Arabic numerals connect many languages, even if we use different names for them. Children who speak languages where the names of these numbers are shorter have a slight advantage at first. A child whose mother tongue is Mandarin, for example, has it easier because all numbers from one to ten consist of only one syllable.…
“Why should I take another cake when I already know how it tastes?” – one mother living in Belgium told me her mother-in-law had asked her. She must have found this argument surprising to remember it so clearly. Of course, you could also ask why we shouldn’t have the same cake twice, because we already…
Some believe that multilingual children are whiz kids, although this can be said for only a small number of them. This is because most do not receive their link with languages as an innate gift, but instead as the result of the decisions of their parents or other external circumstances. However, this does not mean…
Vocabulary is the Achilles heel of multilingualism. This does not mean, of course, that multilinguals cannot have a wide vocabulary. Rather, it simply means that vocabulary building is not automatic, but is usually the result of conscious effort. What is reassuring, however, is that while there is a more sensitive period for pronunciation and the…
When they start their own families, our multilingual children will face this situation and some parents have already turned to me for help in this matter. For example, I spoke to a German mother of Turkish origin and a bilingual Basque-English mother. They did not have it easy, living in Barcelona, but they both managed…
Maintaining a mother tongue abroad is like taking a rollercoaster ride. What’s more, multilingual children travel in multiple cars on different lanes at the same time. The rollercoaster cars of their various languages do not go up hills, go straight ahead or go down slopes at the same speed, and sometimes repeat the same peaks…
In my last workshop, a French father who lives in Spain told me that the silent phase lasted 4 years for his first child. He spoke to his son in French, but his son never spoke a word of French back; if he did reply, it was always in Spanish. Then, on his return from…
I received a letter from a father who moved to Barcelona from Germany. He wrote that: “Basically, we want to help our son learn Spanish and Catalan as quickly as possible. He is learning both languages at school at the same time and I think that might confuse him. I was hoping for more help…
Even multilingual children do not always consciously decide which language to use. During my studies in Budapest, I was given the task of studying a Hungarian-speaking student from Slovenia’s language use. For three hours I asked her to address me in her dialect, but it was not possible for her. She could only answer my…
