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Babies

Forget Fluency! Instead, Make This Your Goal When Raising Bilingual Kids.

This year my daughter, now 18, has taken two English proficiency tests. (English is her minority language; Japanese is her majority language.) The first was the highest level of the EIKEN seven-level test, which is widely used in Japan and is essentially a pass-or-fail sort of exam. And the second test, because she’s now applying to university programs in Japan that emphasize English, was the TOEFL

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Bilingual Success Stories #7: Non-Native Parents of English Raise Actively English-Speaking Kids

The bilingual journey of this Spanish family is an encouraging example, in a number of ways, of non-native parents nurturing early success. It shows that, despite being non-native speakers of the target language who acknowledge shortcomings in their own language skills, Cristina and Pedro have nevertheless been able to generate significant progress in their children’s bilingual ability through their attitude and actions. And even when faced with difficulties along the way

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MY NEW BOOK: “Bilingual Success Stories Around the World”

At long last, after three years of work, my new book has been published! I’m thrilled with how it turned out and I’d love for you to read it! Here’s how the book is described… Bilingual Success Stories Around the World: Parents Raising Multilingual Kids Share Their Experiences and Encouragement is a real-life roadmap to greater success and joy for any parent raising bilingual or multilingual children. Written by Adam Beck

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Dear Diary: I Bet It Would Be Cool to Be Bilingual!

Dear Diary, So here I am. Six weeks in the womb. And I’m bored silly. I mean, there’s not much to do in here besides grow. I can’t even start kicking until I have legs. That’ll be kind of fun, I guess, but so far this life stuff has been really dull. No TV, no video games, no nothing. So I’m starting this diary

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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

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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

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NEW! The Perfect Book for Parents Raising Bilingual Kids

Just in time for Christmas! I WANT TO BE BILINGUAL! is the perfect book for parents—especially new parents and parents of younger kids—who dream of raising bilingual or multilingual children. Written by Adam Beck, author of the popular guide Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability, this playful book is a unique “picture book for adults” with delightful illustrations by Pavel Goldaev. Narrated by a lively baby, the book emphasizes the most important information parents need for realizing joyful success on a

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Reflections on My Five Weeks in Europe, Part 4: The Sweet Joy of Playing with Small Children

The adorable three-year-old girl was sitting on the stairs, telling me all about her “babies”—her dolls and stuffed animals that were adorned with band-aids (“plasters” she called them, in the British English she spoke) because, she said, they were ill or had gotten injured. And at that moment, in my very first homestay of the trip, I flashed on my own daughter when she was the same small, incredibly-cute age and I suddenly missed that time terribly. A large lump

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