My partner and I are raising our daughter trilingual and we keep defaulting to English when we're stressed or tired, even though we both wanted her to be fluent in our heritage languages. We argue about whether we're failing her and whether forcing ourselves to speak Mandarin and Spanish at home when we're exhausted is authentic or just performative.
More people experience this than they realize.
Two people discover that their shared linguistic ideals crash against the reality of daily exhaustion and unconscious language habits.
“Where Are You with Multilingualism and its gifts?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.