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Why „home“ is not a geographical location for TCK’s
When asked where their home is, TCK’s (Third Culture Kids) usually don’t know what to answer. And this is not because they don’t know where they feel „at home“, but because they can’t specify one – and...
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When there’s a will there’s a way to become a multilingual
If you really want to become a multilingual, you will succeed. You probably know about the girl (Mabou Loiseau) who speaks 7 languages. This case did provoke all sorts of reactions from linguists,...
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When you end up talking another language with your kids…
When you are multilingual and start having kids, you have to choose which language you’ll talk to your children. Linguists always recommend to talk your “mothertongue” to you children. But which is the...
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One year expatsincebirth
Yes, today is my blogs’ first anniversary! It’s been exactly a year since I published my first post and I have to say that I really enjoyed writing every single post. I’ve started blogging one year...
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How many languages can a child learn?
Have you ever wondered how many languages a child can learn at once or if there is a ‘window’ of opportunity? Can it ever be “too late” to learn another language? Can we learn multiple languages at any...
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Is “saudade” really untranslatable?
The conventional wisdom is that the Portuguese term saudade doesn’t have an equivalent in any other language. But according to an entry in wikipedia, there are quasy-synonyms in several languages....
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How to cope with repatriation
When you are returning to your passport country after you’ve spent some time abroad you may not really feel “at home”. Expats generally learn to adapt to their host locations and in the most positive...
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European Day of Languages 2013
Linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. Today, throughout Europe we celebrate the European...
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Some multimedia resources for (my) multilingual and multicultural children…
We all know that the best way to help our children become (and stay!) multilingual is by talking the languages we want them to become proficient in as often as we can and by providing an attractive...
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Sea Change Mentoring: Symposium on Supporting Global Youth
Ellen Mahoney, Sea Change Mentoring (©expatsincebirth) Today I attended a very interesting Sea Change Mentoring Symposium on Supporting Global Youth “Addressing Assets and Challenges”, organised by...
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How we learn and memorize new words
Everyone has a very personal way to learn a language. Some of us just learn by repeating what they hear, others need to learn the structure, the grammar in order to consolidate the new language. Every...
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Can we learn a new language only by listening?
We all know this situation: we understand a language but are not able (yet) to communicate in it. This passive knowledge of the language, which involves already many levels (phonology, morphology,...
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Giving the classroom a good VAK (a brief introduction to the VAK model of...
I’m very glad and thankful that Ken from WriteOutLoud and KenThinksOutLoud did agree on writing this post and sharing his very precious experiences with the VAK learning style model here. *** Recently,...
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Mothertongue, first language, native language or dominant language?
In the strictest sense, we all have a mothertongue as we all have only one (biological) mother. – But does this mean that the language our mother did talk to us is automatically our mother tongue? What...
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Today is International Mother Language Day!
Today is a day where we all those who are “involved in multilingualism, whether personally or professionally, should stop and consider where they can make a difference”, like Eowyn Crisfield suggests...
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What is your “madeleine”?
Do you know that feeling when the smell of something or listening to music brings you back in time, reminds you of happy moments spent with dear friends or family? Smells and sounds have this effect on...
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8 things to say to a bilingual
This post is somehow a response in a dialogical way, to the brilliant post by Rita Rosenback “7 things you should not say to a bilingual child“. I did experience some of the 7 things she listed up and...
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Why reading aloud is important
We usually tend to read less to our children when they start reading by themselves. It’s such a big milestone to be able to read everything from the ingredients on the food-packages, the countless...
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Why reading aloud is important: a challenge with English
In addition to my post about the importance of reading aloud, I would like to make an example for English. Every non-native speaker will struggle with the pronunciation of English and sooner or later...
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Monolingual parents and bilingual children?
Many parents wonder if they can succeed in raising their children bilingually. Most of the studies of the ’60-’80 about bilingualism were about monolingual parents who wanted their children to become...
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