German skills of the 2nd generation

Raising your child speaking more than one language has become a new norm in Australian migrant communities. Even the well-assimilated German community has warmed up to the idea of bilingual education. But how does it feel when you are truly bilingual, and what do migrant kids feel who were deprived of a second language?

Passing on languages skills requires patience from both generations. Source: Getty Images

In a special report, we meet two very different second generation members of the German community. While Marcus Strang had to start learning German by himself in his twenties, because his father never spoke German to him, Barbara Burczak-Stefanowski represents the opposite of the lingual spectrum. She grew up with three languages and even picked up her grandmothers Saxon accent in the very mono-lingual Australia of the 1950s.