The data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) about the Lithuanian education system show that the interest of Lithuanians living abroad in Lithuanian language schools and educational programs is increasing. It might seem that in this global world, where even English is no longer a foreign language but simply a tool for work and communication, Lithuanians living abroad should not be concerned with teaching their children to speak Lithuanian. However, the reality is quite the opposite. According to Emilija Malinauskaitė-Sigurdarson, a teacher at Queen Morta Lithuanian School, recently there has been a trend to take pride in one’s national identity and connection to the homeland. As a result, Lithuanian language and traditions are being taught to children living in mixed families as well.
Currently, more than 600,000 Lithuanians live abroad, with the largest Lithuanian communities based in the United Kingdom—where about one-fifth of all Lithuanians abroad live, as well as in Canada, Germany, Ireland, the USA, and Latvia. The geography is wide, and the cultural background is diverse. Why do you think it has recently become important for Lithuanians living abroad to teach their children to speak Lithuanian?
I will share the reasons provided by my students’ families. One of the most common is that parents want their children to have a connection with their grandparents and be able to communicate with them in Lithuanian. For example, children attending my remote Lithuanian lessons join not only from their homes abroad but also while visiting their grandparents in Lithuania. It is wonderful to see their warm relationships, and I have no doubt that the children’s Lithuanian language skills contribute to this.
I remember one lesson just before Christmas, when I introduced Lithuanian Christmas Eve traditions and traditional dishes. I asked one second-grader, who joined from her grandparents’ house in Kaunas, what Christmas dishes she had tasted, and the student began to list: “herring,” and her grandmother added, “in pataluos,” the student mentioned “fried fish,” and the grandmother agreed, “carp in jelly.” In the end, the student and her grandmother listed the entire Christmas Eve menu, and after the lesson, they went to prepare these dishes.
Another reason is parents’ desire for their child to feel part of Lithuania through the language. We talk about this a lot in lessons: we discuss Lithuania’s nature, holidays, and I integrate Lithuanian songs and stories into the lesson context. Almost at the end of every lesson, both first and second graders hear books by Lithuanian authors.
Often, I create the texts for reading exercises myself: about how a child goes to the market with their grandmother and buys fresh sweet peas, how they camp by the lake with family and friends, how a sister and brother pick dill in the garden and dry it in the sun, and how students prepare for the “Song Festival.” My goal is for the children to become familiar with Lithuania, to feel connected to it, to understand Lithuanian traditions, culture, and daily events. I am happy that the children also listen to Lithuanian songs at home, watch films in Lithuanian, and follow Lithuanian sports events. Parents also believe that if there is an opportunity for a child to learn more languages, they should be given that opportunity.
You speak with great passion about Lithuania, so I assume you did not end up in the Lithuanian school by accident?
My reason for teaching Lithuanian to Lithuanians living abroad is patriotism and Lithuania’s history—the long and dark years of occupation, the deportations, and the 40 years of press censorship are very painful periods in Lithuania’s history. On the other hand, it is the time when the Lithuanian people demonstrated endurance, sacrificed lives for freedom, and sought to preserve the Lithuanian language for Lithuania’s children. This year, we talked with the students about important dates for Lithuania, holidays, and commemorations—January 13, February 16, March 11, March 16 (Book Smugglers’ Day), and before the summer holidays, I also spoke about the historical significance of August 23. All these days symbolize the desire to preserve the Lithuanian language, the fragility and importance of freedom and independence. I believe that everyone who speaks Lithuanian—whether living in Lithuania or outside its territorial borders – bears the responsibility to preserve the Lithuanian language, culture, and freedom. It was preserved and passed down to us, and now we preserve and pass it on.
