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I am a New Zelander living in Bolivia with my husband and 4 children.  The

older two were 11 and 12 when we came here 6 years ago and they went to

a Bolivian school and so they are both fluent in spanish – my son (18) is often

mistaken as a native speaker over the phone and they have both now finished

school in both countries.  My 2 year olds are just beginning to speak words in

both languages.  We speak almost only english at home (in the family) as we have no english speakign friends.  They are in a spanish speaking centre in the mornings and so they

understand both languages.  They use them interchangeably with us and

almost only spanish with their teachers and friends.

I am a little worried as I had hoped to stay here until they were in Intermediate

around 11 years of ages and then return to my country so they would have

native spanish reading and writing.  But it appears we are going 'home' at the

beginning of 2011 and they will only be 3.  So now I guess I will need to be

responsible for teaching them spanish (minority language, not native for me

– though I am pretty good at it) so will need to look for some groups to join

once I know where we'll be living.  My hubby speaks sapnish but prefers

english and my son isn't coming with us.

So I am effectively going to be swapping minority language for majority.  I just

hope it still works.