Most people, it seems, study foreign languages for all the wrong reasons. High school and college students do so to meet graduation requirements. Older adults do so to get certain jobs, or to make more money, or to feel more sophisticated when traveling abroad.

Raising three bi-lingual daughters has been an interesting and rewarding challenge for our family. We moved back to the States when our elder daughters were 2 and 4. During the first transition year, we mainly spoke Russian in the house, and English outside the house. Our younger daughter was just learning to speak, and made quick progress in both Russian and English. Then in our second year in the US, everything changed.