What Language Do You Speak At Home?

[SwissTony]

19. English and Dutch and Frisian and Glaswegian.

My wife and I live in The Netherlands. She's Dutch, born in the Province of Friesland. She didn't start to learn Dutch until she went to school. She speaks Frisian to her family.

I'm Australian, born in Glasgow...and have two accents to prove it. My wife and I speak English to our kids, but they speak Dutch to each other. We speak Dutch to visitors. I speak Glaswegian to my family.

Our two younger daughters don't want us to speak English to their kids. Why? I have no idea. My oldest daughter speaks English to her daughter because she knows she will (and does) learn Dutch just by immersion. The kid's two years old and switches from English to Dutch if she's talking to anyone outside the family.

Frisian's an interesting language. The Dutch tend to portray it as a language somewhere between Dutch and English. Given that the vast majority of Dutchies speak English (and Dutch, of course), they should all be able to understand Frisian. Right? Nope. I don't know any non-Friesian who understands Frisian without having studied it. The kids and I understand it, but can't really speak it.