What Languages Do Gad Saad's Children Speak?

Gad Saad's children speak only two languages, French and English. His wife speaks neither Arabic nor Hebrew, and he does not speak Armenian. Speaking a language the other parent does not know would lock that parent out, so the couple used only the two languages they both speak.

Saad moved from Lebanon to Canada as a child. He calls it one of his only parental regrets that the children speak neither Arabic nor Hebrew nor Armenian, though his wife's family speaks Armenian. He says they could have taught the children five languages and failed them miserably. Asked whether the children regret it and hate him, Saad says he thinks maybe a bit more his son than his daughter, since the son keeps insisting that Saad speak Arabic to him. Teaching has to feel natural, he says. Once children become cognizant, explaining what cup is in Arabic feels constrained, and he thinks they might have passed the window.

Katie Miller asked if the missing languages came from trying to anglicize the children, after noting his warnings about the death of the West and cultural choices she calls wokeism and leftism. Saad says no. The answer is a lot more banal than that: each parent would have been locked out of the other's family language, so they spoke French and English.