Some immigrant families speak to their children only in the local language. If they live in Israel, they speak only in Hebrew. They may believe that this is justifiable. After all, they live in Israel, so they speak the language of the country.

Others believe that their mother tongue will confuse their children. They want their children to be spared this inconvenience. Teachers may wrongly convince them that their bilingual children will have more difficulty in school, or that it will take them longer to acclimate to the new language.

Still others may question whether a child who knows a second language, will be as "good," as others or whether their child will have a foreign accent.

Many other concerns, reasons, or excuses may be offered for not speaking or teaching the parents' language. None of them are legitimate.

Those unfortunate excuses cause children to lose the many advantages of bilingualism.

In reality, the disadvantages mentioned here do not exist. The children do not suffer because of bilingualism - they benefit from it.

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