At the Families In Global Transition (FIGT) Conference 2017 in The Hague, I had the honor to hold a panel discussion with Ruth van Reken (co-founder of FIGT and co-author of Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds) and Rita Rosenback (author of Bringing up a Bilingual Child). The title of our panel was Finding […]
Continue readingAuthor Archive: Ute Limacher
Language Assessments for Bilingual and Multilingual Children
Parents of multilingual children worry the most if their children will be able to keep up with all the languages and have a sufficient knowledge, proficiency, academically speaking, once they go to school. Schools do regular language and literacy assessments and even international schools tend to assess the school language only or at least also the dominant language – […]
Continue readingWhat is your (international) village? (part 1)
You’ve probably heard the African saying “it takes a village to raise a child”? I usually extend this to families and say “it takes a village to lead a happy family life”… What is normal and natural for families living in their home country surrounded by extended family, is very difficult for internationals. Finding a […]
Continue readingCan SEN children become bilingual?
One of the biggest myths when it comes to bilingualism is that it causes language delay in children. I understand that if a child is a “late speaker” or has some speech issues, teachers and parents often think that the reason for this is because the child is overwhelmed by all the languages. The first thought is, […]
Continue readingEinen guten Rutsch!
When your German friends wish you a “Guten Rutsch!”, “Einen Guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!” or say “rutsch guet übere” (Swissgerman), they don’t want you to “slide” or “slip” (rutschen=to slide; (aus)rutschen= to slip). They simply wish you a smooth start into the New Year. Can’t they just say “Gutes Neues Jahr”? Yes, they can […]
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