children and I speak english to them....

thats what all south africans do lol

Kids absorb new langages quite effortlessly. So, since I failed miserably at Chinese (my wife's mother tongue), we decided to bombard our poor 2-year-old with Chinese, German (my mother tongue) and English (our common ground). She now mixes all three in a very funny way. Smart little girl!

my husband talks arabic and urdu and english, and i speak tagalog, bikol, spanish and english. So our kids mixes all languages in one sentence. It's really funny when you hear them and made us wondered what they just said. Now we just talk English at home to avoid confusion

I am Malaysian but I don't really speak Malay. My fiancé speaks perfect English but I do make an effort to speak the Malay language to have better communication with his family.

I am Mauritian, my maternal language is creole. I speak english and french fluently. Married to a german who luckily speaks very good english. Our daily communication is english. I am now learning german.Our children speak french, english and creole to me whilst german and also english to my husband. :-); I must admit though when i flirt with my husband, i try to use some german words mix with creole wordings

I'm Australian, he's German. We speak English, even though I speak German with his family (they speak no English). I'd like to speak more German with him, but he likes to practice English with me.

Since we met in Australia, an English speaking country, he says that's how he knows me. And so that's why he prefers to speak English with me. (I think its because he gets frustrated with my German mistakes haha!)

Hi.......I speak Spanish, he speaks Urdu and we speak English as a communication language......and we understand loving words we call each other.....in our own languages,,,,,,

my mother tongue is Polish, my husband's mother tongue is Maltese... we talk English to eachother

I try in their language, and they try in my language bizarley ... and then we speak a mixture of languages all in one sentence ...finally forming an all new completely bastardised language..