I was listening to an episode on learning “your parents’ language” on NPR’s Life Kit and it provided an accurate depiction of what heritage learners might expect when they learn their parents’ language. One notable thing from the episode was not to be easily sold to the idea of learning a language quickly as many language learning products might claim, but as a heritage learner, focus on your strengths. Many of my Thai heritage learners can understand spoken Thai, but they cannot seem to put sentences together. Focus on the fact that you understand spoken Thai and use that to build your linguistic repertoire. If you want to listen to the episode in full, here is the LINK.
