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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
These days I regularly consult with parents about their bilingual or multilingual aim and, during these conversations, I have the chance to look back at my own journey with my kids and the things that have been most central to our success. While it’s certainly true that every family’s experience is different, and so our efforts should always be tailored as effectively as possible to our own particular situation, I do think there are some very basic and very powerful principles that apply to us all
I recently shared Marta Garcia’s encouraging guest post Our Successful Playgroup for Minority Language Families and thought I would now follow up by offering the full story of her rewarding experience raising three bilingual children. Her family’s story, along with the inspiring, in-depth stories of 25 other families, is featured in Bilingual Success Stories Around the World: Parents Raising Multilingual Kids Share Their Experiences and Encouragement.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Dolores Guiñazú, the executive director of Lift Value, a company that provides a range of helpful language services to clients worldwide. Dolores also offers a very thoughtful podcast called Attitudeable and I was honored to join her to share my personal perspective on raising bilingual children.
Recently, at The Bilingual Zoo forum, I responded to a parent’s concerns about their bilingual journey by offering the metaphor that I’ll share today. A blog post on this theme feels like a good way to begin a new year that will hopefully be very fruitful for your bilingual or multilingual aim with your kids.
Bearded dragon is a quiet, mild-mannered little lizard when others are around. But when this spunky reptile is home alone, it’s a very different story! Let the mischief-making begin in this joyful wordless picture book, a fun-filled romp for kids and grown-ups alike!
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
I recently spoke again with Amanda Hsiung Blodgett, popularly known as Miss Panda Chinese, about our experiences raising bilingual children. Our first conversation (that video is also below) took place four years ago
