My parents are from Bulgaria, a country in Europe for those that don't know. They were born there and so was I. We came to the US 5 years ago, which would mean that we came when I was 10, almost 11. My brother wasn't even one yet. He used to think he lived in the US his whole life until a few years ago, which he literally did- he doesn't remember even a thing. Now, I speak english very well and my mom is OK, and my dad can speak but he has an accent and mixed up grammar. Naturally, i'm used to speaking bulgarian with my parents but we speak english in public places becasue we all think its kinda rude to yell in a diferent language in the middle of, lets say the school or a fancy concert. My brother couldn't really speak bulgarian until this year, but he understood. I always speak to him in english- it feels natural to me. But when he speaks with my parents, they might be spaeking bulgarian and he answers in english. My brother can't even speak to my grandma well on the phone- my dad has to sit with him and give him hints of what to say.

Now, from time to time we have this problem of whether my parents should just start speaking in english. I'm fine with speaking to my brother and he is to them. But now my parents will never be able to really talk in english- they've spoken bulgarian to each other all their lieves. And to tell you the truth i feel a little akward speaking to my dad in english as well.

We don't want to seem like the just-arrived immigrants becasue i know how frustrating it is to hear chinese people speak loudly on the bus when they have been in the US for over 20yrs and still haven't learned the language. I wish we could all just speak english to each other at home, it would make things so much less complicated... but it just feels akward sometimes. how can we make them less strange at home (which i would really like) or should we just spkeak naturally with english and bulgarian words together. Somethimes my father gets really upset and demands that everyone speak to him in english and when i ask him a question, he answers back in his broken english, "Pleese Speak in english!!!". sometimes i feel that my father wants to become "Americanized" too much, but then, we do look and act like americans- after all we're europeans too... we definitley speak english outside of the house, but should we start speaking it inside as well?? I don't know, have any of you guys ever had that problem???

I see polish and russian people speaking polish/russian in parks and streets, and they don't feel akward. Bulgarian is practically like the two languages combined...

any ideas?
GretcherS, yes, i agree, i'll try to alternate the languages so that we forget neither englidh or Bulgarian. Speaking of German, that is a great example! I used to spak German fluently when I was little and I even had friends who when they first met me asked me when i'm going back to Germany- they thought I was on vacation in Bulgaria.... hehe. anyway, I stoppen speaking and now all i know is a few phrases and I can somewhat vaguely understand simple sentences.