My mother insists we only speak Spanish at family gatherings to preserve our culture, but my kids are losing their fluency and feel ashamed, and my English-speaking partner feels excluded. We're all trying to honor something important but we're also creating new forms of disconnection, and family dinners have become tense negotiations about who belongs and how.
More people experience this than they realize.
Language preservation efforts can simultaneously strengthen and fracture family bonds when different generations have different relationships to linguistic identity.
“Where Are You with Language and identity — what your first language holds?”
Peri can explain why this happens, help you decide if this is the right situation for you, and point toward the right journey or coach.
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.