Lessons in which I talk about historical events are always sensitive—for me, for the children, and for their parents. On the evening of January 12, I was in Vilnius by the Seimas, by the bonfires, and the next day, I taught lessons and showed the videos I made from the commemoration and the video recordings from the night of January 13. It was important for me to reflect not only on what happened in 1990 but also on how we commemorate it today. When I spoke about March 11, I prepared a 20th-century timeline: the abolition of the press ban, the proclamation of Lithuania’s independence, occupation, deportations, and the restoration of independence. We listened to the song “Palaimink, Dieve, mus” by V. Kernagis, and while the words “Iš visų kraštų ir visais keliais / Skubam apkabint tave” and “Palaimink, Dieve, mus / Motinos kalba, / Juk visiems mums vieną vardą / Davė Lietuva” played, I was moved—at that moment, the mission of passing on the Lithuanian language to these children felt so meaningful and so important.
After listening to the song, one second-grader raised their hand, turned on the microphone, and shared that while the song was playing, their father entered the room and sang along—they knew all the words. The feeling, the love for Lithuania, the desire to preserve the language is passed on by me, by the children’s parents, and by their Lithuanian environment.
What do you think are the main psychological reasons for not passing on the Lithuanian language, or to put it another way—what conditions are necessary for the language to thrive in mixed and Lithuanian families?
Each family chooses how to raise and educate their children. I’ve outlined the reasons why families teach their children Lithuanian, but perhaps sometimes they don’t see the possibility or necessity of passing on the language.
Language thrives when it is used, when it is relevant, and when the context of language usage and the country itself is important. All of my students came to the first lessons already able to speak, and most of them could read and write in Lithuanian—they learned the language by speaking Lithuanian at home, and only with one of their parents if the family is mixed. If the family is Lithuanian, children often share that their home is exclusively Lithuanian-speaking, and if they start speaking another language, the parents remind them to speak Lithuanian. When parents prioritize this, it becomes important for the children too. Sometimes, if a child faces technical challenges during the lesson, I hear them ask their mother for help in Lithuanian and their father in another language.
Parents ask me for book recommendations because they want their child to not only speak but also read in Lithuanian—this helps enrich their vocabulary, correct sentence structures, and fluency in the language. I feel the support of parents when students are learning to recite poems or create stories in Lithuanian—if the child struggles, the parents help and motivate them. I know that when the children learn the poems, they recite them to their grandparents on the phone, proudly sharing their achievements—parents tell me that when they call their grandparents in Lithuania, the children proudly say, “I already know how to write words with a soft sign” or “I learned that the word ‘oak’ is written with an ‘ą’ at the beginning.”
By the way, grandparents also play a significant role in helping their grandchildren learn Lithuanian—they send Lithuanian books and exercise notebooks. When second-graders were learning to write letters during the lessons, some addressed them to their grandparents, received replies, and continued corresponding by mail—a letter received by post motivates not only reading in Lithuanian but also replying in Lithuanian. In my eyes, both in mixed and Lithuanian families, children can learn to speak, write, and read in Lithuanian—often just one motivated adult in the child’s environment can teach, motivate, and engage them.
Do you notice a difference when teaching a child to speak Lithuanian in a mixed family versus a family where both parents are Lithuanian? Perhaps in the latter case, the desire to teach the child is stronger?
When the child’s connection to the speaker is strong, it may be that their desire to speak Lithuanian will also be stronger. I have heard of emigrants whose parents didn’t speak Lithuanian, but their beloved grandparents spoke it, and the grandchildren learned the language from them. If both parents are Lithuanian and speak only Lithuanian at home, the child will have many more opportunities to speak Lithuanian because they will hear and speak it daily with both parents. However, even having one “passionate” adult can ensure that the child will learn our language.
I admire families that choose to raise their children with Lithuanian traditions, books, and help them create a connection with Lithuania. They make an effort to ensure their child speaks not only the language of the country they live in but also Lithuanian. These children are ambassadors of Lithuania abroad.
A significant advantage of working with Lithuanians living abroad is the interweaving of their contexts, growing up in a multicultural, multilingual environment. I pass on Lithuanian culture, and they share with me the traditions of the country where they live, as their environment is diverse, and their experiences are rich.
What are the main challenges when teaching Lithuanian to children living abroad, and how can they be solved?
