Get your child speaking the minority language more actively right now!
Quick quiz! What is the one all-important and universal thing when it comes to successfully raising a bilingual child? (In fact, this is probably the only thing that’s actually universal for families worldwide and, without it, there’s no chance of success at all!)
Adam Beck, bestselling author of the books Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability and Bilingual Success Stories Around the World, shares the simple, playful—and surprisingly powerful—strategy that can produce an exciting breakthrough for the greater success and joy of your family’s bilingual or multilingual journey
I’m happy to report that a new and very positive review has just been published about my book Bilingual Success Stories Around the World! In fact, it’s three reviews in one because they appear on the Kletsheads podcast, where three reviewers with expertise in child bilingualism discuss the book
Last month my daughter was 6. Next month she’ll be 19. Now, factually, I know this isn’t true, but it certainly feels that way. As mindful as I tried to be when it came to the passing of time, day by day, in the end my kids have still grown into young adults much faster than I ever imagined. Today let me emphasize this key idea by sharing a few journal entries from a little 6-year-old girl
X’unei Lance Twitchell, professor of Alaska Native Languages and language revitalization advocate, once said, “Our language is everything. It’s the air we breathe. It’s the blood that flows through our veins” (as cited in Ohle & Bartels, 2016, p. 2). I did not come to understand the depth and beauty of these words until the end of my parents’ lives
Over the many years I’ve been working with bilingual and multilingual families, I’ve sought to support parents with ideas and encouragement for maintaining momentum and overcoming difficulties. Through a range of ways—through this blog, through my forum, through my books, through email and social media, through workshops and consulting sessions, and now through my new private coaching program
I know I haven’t posted anything at this blog in a while, but there are two very good reasons for this
In case you missed it, here’s the video of my recent appearance at Raising Multilinguals Live where I share the “inside story” of my work supporting bilingual and multilingual families over the past 30 years
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
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
Victor and Olya may have grown up on opposite sides of the Earth, but their mutual love of languages ultimately brought them together somewhere in between, in a small city in the American heartland. They both had studied German and shared a mutual interest in the mechanics of German
