I am so excited to share with you an interview I did earlier on this month. Thank you to Olena Centeno, one of the co-founders of Bilingual Kids Rock, who did all the hard work for this interview. [audio...
Multilingual Parenting 2013 Highlights
Here are some of the many highlights of my first blogging year: Started blog It’s hard to believe that almost a year has passed since I started this blog – it seems to have gone so quickly… time does fly when you are having fun! What a year it has been – I have learnt...
Thoughts to boost the confidence of parents bringing up bilingual children
Most parents have an ideal picture of what they want their children to become like when they grow up. Some parents are more specific than others with regards to the personality traits and behaviours they wish for their children, but I’m sure words like ‘happy’,...
When grandparents have no common language with their grandchildren
We live in a time when an increasing number of people and families move from one part of the world to another, thereby crossing not only geographical but cultural and language borders. Quite often children grow up in a different country from their grandparents and it...
Language and culture – integral parts of a bilingual child’s identity
“… language is paramount for children to become socialized and develop a sense of belonging within cultural settings” This is a quote from an article from a Japanese magazine about the importance of passing on the culture of a language alongside the language itself....
Minority language parent – well done for bringing up a bilingual child!
Today, as on the 6th of November every year, the “Finland Swedish Heritage Day” is celebrated in my home country. On this day all things to do with the Swedish-speaking part of Finland is brought to attention and appreciated. I am one of the Finns who state Swedish as...
Creating your own traditions is important for the multicultural family
We’re in that part of the year when people all over the world are celebrating lots of different traditions: Halloween, Diwali, Eid and Dia de los Muertos to mention a few. Of course I have to include my favourite since moving to England: Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes...
Why I decided to write a book on bringing up bilingual children
By now you may be aware that I am in the process of writing a book on passing on the family languages to your child. Writing a book on the topic of raising your child to speak more than one language has been on my mind for quite a while, but the time has never been...
“My children only speak the majority language with each other!”
So you have successfully passed on your language to your children and they are happy to talk your language with you. Maybe they have also spoken your language amongst themselves up to now. Then the language pattern changes and they switch to the majority language....
Will the third generation always lose the home country language?
Is the statement “First generation speaks, second understands and third loses the language” really true? Are third generation immigrants bound to lose the language of their family's home country? Is it even possible to keep passing on the language from one generation...