Language: DS & DD can't communicate with my family

[AllisonR]

I speak american to my DS and DD, and they reply in Danish. All fine and well, since we live in Denmark permanently. But on the rare occasions we see my parents or sister, DS and DD of course continue talking in Danish, and my family is like ??? I do a lot of translating, as my folks adore my kids and want to know what they are saying, but at 80, my folks are not going to start learning a new language, yk? And my kids do understand american, completely, they just don't speak it much. And DD is too young to comprehend that my family does not speak danish. Doesn't everybody?

If you have dual languages, and your children speak predominantly 1 language, at what age can / will they communicate with relatives in the other language?

So, what is the magic age?

[EVC]

Move over, please, we'll be joining you in that boat

Except in our case, dd can't communicate with dh. She REFUSES to speak Russian, even though she understands perfectly and is always happy to translate from Russian to English (she usually does a running translation when I talk to dh in Russian). She will say a few words to him in Russian, but she has to be in the mood for it. Usually she will just speak English to him, which I keep trying to tell her HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND.

So I have no answer to your question, but can offer