In Norway, around one in five residents (approximately 20.8%) has an immigrant background (Statistics Norway, 2025), meaning many children grow up speaking two, three, or even four languages.
Parents often celebrate this multilingualism as a positive factor to their kids, but they also face challenges: lack of community support, the juggling of grammar rules, and the fear that one language might slip away.
For Maid Obucina, language is both a memory and connection. He moved from Serbia to Norway at the age of five with his mother, navigating a new culture and tongue. Now, decades later, he’s watching his own daughter Maia, five, grow up with multiple languages in her life.
Maia’s mother is half Norwegian, half Thai. Her stepfather is Norwegian but grew up in Spain. That means her daily environment is already multilingual and multicultural.
“She doesn’t speak too much Serbian,” Obucina admits, “but I’m trying to teach her a bit of it. It takes time — first I have to translate from Norwegian, then into Serbian.”
Still, Maia gets valuable practice with her grandmother and aunt, who both live in Norway and insist on speaking Serbian with her.
Would he like his daughter to become fluent? “Absolutely,” he says. His plan is simple: immersion.
“I would prefer to send her to Serbia for a holiday. That’s the best way. Summer vacation, spending time with the locals, especially while playing with other kids — it’s much faster for a child. Later, when she gets older, she can travel there more often and spend real time in the culture.”
Weekend school
Natasa Dimitrijevic is also from Serbia and raising two children in Norway: a nine-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl. She believes strongly that knowing their mother tongue builds “special confidence for children who are living abroad.”
At home, the family speaks Serbian, and on weekends they attend a Serbian school. “With English it is kind of natural for children,” she explains. “Sometimes it’s actually harder for them to find Norwegian or Serbian words because so many kids from school are speaking English.”
Still, keeping up Serbian isn’t always easy. “The biggest challenge is the lack of Serbian environment and not being the single point of contact for the language,” Dimitrijevic says.
“Children understand that it’s natural for parents to express themselves in their mother tongue, but they can feel isolated if they can’t use it with others.”
This is why she emphasises the importance of community.
“It’s useful to meet someone from the same language or have a friend from that group. That way children don’t feel isolated and they can express themselves in different tones and contexts," she says.
Dimitrijevic also sees broader benefits to multilingualism. “Children who grow up speaking three or more languages can develop better social skills and understand different cultures much better. Culture is printed in language and non-verbal communication, and that gives children a bigger overview and understanding of the space around them," she says.
For her, teaching the mother tongue is not optional but essential. “In your own language you can express yourself best,” she says firmly.
Mixing words
For Laura Nasta, raising a bilingual toddler brings both sweet and funny moments. Her three-year-old daughter speaks Norwegian at barnehagen and a mix of roughly 60 percent Norwegian and 40 percent Romanian at home.
“We try to keep consistent and practice with her,” Nasta explains. “If she replies in Norwegian, I repeat the answer back in Romanian.”
That method has worked — but not without a few hiccups. Early on, her daughter’s mixing of the two languages led to confusion at daycare. “Kake (cake in Norwegian) versus caca (poo in Romanian) and Cald (cold in Norwegian) when it means hot in Romanian” she remembers.
Like other international parents, Nasta sees language as a long-term project that requires patience and creativity. “Consistency is key,” she says, even when the family slips naturally into Norwegian in their daily routines.
Four languages, one family
For Syed Mujtaba Hassan, multilingualism is simply everyday life. Originally from Pakistan, Hassan grew up speaking Pashto at home and Urdu at school. When he and his family moved to Norway in 2019, his three children — now 10, 7, and 3 — quickly added Norwegian and English to the mix.
That means his household juggles four languages, three of them fluent. “Our mother tongue is Pashto and our national language is Urdu, so we were already bilingual before moving,” Hassan explains. “Here, the kids were introduced to Norwegian and English as well. They learned it quickly.”
His advice for other parents is practical: “Speak your own language at home. Kids will learn Norwegian anyway, in school or on YouTube. But your mother tongue can only be learned at home. Also, watch TV in the language you want them to learn. And if you have family friends who speak the same language, mingle more with them — let your kids build friendships in that language.”
The biggest challenge has been grammar differences. “Because they learned by speaking, not through formal training, they sometimes mix words. For example, if they know the name of a favourite food in Norwegian, they’ll use the Norwegian word while speaking Pashto or English. They don’t realise it can have a different name.”
Another challenge: speech delays. Hassan says two of his children who started speaking in Norway took longer to form sentences. “My eldest son started speaking sentences at age three, while normally it’s around two years. Some people attributed it to multilingualism, but I don’t think that’s the reason. I’ve seen multilingual kids who spoke early too.”
Despite the hurdles, Hassan is convinced of the advantages. “The best positive is the natural skill to learn new languages. Since we were already bilingual, my kids learnt the third and fourth language without any hassle. It really develops a learning brain.”
Cognitive benefits
A study published in 2023 provides valuable insights into the cognitive benefits of bilingualism in children.
The research systematically reviewed existing literature on bilingual advantages in inhibition and task-switching among children up to the age of 12.
The findings indicate that bilingual children often outperform their monolingual peers in tasks requiring attentional control and cognitive flexibility. These advantages are attributed to the cognitive demands of managing multiple language systems, which enhance executive functions such as inhibitory control and task-switching abilities.
“The greatest gift a parent can give to their kids is their mother tongue,” says Antonieta Khosh, director of Casa Latina who has been teaching Spanish in Oslo for more than 25 years.
“As a teacher, I have observed that children who grow up with more than two languages at home tend to acquire a third language more easily. Children do not question these things as much as adults do; they simply absorb language and learn through play.”
Khosh believes the effort is always worthwhile. “I strongly believe that encouraging and nurturing a multilingual environment from an early age is one of the most valuable investments a parent can make in their child’s development.”
Tell us about your own experiences of raising multilingual children in Norway. Leave a comment below for other readers.
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