I’m sure he is talking about her future dialect. We have many different dialects here in Sweden. If her mother speaks with a stockholm dialect/accent, then she will likely pick that up instead of one of the northern (I don’t remember which) her grandmother speaks. Her grandmother is a top politician in Sweden so she, Barbro, has begun to speak more standard Swedish.

I am English but I’ve lived in France for many years and I speak both English and French fluently. We live in Paris, my son and me, and he goes to a french school where he speaks French there but at home, he speaks English with me. He’s bilingual and can now hold his own in both languages- it was so cute when he was younger- he always used to say ” Yes, maman, je veux lu-lu, please!”

What I’m curious about is whether Sam (and her sibling) will speak good Swedish. While we grew up in France with my dad speaking French to us, my mom would speak only Greek to my sister and I as kids and had us to reply to her in Greek as well. Now I’m unable to speak to my mom in another language than Greek. But I have friends who are Spanish and German, speak to their kids in their native language but never asked their kids to reply in the same language, and now they’re complaining that when they go to Spain or Germany, their kids can barely speak with their grandparents.

Awww, poor child, she’s growing up with the 08 accent (Stockholm accent). Well atleast everyone will know what she’s saying, the Nothern Swedish accent it’s terrible and really hard to understand. I’m a South West girl. Most people thing we’re norwegian Still, go Elin!

I wish I was fluent enough in my mother’s language to have my children be bilingual. She tried with us but my dad is American and so he always spoke English around us. I plan to at least teach my children basic phrases in Portuguese and my husband is supportive of this. One of my cousins was raised speaking nothing but Portuguese until she went to preschool and adjusted to English quickly and speaks both languages beautifully now.

My aunt did this with her son. They live in Switzerland and whilst she speaks to him in English his father speaks to him in German. Of course, he goes to school and speaks German in class and with his friends and the result is an adorable little accent when he’s speaking to me in English. I could listen to the little man speak for hours on end!

Dawn….I think you’re right. Now that I re-read it, it does seem he’s talking about what type of accent she’ll have when she speaks Swedish. I totally read it differently the first time! =)

she will grow up with no accent. As soon as she goes to school and hears standard American English, that is how she will speak. As someone whose foreign mother and aunt talked to me/ my cousins exclusively is Spanish (my dad always talked in English), I have never had an accent. Neither have my cousins. I have been bilingual as long as I can remember. When they are babies is the way to do it! It sticks in your head w/o even trying to “learn” languages. Good for Elin!

what is the other language elin was growing up in, are htey referring to different accents?

I also think he was talking about what kind of accent she will have when she speaks in Swedish, not whether she will have a particular accent when she speaks English.

I imagine she will have her mother’s accent since she is so exposed to it, rather than a grandparents accent.