In part 2 of my interview with Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold, we get into the details of her family's languages and how a multilingual family actually interacts on a day-to-day basis. She takes us back to when her children were little and exposed to 5 languages to the present day where they are grown adults still curious and continuing to learn new languages.
It wasn't always easy and smooth sailing, though. Tune in to hear what Ute did when her twins created a secret language that no one else could understand and how she reacted when challenged by another parent at school. She also tells us about traveling as a multilingual family and the positive impact peers can have on our children's languages.
To work with Ute, please visit her website Ute's International Lounge and check out her 4 different YouTube channels and free monthly workshops.
Near the end of the episode, we mention Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori and Tetstu Yung, both of whom have worked with Ute on various projects also been guests on the Future is Bilingual Podcast:
Ep. 35 - Raising Multilingual Readers and Writers (Yoshito)
I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with the brilliant Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold, a renowned scholar who grew up multilingual and has been working in the field of linguistics and multilingualism for decades.
This first part of our talk focuses on Ute's journey growing up multilingual in Italy with German parents and being immersed early on in many different languages and dialects. We touch on the distinction between a language and a dialect, as that is not always so clear, and the richness that dialects and regional variants bring to a language and to us as the speakers or learners.
Given that much of Ute's language learning happened in an immersive or natural way, we talk about the natural approaches that she has found most helpful, such as watching TV, observing and mimicking how people speak, and picking up the culture through observation.
While there are clear challenges inherent to learning a language that is very different and linguistically far from our own or the ones we speak, it can also be challenging to learn two languages that are similar with slight variations. Ute shares with us what it was like for her to learn 3 languages that are very similar, namely German, Swiss German and Dutch.
We end this first part of our talk with a discussion on code-switching and language mixing and what it means for the bilingual or multilingual child and family. Is it okay? When should we be worried about it? Listen to find out.
In this short solo episode, Heather goes over what you need to consider when you're looking to increase the amount of exposure your child is getting to their languages. The same is also true for anyone who is learning a new language and wants to increase their input and improve their learning. Listen to give yourself the motivation to take an honest look at you or your family's schedule and current language use so you can better plan for today and the future.
Happy Friday! Today's guest, Alicja, is a Polish mom raising her two kids in the UK with her Polish husband. Sounds like the perfect recipe for raising bilingual kids, right? Not so fast. Bilingual parenting takes planning and intentionality.
In this episode, Alicja tells us about all the choices, actions and dedication that go into ensuring her children grow up speaking their heritage language. She recognizes that her kids will be a mix of their heritage and home languages, as well as their heritage and home cultures, and she works with that, not against it.
Listen to hear Alicja's advice about where parents should start, how to bolster kids' home language, and what NOT to do when trying to get your kid to respond in your language.
Follow Alicja on IG @bilingualchild_blog
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In this episode, Heather talks about some of the fears and false beliefs that may be holding you back from raising your child bilingually or learning a language yourself.
This episode is inspired by a talk Heather gave at the Women in Language Conference back in 2021 called "Puis-je le faire ? Élever des enfants multilingues (Can I do this? Raising multilingual children)". This talk went over 13 fears or challenges and gave a practical solution or piece of advice for each.
This podcast episode addresses the same themes and aims to help parents who are afraid, stuck or struggling on their multilingual parenting journey. These tips are also applicable if you are learning a language and struggling with making progress.
Some previous episodes mentioned in today's talk:
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Follow The Future is Bilingual on:
Instagram - @thefutureisbilingual
YouTube - @thefutureis_bilingual
Find out more on The Future is Bilingual Website
It's been almost a year since I last published an episode, but today we are back and ready to relaunch The Future is Bilingual Podcast!
This podcast is for everyone interested in languages and in making the future more multilingual, multicultural, diverse and inclusive.
If you would like to be a guest, please reach out to me at tfibpodcast@gmail.com or contact me via my website https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/.
