This week’s topic is another manifestation of bilingual living: translanguaging. If you look up the term in Wikipedia, it is described as “the dynamic process whereby multilingual language users mediate complex social and cognitive activities through strategic employment of multiple semiotic resources to act, to know and to be” Clear? For linguists maybe, but not […]

Fantastic interview with Professor François Grosjean, my all-time favourite specialist on bilingualism, conducted by Fabrice Jaumont, Education Attaché at the Cultural Services in New York. The video is brimming with useful information, to-the-point observations and helpful advice on raising bilingual children, not forgetting interesting insights into Professor Grosjean’s own bilingual background. The interview lasts about […]

Every single child is lovable and should be loved, just for existing in this world. Today, my list is about the specific lovability factor of bilingual children, as they are my favourite topic: Create and maintain relationships The more languages bilingual children know, the wider their network of contacts is. By learning their family languages children […]

Throughout history bilingual people have been (and still are) asked some fairly silly questions. What if the shoe was on the other foot – what questions could we as bilinguals ask? 1 – What have you done to cure your monolingualism? Bilingual people have been classed as strange and some people have wanted to shield […]

Every child is good at something and as parents we love seeing our children do well. Bilingual children have an added advantage in different situations in their lives – and they often get really good, and – depending on their personality – sometimes cheeky with their language skills. 1. Correct their parents’ language Children in […]

This post is also available in the following languages (click on the picture to read the post). More translations to follow: 1 – It doesn’t happen by magic Children do not become bilingual “by magic”. There is a persistent myth claiming that “children are like sponges when it comes to language” and that they will […]

I have been reading many articles on the benefits of bilingualism lately and I decided to gather some of the best ones into one post and share them with you. This is one of my favourite topics, so I have already written about it on different occasions: how languages have helped me in my career, my […]

Today I am starting a four part A-B-C for all you parents passing on your languages to your children – or maybe you are planning to do so, but haven’t quite made up your mind yet. A is for Advantages The list of benefits that accompanies being bilingual is long, ranging from the obvious one […]

When you have always been bilingual, like I have, you quite often take it for granted and forget how important an aspect it is in your life. So today I want to shout from the rooftops (or tweet from the top of a tree) the first 20 reasons for being thankful for all the languages […]

While picking some juicy blackberries in the back garden for my breakfast cereal, I noticed how well the pears are coming on this year and will soon also be ready for my morning muesli. Except for cutting the brambles back once in a while, it hasn’t required much effort from me to get these delicacies. […]