My Child Understands Russian but Answers in English: What Can I Do?
“My child understands everything in Russian, but always answers me in English.”
If you are raising a bilingual child in London, this may sound very familiar.
Perhaps Russian was your child's first language. Perhaps they spoke Russian confidently when they were younger. Then nursery or school began, friendships became predominantly English-speaking and, little by little, English became the language they chose first.
You continue speaking Russian. Your child understands you perfectly.
But the answer comes back in English.
At Artopolis Academy, a Russian school in London for bilingual and Russian-speaking children, this is one of the most common concerns we hear from parents.
So why does it happen? Is your child actually losing their Russian? And what can you do to help Russian become an active language again — without turning every conversation into a lesson?
Why does my child understand Russian but speak English?
Understanding a language and actively speaking it are not the same skill.
A child may have a large receptive vocabulary — words and expressions they understand — while finding it much harder to retrieve those same words when speaking.
This difference can become particularly noticeable in bilingual children growing up in an English-speaking environment.
Think about your child's ordinary week in London.
For five days, English may be the language of:
- school or nursery;
- friendships;
- playground conversations;
- reading and writing;
- clubs and activities;
- television and digital content;
- jokes, games and social life.
Russian may occupy a much smaller part of the week.
Even when Russian is consistently spoken at home, English can gradually become the child's dominant language simply because they need to use it in so many more situations.
Research into heritage-language development supports the importance of both language exposure and opportunities to actively use the language.
In other words, hearing Russian matters — but children also need reasons and opportunities to speak Russian themselves.
Is my child losing their Russian?
Not necessarily.
If your child understands Russian well but responds in English, there is already an important linguistic foundation there.
The challenge is often not to introduce Russian from the beginning, but to help move more of the language from passive understanding into active use.
And this distinction matters.
A child who understands:
“Возьми синюю тетрадь со стола и положи её рядом с книгой”
already possesses considerable knowledge of Russian, even if their answer is:
“OK, Mum.”
The aim is therefore not simply to correct the English answer.
It is to gradually build enough vocabulary, confidence and communicative need for Russian to become easier to use.
Why does English become dominant so quickly?
Children use language for a purpose.
They need it to make friends, negotiate games, understand teachers, tell stories, argue, joke and explain increasingly complicated ideas.
When all of these things happen primarily in English, English develops extremely quickly.
Imagine a child trying to tell you about a science experiment they did at school.
They may know:
experiment, dissolve, mixture, measure, predict
in English because they have just spent an entire lesson using those words.
If they have never encountered the equivalent vocabulary in Russian, telling the same story in Russian suddenly becomes much harder.
The child may not be rejecting Russian at all.
English may simply be the language in which they currently have the tools to express the idea.
That changes the way we respond.
Should I insist that my child answers in Russian?
Constant correction can easily make Russian feel like a test.
Imagine having an exciting story to tell and repeatedly hearing:
“No. Say it in Russian.”
The conversation quickly stops being about the story and becomes about whether the child is speaking correctly.
Instead, we can model the Russian they need while keeping the conversation alive.
For example:
Child: “Can I have some water?”
Parent: “Хочешь воды? Конечно. Холодную или тёплую?”
Or:
Child: “We did an experiment today!”
Parent: “Вы сегодня делали опыт? Какой опыт? Расскажи!”
The child has been understood, but Russian remains the language of the interaction.
If a word is missing, give it to them.
The goal is not to win every individual sentence.
The goal is much bigger:
to make Russian a language your child feels able and willing to use.
1. Give Russian a reason to exist outside the home
This is one of the most important changes a family can make.
If Russian exists only between a child and one parent, the child may gradually begin to perceive it as “Mum's language” or “Dad's language”.
But language is social.
Grandparents can help.
Russian-speaking family friends can help.
Regular contact with other bilingual children can be particularly valuable.
Something interesting often happens when children realise that Russian is not simply a language adults keep asking them to speak.
It can also be the language of:
friendship, games, jokes, stories, projects and belonging.
This is one of the reasons a Russian school in London can play a different role from simply adding another hour of tuition.
A language community gives Russian a social purpose.
2. Build vocabulary around your child's actual life
Vocabulary lists have their place, but children need language they can actually use.
Think about what your child wants to talk about.
Dinosaurs?
Football?
Space?
Minecraft?
Animals?
Cooking?
Art?
A favourite book?
Something that happened at school?
Build Russian around those interests.
If you bake together, talk about ingredients, quantities, textures and actions.
If you visit a museum, discuss what you see.
If your child loves animals, read about them in Russian and then talk about the most surprising facts.
If you make something together, introduce the language needed for the project.
Words connected to meaningful experiences have a reason to be remembered.
This principle is also central to the way we approach language at Artopolis Academy in Chelsea: Russian is used through stories, creative projects, discussion, games, experiments, art and shared experiences rather than existing only as a subject in a workbook.
3. Read Russian books — even before your child can read independently
Reading aloud is one of the simplest ways to bring richer Russian into family life.
Everyday family conversations naturally repeat the same vocabulary:
Put your shoes on.
Have you brushed your teeth?
Where is your school bag?
Books open a completely different linguistic world.
Stories introduce unusual verbs, descriptions, emotions, humour, dialogue and more complex sentence structures.
But don't make reading only about finishing the page.
Stop.
Look at the pictures.
Ask:
“Как ты думаешь, что случится дальше?”
“Почему он так поступил?”
“А что бы ты сделал?”
Let your child predict, disagree, explain and retell.
A book then becomes much more than reading practice.
It becomes a conversation in Russian.
4. Don't make Russian another piece of weekend homework
Children growing up in Britain already spend a substantial part of their week in formal education.
If Russian becomes another collection of worksheets, exercises and corrections waiting for Saturday morning, it can be difficult to create genuine motivation.
