ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the experience of three close friends - Katrina, Nhung and Nary - who were arguably the most popular girls in their year level. These three were highly engaged with school, extra-curricular activities and Australian peer culture, while living home lives that made frequent use of heritage languages and attendant cultural practices. Indeed, the chapter shows that the girls felt that the experience of negotiating the disconnect between their parents’ norms and values and those of the Australian mainstream was one of the things that draws them together as friends. A key theme of the chapter is the ways in which incidental heritage language use becomes relevant in their peer culture and daily lives and the value that the girls ascribe to these easy-to-overlook instances of multilingualism.
