Across the world, multilingual families are navigating rapidly changing linguistic landscapes. Children grow up in multicultural societies, in homes where several languages coexist, and in classrooms that reflect a global mosaic.
When you raise your children away from your homeland, you quickly realize that the task is not only to keep a language alive. For many of us, it is about passing on a whole world of feelings and identity.
Parenting styles differ significantly across cultures, and starting a family in Norway or moving there with kids can bring unexpected adjustments. Norwegians are known for their child-centered, independent, nature-focused, and relaxed approach to discipline and parenting.
Whilst living abroad we can learn and immerse ourselves in a new culture and language, but how can we maintain our other languages?
Against the common advice, backed up by countless research that states that parents should speak their L1 – first language – with their children, it is time to explain why this is not always the best solution for multilingual parents. I think there is an important misunderstanding leading to many parents doubting about the decisions
Families who live internationally, i.e. who spend several of their children’s developmental years in another country, and whose home languages are different from the communities they live in, usually struggle to pass on their home languages. Especially if these are not English. – This is not an assumption, this is a fact. I observed this
Speech therapy and multilingual children is a topic that needs more attention and research, and speech therapists, teachers and health practitioners need to be more informed about it. When I shared articles and best practices about this in facebook groups, I had very interesting feedback and discussions on- and offline, and in personal chats. It
When moving to the Netherlands with family, one of the first things internationals want to find is a school for their children. Although very mobile families tend to prefer international schools, but more and more choose to send their children to local schools. In this article for ACCESS magazine (issue Spring 2019) I shared some aspects
If you are a multilingual, is your home language your most dominant language? Something that surprises me when I read about language policies in schools and elsewhere is, that it is always assumed that people – children and adults – are most proficient, i.e. most fluent, in their home language. This might be correct for
Many internationals end up talking another language with their child than the one they chose at the beginning. There are different reasons for this: – They live in a country where their mother tongue is not recognized as an important (= prestigious enough…) language, i.e. it is not supported by the school and society, and