The Language Brokers

Millions of children play a vital but often overlooked role in their families, helping their parents translate everything from job applications to medical documents into their native language. These children, known as language brokers, help parents navigate a completely alien culture. 

Professor Su Yeong Kim in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences researches language brokers and is exploring the impact of the experience on children.

“One set of scholars feel that no child should be asked to do this type of activity because it’s too stressful, cognitively too demanding and too much to ask of a child,” Kim said. “This is something that has implications for the survival of the family.”

But Kim’s own experience growing up aligns with some research that finds there are benefits of being a language broker. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was 9 years old, and she helped her parents run the family dry-cleaning business, as well as tackle tasks like securing a mortgage. She says it helped her develop confidence, sharper thinking and financial skills, something the research indicates can occur.

“It really helped me have a stronger bond with my parents,” she said, “because I was helping them and because they were always relying on me.”

Kim now is conducting a long-term study in Central Texas to tease out which factors influence whether a child has a positive or negative experience being a language broker.

To hear Su Yeong Kim explain the research in her own words, listen to our podcast feature with her.

Millions of children in the U.S. play a vital, but often overlooked, role in their families. These children of immigrants, known as “language brokers,” help their parents translate job applications, medical documents and bills into their native language. They also help them navigate a completely alien culture. Researchers like Su Yeong Kim, in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, are debating whether being a language broker is good for children, or not. About Point of Discovery Point of Discovery is a production of the University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Sciences. You can listen to all our episodes at @point-of-discovery . You can also subscribe via iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/point-of-discovery-podcast/id1036884430?mt=2 or via our RSS feed: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:150441582/sounds.rss or via Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/point-of-discovery or via Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Igc5ifenl2bn7e5n2klmrwah7qq?t=Point_of_Discovery Questions or comments about this episode, or our series in general? Email Marc Airhart at mairhart[AT]austin.utexas.edu