Of course, literacy matters.
Children need to learn to read, write and gradually understand the structure of the language.
But Russian should remain a living language, not simply an academic subject.
This is particularly important for younger children.
At our Russian school in Chelsea, London, we combine structured language development with literature, creative projects, music, games and communication.
Children need to experience what the language allows them to do, not simply what they are required to memorise.
5. Create opportunities for your child to speak — not only listen
Parents often focus on increasing Russian input:
Russian cartoons.
Russian audiobooks.
Russian books.
Russian music.
All of these can be useful.
But speaking requires something else: output.
Children need opportunities to formulate their own thoughts in Russian.
Research on heritage-language learning has found associations between children's active language use, the different places in which they use the heritage language, and their language skills.
So ask questions that cannot always be answered with yes or no.
Instead of:
“Тебе понравилась книга?”
try:
“Кто тебе больше всего понравился и почему?”
Instead of:
“Хорошо было в школе?”
try:
“Что сегодня было самым смешным?”
We want to create a reason for the child to build a sentence.
6. Let Russian become a language of friendship
For many bilingual children, this can be transformative.
A parent can provide excellent Russian at home, but there is one thing that is difficult to recreate alone:
a peer group.
When children regularly spend time with other Russian-speaking or bilingual children, the language acquires a completely different function.
They hear children their own age using it.
They play.
They negotiate.
They explain rules.
They laugh.
They make things together.
They discover that Russian belongs not only to their family, but also to their wider world.
For families looking for Russian classes for children in London, this social dimension is worth considering alongside the curriculum itself.
Ask not only:
“What will my child learn?”
but also:
“Will my child have meaningful reasons to use Russian here?”
7. Don't panic about mixing Russian and English
You may hear:
“Мама, где моя water bottle?”
or:
“Мы сегодня делали experiment.”
This can sound alarming to parents who are trying hard to preserve Russian.
But immediately stopping the conversation to correct every English word can make speaking exhausting.
Instead, supply the Russian naturally:
“Твоя бутылка? Она на столе.”
Or:
“Вы делали опыт? Расскажи, какой.”
Now your child has heard the missing Russian word in exactly the context where it was needed.
Over time, repeated meaningful exposure makes vocabulary easier to retrieve.
8. Think beyond “speaking Russian”
Our aim should not simply be to produce more Russian sentences.
We want children to develop a language rich enough to grow with them.
A three-year-old needs Russian for play.
A seven-year-old needs it to tell stories and discuss books.
A ten-year-old needs increasingly sophisticated vocabulary to express opinions and explain ideas.
A teenager may need to discuss identity, literature, history, relationships and abstract concepts.
This is why maintaining Russian requires more than preserving the vocabulary a child learned when they were small.
The language has to grow as the child grows.
What should I look for in Russian classes for my child?
If you are considering a Russian school or Russian classes in London, particularly for a child whose dominant language is English, look beyond whether the programme simply teaches the alphabet.
Ask:
- Does the programme develop spoken Russian as well as reading and writing?
- Are children encouraged to communicate with one another?
- Is vocabulary deliberately expanded?
- Are books and literature part of the programme?
- Are children grouped appropriately by age and language level?
- Is there a pathway for children who understand Russian but speak very little?
- Does learning happen through meaningful activities as well as formal exercises?
- Does the child enjoy being in the Russian-speaking environment?
For bilingual children, motivation and language development are closely intertwined.
A beautifully designed curriculum is of limited value if the child decides that Russian is something they would rather avoid.
Russian for bilingual children at Artopolis Academy
Artopolis Academy is a Russian school in London, based in Chelsea near Sloane Square and welcoming families from Kensington, Chelsea and across London.
We work with children growing up in bilingual and predominantly English-speaking environments, from the early years through to more advanced Russian and GCSE preparation.
Our programme develops:
spoken Russian and vocabulary · reading · writing · literature · communication
through structured lessons, books, creative projects, games and shared experiences.
For children whose stronger language is English, we offer a gentle pathway into Russian with an initial focus on speech development, comprehension and active vocabulary, helping children build confidence before gradually moving towards more complex language and literacy.
Our aim is not simply for children to study Russian.
We want them to be able to live part of their lives in Russian — to speak, read, think, create, make friends and express themselves with confidence.
A final thought for parents
If your child understands Russian but answers in English, don't measure the future of their Russian by today's dinner-table conversation.
There is already something valuable to build on.
Keep speaking.
Keep reading.
Give them the words they are missing.
Create reasons to use those words.
Give Russian more people, more places and more experiences.
Because a language becomes stronger when it becomes useful, social and meaningful.
And sometimes the biggest change happens when Russian stops being the language a parent is trying to preserve — and becomes a language the child begins to feel is their own.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it normal for a bilingual child to understand Russian but answer in English?
It can be common in families where Russian is the heritage language and English is the dominant language outside the home. Understanding and active speaking develop differently, and a child may understand considerably more Russian than they spontaneously use.
Is my child forgetting Russian?
Not necessarily. Strong comprehension provides an important foundation. However, regular Russian input and opportunities to actively use the language are important if families want spoken Russian to continue developing.
Should I make my child answer me in Russian?
Rather than turning every English response into a correction, try maintaining Russian yourself, supplying missing vocabulary and creating situations in which the child has a meaningful reason to speak.
Can a Russian school help a bilingual child speak more Russian?
A good programme can provide additional language input, structured vocabulary development and, importantly, opportunities to communicate with teachers and other children. The quality of the programme and the amount of meaningful interaction matter.
Where is Artopolis Academy?
Artopolis Academy is a Russian school in Chelsea, London, near Sloane Square, offering Russian language and literature education for children growing up in bilingual and English-speaking environments.
22.09.2026