You can follow me on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual and @arabicwordbyword
Today's podcast guest is Urmi, a polyglot who speaks 4.5 languages (I love this description!) She grew up in Italy speaking both Italian and Bengali as her first languages. She currently resides in Montréal, the largest city in the French-speaking Canadian province of Québec. She tells us about living and working in a bilingual city and how they know which language to use with clients at work. We discuss how Urmi learned all 4.5 languages and how she continues to maintain them while also working on her newest one (Spanish). Urmi has a YouTube channel where she shares her knowledge about finances, public speaking, language learning and more. Be sure to follow her there and on her other platforms. And don't miss the end of the episode where she tests my Italian and teaches us a useful Bengali phrase ;)
Follow Urmi:
Her Blog - https://www.myways.ca/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/urmamio/
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@urmihossain
French YouTube resources:
Piece of French - https://www.youtube.com/@pieceoffrench
French mornings with Elisa - https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchmorningswithElisa
Ma prof de français - https://www.youtube.com/@maprofdefrancais
Spanish YouTube resources:
Spanish with Vincente - https://www.youtube.com/@SpanishwithVicente
Spanish After Hours - https://www.youtube.com/@spanishafterhours
Suzy is an Armenian-American EFL (English as a foreign language) instructor, multilingual poet and mom raising two young multilingual children. She grew up bilingually and much of her poetry focuses on the immigrant experience, especially for children of immigrants like herself. She shares with us her journey learning her various languages, how she met her French husband, and how they are raising their two children to be trilingual in Armenian, French and English. Suzy and Heather, who both teach English to foreigners in the U.S., agree that their experiences living abroad in France help them better relate to their students and to their struggles learning English while living and working in the U.S. They also discuss how important it is to learn about the culture as well as the language and grammar if we want to become proficient speakers. Suzy grew up in L.A. which has many dual-language programs and she is happy her son will be attending one and gaining exposure to a fourth language through school.
To follow Suzy and her work:
Other resources mentioned during the episode:
Today's interview is with Tanner, a college student majoring in music business and minoring in Japanese. We talk a lot about Japan and Japanese culture, but first we discuss the other languages she has studied and what got her interested in Japanese. We touch on how her classes are taught using a flipped classroom model, which Heather also uses when teaching with Freestyle Languages. Tanner shares her experiences, tips and interests related to learning Japanese but also dabbling in Mandarin Chinese and Korean while Heather shares some travel stories of when she visited Japan with the high school she taught for.
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If you enjoy this podcast, please do one (or more!) of the following:
- follow it wherever you listen
- follow me on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual
- share it with a friend and on your social media
- take a minute to rate it
- leave a rating and review here
- buy me a coffee here
Today's interview is with Maria Twena, a second-generation Latina, a bilingual children’s book author, and the creator of "MariVi: The Master Navigator". Maria tells us about what it was like growing up and straddling not only two languages but also two cultures and two opposing worldviews, one collectivist and one individualist. She only realized as an adult how challenging her experiences had been and that many bicultural children share these same experiences. She created her book series "MariVi" because she didn't see herself depicted in the general media nor in the Spanish-language media. She strongly felt the need to start a conversation about the experiences bicultural children have and her books and animated TV show do just that. She's embarking on no small feat. She plans to create a massive resource of 18 books spanning 6 years of schooling (from 1st to 6th grade, 3 books per school year) showing all the different aspects of growing up biculturally and bilingually.
Her first two books are out and available on Amazon: School Crossing (Book 1) & Weekend Ways, and the 1st season of MariVi the animated TV series is available exclusively on the new free streaming platform Nuestra.TV.
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Other resources mentioned:
- Study about marketing to Hispanics: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2007/10/17/hispanic-search-marketing-u-s-focus-global-perspective/
If you enjoy this podcast, please do one (or more!) of the following:
- follow it
- follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/)
- share it with a friend and on your social media
- take a minute to rate it
- leave a rating and review (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual)
- buy me a coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual)
Today's guest, Jesse, is a multilingual father of two and a seasoned English teacher living in Spain. He first started teaching English in South Korea and shares stories of his seven years spent over there. Throughout the episode we talk about the importance of intentionality when raising our children, for example we both make a concerted effort to expose our children to different cultures and different ways of living. We also get honest about parenting and the struggles we face raising bilingual kids. We swap stories about teaching students of different levels and drop some hilarious truth bombs. We hope this episode will resonate with you and we would love to hear your comments on instagram @thefutureisbilingual or via email TFIBPodcast@gmail.com.
