When we talk about multilingualism, we often talk in theories: about language acquisition, critical periods, language input, or cognitive benefits.
But what does it really mean to live across languages, to raise children who call more than one language “home” – or sometimes, none at all?
When I came across the video by Brooke Alexx the other day, I had to write about it. It is a very touching song, but also sad, as she thinks that she missed the chance to learn Japanese and about one of her heritage cultures. The feeling she shares in this song is what every
How multilinguals can adopt the Dominant Language Constellation to explain their language use.
Multilingual Parents are often keen to speak several languages with their children and can’t wait to introduce more languages. In the end: the sooner the better, right? Well, not really. If we shower our children with a lot of languages from early on, without them needing them it can become a challenge to maintain them.
Children love cartoons, movies, games and we all know that the villains, the “bad guys” are not only characterized by features that make them unpleasant, but also by foreign accents. Sociolinguist Calvin Gidney started to study language patterns in animated kid’s entertainment after noticing that Mufasa had an American accent, whereas Scar, the lion of the
When I saw this interview with Roger Federer the other day, I couldn’t resist but share it in my facebook group Multilingual Families. It is a perfect example for why, when we use our language in international settings, we shouldn’t assume that sayings, metaphors (and abbreviations!) are universal. https://twitter.com/thefield_in/status/1409944054020722693?s=20 In this particular example,
Did you know that languages we acquired from infancy or learned later can be re-activated at any time? Even if we have the impression that we forgot all that we knew before, the process of reactivating them can be compared with muscle memory that allows us to ride a bike after years we didn’t practice,
Like many people who regularly use more than one language, I have some words I use in an incorrect way because the same – or similar – form of the word has a different meaning in another language I speak. Native speakers would probably not make those mistakes, but I personally consider them as an
When Marilyn Gardner asked me to write an article for the September 2019 issue of Among Worlds, Communication: our languages and lexicons I couldn’t resist writing about the gift of multilingualism. I am very honored to see my article published in this magazine dedicated to so many important topics for internationals! – Thank you, Marilyn
There are numerous language scenarios for multilingual children living abroad, i.e. outside of both, or one of their parents countries of provenance (or origin), since there are many different degrees of fluency for the single languages spoken at home, language preferences, and languages might be mixed within the home. Parents might speak the community and/or