If your child is acquiring Chinese as an additional language, you may find this infographic useful. Thanks to Yu Xun, a young intern at Ute’s International Lounge, and Amanda, owner of Miss Panda, my infographic 5 Stages of Additional Language Acquisition got translated into Chinese. Following an interesting discussion with some clients and members of my […]
Continue readingAuthor Archive: Ute Limacher
The illusion of sound and its meaning in language acquisition and learning
Sound is the most important medium we use when communicating – unless, of course, we use sign language. Most of us assume that the auditory signal is enough for others to understand us. Some people increase the volume to make sure they are “heard”. Most of my clients are surprised to learn that sound is […]
Continue reading
Sensible and sensitive – in French and English
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 […]
Continue reading
How to fill in names in forms in the Netherlands
When filling in forms in the Netherlands, many internationals struggle when confronted with voorletters and tussenvoegsel and wonder what and why they need to fill in these parts of the form. In most forms one is asked to indicate voornaam, voorletters, achternaam, and sometimes there is also a field called tussenvoegsel. Voornaam is the name […]
Continue reading
How to deal with negative comments about one of our cultures
Every person that has spent some time abroad has probably made this experience. It can either be during a vacation or during a long(er) stay in another country. Someone just says something judgmental about our culture, our nationality, the way we look or dress, the way we speak or the way we do things, and […]
Continue reading