To get in touch with Jesse:
- LinkTree (Social media information and resources): https://linktr.ee/jesse.sweed
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sweedacademy
- His free resource "The Conscious Leading Playbook" (resources, 10-minute framework to journal consistently and focus on your goals, and a unique format for your day planner): https://eaglemethod.newzenler.com/f/playbook
Bienvenue au premier épisode du podcast "The Future is Bilingual" en français ! 🎉 Nous savons que les mots "natif" et "non-natif" sont problématiques, mais ils font partie de notre réalité et peuvent sembler inévitables. Réfléchissons un peu plus sur ce sujet. Cet épisode est divisé en trois parties : 1. Mes expériences personnelles en tant qu'apprenante de langues, y inclus un grand secret 2. Mes expériences professionnelles en tant qu'enseignante de 4 langues 3. Les réflexions partagées avec moi pendant une discussion ouverte que j'ai menée à ce sujet au Polyglot Gathering en mars 2023
J'ai hâte d'écouter vos pensées, vos réactions, et vos expériences personnelles alors partagez-les avec moi sur Instagram @thefutureisbilingual et continuons cette discussion (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/). Vous pouvez aussi trouver plus d'informations sur mon site-web (https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/).
Si vous aimez ce podcast, suivez-le, partagez-le, donnez-lui 5 étoiles sur votre appli préférée, et laissez un commentaire ici (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual). Vous pouvez aussi soutenir mon travail en m'achetant un café ici (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual). Je vous remercie du fond de mon coeur <3
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Personnes et choses mentionnées dans cet épisode :
Ma conversation avec Guillaume, un hyper-polyglotte belge qui est aussi enseignant de langues (Ep. 36 & Ep. 37)
- Ep. 36: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-future-is-bilingual/episodes/From-Polynot-to-Polyglot---Interview-with-Guillaume--Part-1-e101af4
- Ep. 37: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-future-is-bilingual/episodes/Interview-with-Guillaume--Part-2-e10b315
- Son IG: https://www.instagram.com/cameleondeslangues/?hl=fr
- Son site-web: http://cameleondeslangues.be/
- Son YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5K9FTeQtm6YvlVml6oxuig
Les transcriptions et traductions de notre conversation
- Ep. 36: https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/2021/05/09/from-polynot-to-polyglot-interview-with-guillaume-ep-36/
- Ep. 37: https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/2021/06/03/interview-with-guillaume-part-2/
Mon amie Heidi et son podcast "Love, Joy and Languages"
- Son IG: https://www.instagram.com/love.joyandlanguages/
- Son Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Ea7UwPYgrR3Zc1bpY0VkE
- Son site-web: https://lovejoyandlanguages.com/
In this episode, I attempt to tackle the highly controversial topic of native speakerism and what it means to be a good language teacher. The episode is divided into three main parts:
1. My personal experiences learning multiple languages, including a shameful secret
2. My professional experiences as a teacher of 4 languages
3. What I learned from others during an open discussion I lead at the Polyglot Gathering online this past March on the same topic.
There are so many things that could and need to be said on this topic, and I invite you to keep the conversation going by replying to my posts on Instagram on the topic or writing me a message (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/). You can also find out more about the show on my website (https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/).
If you enjoy this podcast, please consider doing one (or more!) of the following:
- follow it
- share it with a friend and on your social media
- take a minute to rate it
- leave a rating and review (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual)
- buy me a coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual)
Episode 57 - Tiffany takes us on a journey around the world from Colombia to France to the U.S. and back again. She tells us about her adoption, growing up bilingual in France, what it was like going to an international school, how she met her husband, and how they are raising their two children multilingually. So much wisdom in this episode! Tiffany works as a communications associate at The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law so I am delighted to have this episode come out on Earth Day 2023! I love Tiffany's message that we don't have to chose which parts of our identities to embrace, we can embrace them all and celebrate our rich cultural and linguistic diversity. To find out more about Tiffany, check out her blog MamanEarth and follow her on Instagram @Maman_Earth.
