When I read Irene Vella’s poem Ma la primavera non sapeva nulla, that went viral on social media (and beyond), I couldn’t refrain myself from translating it into German. Although this poem has already been translated into several languages, I felt the urge to have a German version too, German and Italian being the two […]
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How to cope with this new situation
There are many posts and articles reporting what we should do and what we should avoid during the time that many of us are facing right now. Many families here in Europe are going to stay indoors, at home, in the next weeks. If we are home with children, trying to get some work done, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Internationals struggle to pass on their home languages
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 […]
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