I notice that children living abroad have a different accent when speaking; they speak with an accent, but that is, of course, normal since their speech apparatus works somewhat differently. As a result, spelling mistakes occur, for example, in dictation, the word “oak” is written as “ąžiuolas,” “hedgehog” as “ežukas,” and “Molėtai” as “Molėti.” This is how they hear, this is how they speak, and this is how they write the words. I also notice confusion between masculine and feminine genders, as well as issues with adjective-noun agreement, such as “gilus upė” (“deep river”), “mažiukai akmenėlės” (“small pebbles”).
Another challenge is vocabulary. Naturally, when Lithuanian is only spoken at home and there is limited access to Lithuanian literature, there is no opportunity to learn and use many specific words. Students tend to use simple, commonly used words, such as “bėga” (“running”), but synonyms like “lekia,” “skuodžia,” and “skuba” are either unknown or take time to remember. When reading books, unfamiliar words can often be understood from the context, but sometimes there are words that the children have not encountered in Lithuanian because their parents haven’t had the opportunity to use them.
How to address and whether to address this is a difficult question. I believe that each family does the best they can in passing on the Lithuanian language to their children, and the children take in as much as they can by hearing and using it. My goal is to help the children learn more, strengthen their connection with the language, but I do not expect them to speak, write, and read Lithuanian as well as their peers living in Lithuania. Lithuanian schools provide space for communicating with peers, learning spelling rules, inspiring creativity, but much of the educational work must be done by the family.
For families raising elementary school children abroad, quality, easily accessible Lithuanian literature for children, educational films, and other materials available in the virtual space help. In recent years, there has been an increase in professionally recorded fairy tales, shows for older children about Lithuania and current affairs, and online meetings with writers and artists. All of this expands the child’s vocabulary and strengthens their connection with our country.
What advice would you give to parents living abroad who want to teach their children Lithuanian?
It’s harder to learn a language when you’re not in its context—simply learning grammar structures, vocabulary, or phrases is not easy, but when growing up in a family where at least one person speaks Lithuanian, the language comes naturally. When there is an opportunity to speak Lithuanian with peers in lessons, do fun tasks, and create in Lithuanian—so much the better. Being able to speak many languages is a value, and being able to speak, read, and write in such a rare language as Lithuanian is a great treasure.
The best way to learn a language is through immersion—when parents (or one of them) speak only Lithuanian to the child. This is the natural way, as we learn languages in the same way—we are surrounded by language from birth, repeat it, learn to understand, use it purposefully, and name objects, actions, feelings, etc. However, when the child hears and learns several languages in their environment, more effort may be needed to memorize Lithuanian words. In that case, parents should pay attention to their language and use it purposefully, for example, while cooking, saying not “now stir it,” but “stir the dough slowly with a spoon until there are no lumps left. Lumps are small hard pieces that should not be in the dough. I stirred it with a big spoon, and you can choose – would you like a big spoon or a small teaspoon?”
Parents should speak as much Lithuanian as possible with the child and help them when it’s difficult: remind them of words, gently point out language mistakes, praise them when they speak confidently, correctly, and willingly. When talking and reading a lot with the child, they begin to use more words, make connections, and start asking how to name things. The immersion method allows the child to be surrounded by Lithuanian language so that it becomes the language of communication.
If it is difficult for a child to learn Lithuanian as a second language, the parents’ enthusiasm helps. Little ones love listening to stories about their parents’ childhood in Lithuania, cooking Lithuanian dishes together, reading Lithuanian books, and planning trips to Lithuania together. If possible, it is advisable to meet with other Lithuanian families as often as possible and celebrate traditional holidays together.
In general, a study conducted with internationally adopted children showed that a sense of identity and cultural belonging is a key factor that supports children’s psychological well-being – children who are encouraged to maintain a connection with their country’s culture experience fewer identity crises and emotional difficulties.
Another study conducted with children from various ethnic groups also showed that ethnic identity and cultural socialization are protective factors that later help reduce psychological and behavioral difficulties associated with economic and social challenges. Therefore, language, as a unifying element for Lithuanians and a tool for preserving our identity, is unquestionably very important.