Most Recent Posts
Guest Post: The Multilingual, Multicultural Life of a Third Culture Kid
The life of a Third Culture Kid (TCK) can be fraught with the challenges of speaking one or more (often, minority) languages and straddling two or more cultures. When a family with a TCK finds itself moving across countries frequently, this adds more complexity to the family dynamic in terms of language and communication. Like many families out there, our family has had to respond to these complexities each time we have moved. And we have moved countries three times
All the Crazy Mischief I’ll Be Making in 2020
Friends, I hope the new year has begun well for you and your family and that you enjoy a lot of rewarding progress on your bilingual or multilingual journey in 2020! The many resources I offer are always available to you and, beyond that, I’m just an email away! For me, it looks like 2020 will be a busy year of mischief making because I’ve decided to focus as fully as I can on my work in the field of
I Did Something the Other Day That I Thought I’d Never Do
The other day I took my son to the library. No, going to the library isn’t the thing I thought I’d never do. In fact, I used to go to the library all the time—every week, like clockwork—to borrow books to read to my kids. So it isn’t the library itself—it’s why we went to the library. For the sake of the minority language The library is downtown, sitting in a small park, and the parking lot is some distance
Guest Post: Non-native Speakers Can Bring Up Bilingual Kids, Too!
Though my husband and I are Polish, and we live in Poland—a largely monolingual country—the language that we use with our two children is English. Because we believe strongly that bilingualism is so beneficial, we think it’s worth pursuing even if your knowledge of the target language isn’t “inborn” but acquired. In other words… Non-native speakers can bring up bilingual kids, too! And I’m happy to say that we’re experiencing success at our bilingual aim. The other night I was
This Is the Bottom Line for Success at Raising Bilingual Kids
Two threads of my life, both of them months in the making, have suddenly come together with the same message. The first thread involves my 15-year-old daughter and an English speech contest (recitation contest) that took place on Saturday. This event was the culmination of a long process that began in the spring, when her English teacher at school encouraged her to take part. When Lulu, now in her third and last year of junior high at a public school
Guest Post: How a Monolingual Family Became a Bilingual Family
Konnichiwa! (That’s hello in Japanese!) If you had met me four years ago, I could only have greeted you in English and (maybe) Spanish…from the few Spanish words I learned from sleeping through my Spanish class in high school. I wasn’t interested in learning another language and never realized the opportunities and depth that can come with it. Moving to Japan I am—well, was—a monolingual mom from a completely monolingual family. We’re a military family and, to our dismay—at least
