The amazing ways being bilingual affects the brain. Learn about it in this infographic.
Judith Thurman on what hyperpolyglots can teach the rest of us.
Learn about supporting MLs in the mainstream classroom. Start with creating a welcoming classroom enviorment and putting language supports in place.
Sleep has a more powerful role in language-learning than was previously thought. What does this reveal about our night-time brain?
This book introduces a framework for examining bilingual identity and presents the cases of seven individual children from a study of young students bilingual identities in an Australian primary school. The new Bilingual Identity Negotiation Framework brings together three elements that influence bilingual identity development - sociocultural connection,…
Welcome to the second instalment of our blogging carnival on raising multilingual children. Cordelia, aka the Multilingual Mama, did a great job last month to get us started with the new version of this blogging carnival. Her issue was full of great posts with tips and ideas. As this month's host, I thought I'd reiterate my thanks to Letizia from Bilingue per gicoco who started this amazing community. As she went on to bigger and better projects, I was sad to loose this monthly contact with amazing bloggers. So, I decided to take the matter in my own hands and together with the help and support from Cordelia and Jen (from Perogies & Gyoza) got it started again. We had no theme this month as I wanted to give the opportunity to everybody to submit an article. This means we have A LOT of brilliant articles. The bloggers below share their passion, tips and difficulties in raising children learning more than one language at the time. Be sure to visit your favourite ones, the ones whose story resonate with you and the ones you have never 'virtually' met. As bloggers we love comments, so please leave them a word or two. Resources & tips Image from Multilingual Mama Sarah from Bringing up baby Bilingual shares a brilliant idea for a card game for her son to practice his French (with a great egg carton recycling idea). I loved those very practical tips. Cordelia, aka the Multilingual Mama, shares how a puppet helped her daughter overcome her reluctance at speaking French at home. I can vouch for this. We have tried it and it is amazing how kids respond to a puppet. Jay at All this Chinoiserie (love this title), has compiled a great list of resources for Mandarin learning. It is his first appearance in the carnival, so please show him some love. Stephanie from InCultureParent gives us 5 games to try and make our children talk. I found this especially good for minority language play. Adam from Bilingual Monkeys, explains how complicated poems and texts are great seeds to be planted in children's head and how we shouldn't worry about them not understanding every single word. Amanda, aka Miss Panda Chinese, shares her five best tips for multilingual parenting. I especially loved her last one to "be like water"! Language development Image from The Paris Busy Bee Blog Maria from the Paris Busy Bee blog shares how her children (and probably a lot of other multilingual kids) are different (in a cute way) from other kids. Leanna from All Done Monkey wrote a guest post on The European Mama's site about how her son is starting to correct his dad's non-native English. I guess all non-native speakers will go through this with their kids. My husband just did too! Stephen from The Head of the Heard, feels his son is about to have a breakthrough in language skills development and shares what it is like. Such an exciting time for any parent! My own post is here and it is about the myth claiming that your child needs 30% exposure time to his minority language and how it does not work for us. Family strategies Image from LadydeeLG Mercedes at Project Procrastinot explains how her perfectionism can sometimes stop her from doing what she knows is best for her children and how difficult it can be to change language habits. She had me saying, oh yes all the way through. Nicole from Simulated Immersion updates us on her (very cute) son's development and explains how she is creating her own little immersion situation in her own home and improving her own language skills. I can but be so amazed by her determination. Diana from LadydeeLG writes how a couple of words may mark the beginning of her son's language dominance and what her family is trying to counter-balance it. Oh, the slippery slope I know all too well. Ute, from Expat since birth, explains how she and her husband chose the language to speak their child(ren). Not an easy decision when you are multilingual yourself. Olga, aka The European Mama, shares her thoughts on the term 'Mother Tongue' and what it means to us as parents of multilingual kids. This is an issue I am sure we all wonder about: how will our kids describe their mother tongue? Jeanne at Soul Travelers 3, explains how she and her family are creating an immersion situation through travel for their daughter to learn Spanish. She is also a first-timer on the carnival and we are so glad to have her. Multilingualism in society Esther from Third Culture Mama, explains the language tiers idea: a language that is important to you may not be to the society around you and how French in particular is viewed in the USA. Very informative post that got me thinking about our own languages statuses. Multiculturalism Image from MotherTonguesBlog Michelle from Mother Tongues blog shares her thoughts on how biculturalism may (or may not) be associated with bilingualism. It is not always the case that both go hand in hand but it is an important aspect of our children's life we should think about too. Souad from BabelKid wrote a lovely article about how her children may not experience her culture in the same way as she did/does. Watch out readers! She almost made me cry. Go and fetch a box of tissues before you click if you are an expat missing home or are having an off-day! Becky from Kid World Citizen, wrote a post on Spanglish Baby about how nicknames are common and inherent to the Latino culture but thought offensive or misunderstood by other communities. ******************************* If you have made it this far, well done. To find out more about the blogging carnival, have a look here and join us next month when the carnival will be hosted by Leanna at All Done Monkey.
