Today I have the pleasure to introduce you to another lovely multilingual family! Mum Bernadette, dad Sam and their 18-month-old daughter Lily live in Barcelona in Spain. Bernadette was born in France to British parents, Sam is British and their daughter is growing up...
Multilingual Family with Italian and Dutch in Luxembourg
I am delighted to introduce you to another multilingual family: Giovanna’s lovely family from Luxembourg. Giovanna is Italian by birth and her husband is Flemish (Belgian from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). They have two children (nine and ten years old) who...
Pen pals open the world, keep friends close and bring joy
I remember it like yesterday, the first letter I received from my South Korean pen friend Yong-Suk. I was 14 and it felt like a miracle: A young boy, on the other side of the world had sat down, picked out his writing pad, put pen to paper and talked to me about who...
Multilingual families – why a child might grow up monolingual
I love the African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” - for the purpose of the topic at hand, I would like to expand it to “It takes two villages to raise a bilingual child”. This is of course not strictly true, but it does describe the need for extra...
Professor François Grosjean – on bilingualism, language mode and identity
https://youtu.be/Ky4nzxpeNAU 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,...
Top tips for motivating bilingual children to speak their languages
Choosing the topic for this month’s Raising Multilingual Children blogging carnival was actually very easy. “What do parents ask me most about?” I pondered and instantly I thought “How to motivate my child to speak the minority language?” My fellow bloggers – who all...
Motivating a bilingual child: Pricken the Swedish-speaking kitten
“How to motivate my child to speak the minority language?” is one of the most frequently asked questions to our panel of Family Language Coaches. This challenge will also be the topic of the up-coming Raising Multilingual Children blogging carnival, which I will host...
12 рэчаў, якія павінны ведаць бацькі, што выхоўваюць двухмоўных дзяцей
1 – Гэта не здараецца раптоўна як у казцы Дзеці не становяцца двухмоўнымі “раптоўна як у казцы”. Існуе ўстойлівы міф, паводле якога “дзеткі нібыта губкі, што датычыцца мовы”, і яны вывучаць усе мовы, якія чуюць рэгулярна. Але гэта проста няпраўда. Так, пры правільных...
Why language skills matter – to me, you and our children, and the world
“Why have you chosen to write about bilingual children and languages, surely there are more important things in the world – why don’t you write about how important science is?” – this is a question I once got in a comment. The simple answer is – I believe I know quite...
My bilingual parenting journey – no regrets but a few I-wish-I-had-knowns
I am very happy with how my daughters have grown up to speak several languages, and I am looking forward to supporting the coming generation of our family in the quest of learning to speak more than one language. Looking back, there are certainly a few things I would...









