When foreign parents settle in Austria, language is often one of their main concerns. How can children be raised to grow up speaking multiple languages? Here’s what The Local’s readers had to say.
Austria is a wonderful place for children to grow up. With a respected education system and easy access to mountains, lakes and forests, it really is a magical country for little ones.
It’s no wonder that so many foreign parents are keen for their children to grow up there. Around 2.5 million people with a migrant background lived in Austria in 2024, which equals around 27.8 percent of the population.
It means many children grow up speaking two, three or even four languages.
So what are the best ways to help children thrive in these environments?
‘I never speak German to our children’
Some of the respondents to our survey recommend that parents communicate with their child or children in their native language.
Rika, 37, who lives in Vienna has a soon-to-be three-year-old who was born in another EU country, and is expecting another baby in April.
Rika and her partner speak their own languages (German and Japanese) to their child, and speak English between themselves.
They “want the children to establish German as their fundamental language as we see the family life to be based in Austria for a long time”.
However, Rika added that the couple want their children “to keep Japanese as a side language to an extent they have enough accuracy to have a conversation in it, and enough base to learn more if they want to”.
Rika’s advice is that “each parent sticks to his/her language”.
Ladi, in Tyrol, has similar advice: “I speak English to my wife and child, she speaks German to me and our child. I never speak German to our child.”
The 55-year-old who has one child added: “To get into international school in Innsbruck, the child must at least be bilingual.”
Another reader, Richard, who’s based in Klagenfurt and has three children who were born in Austria, said: “One parent, one language.”
For Simon and his family, consistency is important. He said one parent “always speaks English, one always German”.
Simon also feels it’s important for his children to be bilingual because there are “better opportunities in English outside of Austria”.
He adds that parents should always be encouraging.
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Parents hope for their children to be fluent in more than one language
Of course, the languages spoken at home depend on the parents. Many couples may speak the same language and be learning German themselves.
Amy, who lives in Graz, has two children aged nine and 11. The family moved to Graz five years ago. Amy says they speak English at home and German everywhere else.
“I’m glad they are bilingual, and we are supporting that by making English part of daily life,” says Amy. “They do everything else in German – socialise, school, etc.”
However, Amy notices the quirky parts of growing up in a multilingual world.
“Even speaking English at home with them we notice their grammar and pronunciation getting worse!” she says.
Kasim, who lives in Vienna, says his family speaks predominantly English at home. However, the 33-year-old is keen for his two-year-old daughter who was born in Austria to speak fluent German.
“We want her to be bilingual in order to enter the Austrian school system and for us to integrate well into the country,” Kasim says. His tip to other parents is to “have your child attend a German speaking kindergarten”.
Marija, 40, who’s based in Vienna, has a three-year-old and four-month-old.
She wants her kids to “to speak fluently both in Croatian and German”, and expects them to learn English later on.
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Her daughter goes to a German-speaking kindergarten, while the parents read a lot to her in Croatian.
For Borislava Batandjieva-Metcalf, 54, who’s also in Vienna, extra help is important. Her 14-year-old attends school in English but takes German and French, and gets extra tutoring.