Prettiest cities in Belgium, including Dinant, Bruges, Ghent, Leuven, Mons, Antwerpen, and Durbuy.
Blog post explosion! I went from 2 months of no posts to 2 posts in 1 day! You’re welcome. I would normally wait a day or so to add a second post, but this feels too important to wait. In the…
I just found this list this week about how to be German. Now, while this is just a bit of fun, I think it is spot on! These characteristics are things we have noticed about the Germans. It is what makes them lovely or annoying (depending on what you like). Some of those habits we have already got used to and have taken on ourselves as a family. http://store.hipstery.com/collections/how-to-be-german I am just going to comment on some of the things we have found to be true so far. Put on your house shoes Germans do wear slippers or house shoes whenever indoors. Kindergarten kids wear slippers. They even have pairs of slippers for guests. While we don't necessarily wear house shoes at home (we like the barefoot look), we do wear some much more often than in our previous house. Eat a long breakfast (Source: Deutsch perfekt (10/2012), Illustration : Bernhard Förth) Breakfast is a very important meal in Germany. And it is not just for the Sunday brunch (which takes the whole day)! Get some insurances Germans have insurances for everything. And a lot of people have insurance advisers. This is one we don't really understand! It comes down to being prepared and safe but we thought the Germans were sensible people! Dress seriously There is a German saying that says that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. It is true in Germany! If you are going outdoors, dress for the outdoors. You cannot overdo it in Germany: hiking boots, trousers that zip into shorts, expensive outdoor jacket,... On our daughter's list of kit needed for kindergarten was: rain jacket, rain trousers, snowsuit, etc. Obey the red man Oh dear God yes! Do not cross the road on red. You will get looks murdering you and even could get shouted at (even if there is nobody on the road). Drink Apfelsaftschorle It is basically apple juice with sparkling water. Love it! Say what you mean Germans are very direct. They will tell you if you look fat, ugly or look rough. And they will be direct about it. They will not say it in a polite way or by going around the issue. Love your car Cars are all immaculate here and relatively new. There are few beaten up old cars. Do nothing on Sundays Sundays are dead even in a city. Apparently Germans do housework in the morning and go for a walk in the afternoon. Suits me fine (apart form the housework bit).
"Nowadays, more and more monolingual parents are deciding to expose their children to a second language, whether it is from their own teachings or an outside instructor or caregiver, like an au pair....
Are you planning a trip to Germany or a German-speaking country? Here are the essential phrases any traveler will want to learn.
The German alphabet contains the 30 letters. 26 from the English Alphabet plus the Extra letters ä, ö, ü and ß. Learn German Language Alphabet
Multilinguals' "They Didn't Realize I Understood Them" Stories - The internet has generated a huge amount of laughs from cats and FAILS. And we all out of cats.
1 Wort = 11 Bedeutungen
A couple of days I ago I asked readers to help me out by suggesting video clips from movies and television that would demonstrate the importance of being bilingual. I’m creating a lesson plan…
Guten tag = Danish?
Learn how to show your gratitude in 12 different languages with this quick and easy infographic.
🇩🇪 🇩🇪 Common Separable Verbs with "machen" 🇩🇪 🇩🇪
25 useful German phrases with the word 'doch' to help you win an argument that you can or will do something or telling the other person what to do.
Welcome to my little place where you will see all my obsessions... ㅋㅋ
