What makes a good bilingual book for children? I get a lot of requests from various companies to partner on my blog, or to have me promote their services or products. I rarely do so, because I rarely find anything worth sharing. But every once and a while I get an email about a … Continue reading Being Bilingual with Betty and Cat books
Category: Bilingualism benefits
Raising Bilingual (or multilingual!) Children: 6 building blocks for success (May 18)
Next parent seminar in Amsterdam coming up! If you are raising your children with more than one language (or thinking about it), come along and find out the six building blocks for a successful Family Language Plan. This seminar has been developed over a decade of working with bilingual/multilingual families and packs in theoretical background … Continue reading Raising Bilingual (or multilingual!) Children: 6 building blocks for success (May 18)
Privilege and Paradox in Bilingual Education
A few weeks ago I sat down with Donna Bardsley at Amsterdam Mamas, to record a podcast on bilingualism and bilingual education. The topics ranged from my own experience raising three kids with three languages, to the more complex, and compelling, issue of how language status affects children who are becoming bilingual. I've written about … Continue reading Privilege and Paradox in Bilingual Education
When Family Languages are in Conflict
A different language is a different vision of life. Federico Fellini The vast majority of families I have worked with over the years have been in agreement about the decision to raise their children as bilingual/multilingual. Usually they come to me for family language planning advice because they want to "get it right" and ensure … Continue reading When Family Languages are in Conflict
Recovering heritage languages: rediscovering your “whole self”
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about why "heritage" languages are important, which came out of conversations with families trying to pass on a language with little "usefulness" but great emotional significance. Some of the most emotional stories I've heard over the years have been from adults who should have been raised bilingual, … Continue reading Recovering heritage languages: rediscovering your “whole self”
Keeping the window open: why “heritage” languages are important too
I feel like I can not be half of myself. I've heard variations of those words so many times over my career as a consultant, from adults all over the world, all referencing the fact that they do not speak the language of one (or both) of their parents. Many of them are children of … Continue reading Keeping the window open: why “heritage” languages are important too
Supporting Mother Tongue (everyone’s!) at school
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” ― Nelson Mandela I've been really excited to write this post for the International Mother Language Day campaign, because this topic is at the heart … Continue reading Supporting Mother Tongue (everyone’s!) at school
#IMLD: Supporting languages at school
I wrote this post at the end of the school year last year, the first year my children attended a European School. As both a professional in the field of bilingualism and as a parent of bilingual children, it was a year of reflection and growth for me in my understandings of a truly … Continue reading #IMLD: Supporting languages at school
Being Bilingual: Words I like from other languages
One of the best thing about being bilingual is being able to pick and choose le juste mot - to say exactly what you want to say. Some of the greatest words in language relate to how people think and see the world, so it follows that some things just can't be said "right" in … Continue reading Being Bilingual: Words I like from other languages