You can find Heather on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual, on her website or by writing to her at TFIBPodcast@gmail.com. If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating on your favorite podcast app and a review here. You can also buy a coffee to help support the show :)
Episode 56 - Today's episode is with Lauren from Polyglot Station and Language TV Club! She is a language enthusiast and a speech language pathologist. She tells us how she started Polyglot Station and where the idea for the Language TV Club came from. They regularly have clubs in German, Italian, French, and Spanish, but they also include other languages. The idea is we all watch the same show on our own time on Netflix and meet to talk about it in the target language. It’s the perfect way for intermediate and advanced learners to practice and continue using their language while also learning more about the culture. All learners are welcome to join and listen in if they’re not ready to speak much yet.
I am personally very interested in this topic as I am teaching a Spanish course based on "Casa de Papel" (Money Heist) and I'm developing curriculum for a French class based on "Dix Pour Cent" (Call My Agent). If you're interested in learning more about these classes, check out Freestyle Languages, the company I teach for.
During our chat, Laurent tells us the best and worst parts about learning a language through TV shows. She also gives us her expert opinion on whether we should or shouldn’t watch with subtitles. Lastly, she gets honest about the languages she speaks and the ones she only dabbled in, and what she learned from those experiences. I also ask her for her opinion on learning a language like Mandarin or Japanese that has a complex writing system since she speaks Mandarin.
Thank you so much to Lauren for sharing her journey and fantastic ideas with us. You can get in touch with Lauren and check out all she's offering online on Instagram and on her websites:
- Become a Host for Language TV Club
- 8 Strategies to Improve Language Learning with T.V. Shows
- Chrome extension for dual-language subtitles
Episode 55 - In this episode, Heather chats with Mackenzie, one of the hosts of the podcast The ABCs of Matrescence, about how she is raising her two children completely in French while living in the US. Mackenzie's husband is Vietnamese and she tells us about how they considered adding Vietnamese into their family language plan and what their final decision was. We get all the details on how Mackenzie's raising her children in French, her second language, and how much dedication it really takes. There is a lot of responsibility in being the primary caregiver, and even more so when you're the only person speaking a minority language to your children. Nonetheless, Mackenzie makes the great point that she finds raising her children in her second language stimulating for her, especially during this particular period in her life. Heather and Mackenzie discuss the true gift that we give our children when we make a concerted effort to raise them or teach them another language.
Listen to Mackenzie and her co-host Emma's podcast The ABCs of Matrescence
Follow Mackenzie and her cost Emma on Instagram
During this episode Mackenzie mentioned: Concordia Language Villages and Tonies
Episode 54 - Looking for new ways to practice your language without breaking the bank? No matter what language you're learning or how advanced or rusty you are, this episode gives you close to 40 ideas to try without spending a penny. Let me know if I forgot something or what you favorite tip is! You can find me on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual, on my website or by writing to me at TFIBPodcast@gmail.com. If you enjoy this podcast, please let a rating on your favorite podcast app and a review here. You can also buy me a coffee to show your appreciation :)
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Resources mentioned in the episode:
Free game night on Jan. 11th in French and Spanish with Freestyle Languages!!
Free monthly events in French and Spanish with Freestyle Languages
*If you're a new student with Freestyle, use my code HEATHER15 to get 15% of group classes, private tutoring, Saturday cafés, resources and more! You can take a placement test on our website or write to me and I'll help you decide.*
Hoopla & Libby - library apps for ebooks, audiobooks, music and more
MyTunerRadio - free radio stations from around the world
Journaly - "Improve your language skills and connect with others through journaling"
Inna's book "Trilingual me! Moi, trilingue!" - check it out or leave a review if you already know it!
Elle's daily language challenge on Instagram (Also check out her podcast called Speaking Tongues to hear conversations with multilinguals)
The Utalk - language learning app to practice almost any language or dialect
My Darija tutor @my_arabic_diary
