Ute Limacher-Riebold
Hi, I am Ute and I’m the author of this blog. I live in the Netherlands with my husband and our three children. I’m multilingual and I speak and write in German, Italian, French, English and Dutch fluently.
I was born in Switzerland, grew up in Northern Italy, went to the University in Zurich where I got my PhD in French medieval literature & linguistics (on a old-occitan novel Flamenca) and have a Master in Bilingualism. I periodically lived in France and Italy where I collaborated at research projects. In Zurich I worked several years at the Department of Romance Studies and spent subsequently a few years in Florence for work before I moved to the Netherlands in 2005.– My son was born in Florence in 2003 and my twin daughters in Delft in 2006.
You can find some more information about the language situation within our family here and interviews with me on expatchild.com, europeanmama.eu, expatsblog.com, blogexpat.com, madernidaden2lenguas.com and thepiripirilexicon.com (some of them are no longer active, alas…).
Why “expat-since-birth”? Because ex-patria (“out of the fatherland/home country”) since birth.
I’m also an ATCK (Adult Third Culture Kid) raising TCK’s in a multicultural and multilingual context. We all speak at least two or three languages per day (German, Dutch, English, Italian etc.) – please read about my multilingual journey here. I know a lot about French, English, German, Italian, Swiss and Dutch cultures and I write posts about this in the cathegory “Expat life”.
I never lived in my parents’ home country but according to my passport I’m German. I’m also very Italian in my heart (and I had an Italian carta di residenza for 3.5 years), a bit Swiss (I own a Swiss passport since 2014), French, Dutch and English. A great mix of all the places I’ve been: I’m an expat since birth.
In my blog I share my experience about being a long time expat, raising multilingual children in a multicultural context, multilingualism in general, parenting and the different cultures I’ve learned to embrace during my life.
All kinds of comments and feedbacks are very welcome in English, French, Italian, German, Dutch and Spanish!
Last but not least: as English is my fourth language, I will surely do some typos… Please don’t hesitate to point them out for me. Thank you very much in advance!
Welcome, Bienvenus, Benvenuti, Willkommen, Welkom & Bienvenidos!
You can also find me on other sites:
- I also blog on Expat Living in The Hague at AngloINFO and I am one of the language coaches on multilingualparenting.com
- You can also find me on my business page Ute’s International Lounge.
- If you would like to know something about my “former life”, before becoming a mum of three and having to abandon my former career and reinvent myself, check out my “old” homepage.
Categories: About, About me and about this blog
Expat Since Birth – A Life spent "abroad" 
A beautiful lively presentation Ute! Io ti seguo gia’ da tempo. Ciao, Vera
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Thank you, Vera. Mi fa tanto piacere rileggerti! Anch’io ti seguo 😉 Ciao e a presto, Vera.
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Beautiful! And beautiful photo Ute!
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Thanks, Maria!
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Your life sounds so amazing and your blog is very educational and inspiring.
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Anna Rose, thank you very much and welcome to my blog! I just discovered yours and I’m very impressed by what you’re doing and what you’ve achieved already! – I’m glad I found you 😉
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Thank you! 🙂
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Hi,
I just want to thank you for your wonderful blog. I have been reading your blog for more than couple of months and now I have learned a lot. It’s a tough job to keep a blog going and I truly appreciate it. I really like to submit my post on your blog (as guest post) with my website link. Please let me know your interest in accepting guest posts for free of cost and I’m ready to discuss my contents with you, I promise you with quality and 100% plagiarism free content.
I am looking forward to get your reply.
Thank You,
Kevin P Stone
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Dear Kevin, I’m really glad you like my blog. May I ask you the name of your blog? I would love to read your texts in order to have an idea about your writing.
With very kind regards, Ute
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Hi, there!
I’m Jane and am an avid reader and blogger, a passion which I think we share. I’ve been writing contents on the web professionally since 2010. I share my experience through articles on Travel, Culture, Lifestyle, Health and many more.
Your blog “expatsincebirth.com” is probably one of the most interesting ones I’ve seen recently and with due reason. I was wondering if I could do a guest post for your blog.
I would like to write on “5 Turkey’s Most Desired Travel Destinations” or any other suggested topic for your blog.
It would be an honor to see my article published on your site.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Jane Roberts.
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Dear Jane, I’m glad you like my blog. I don’t have regular guest-bloggers, but if you can give me an example of your writings, I’ll let you know. I tried to access your site but it wasn’t possible. Maybe you changed the address? Please leave your actual address of your blog here. – Thanks again for the kind comment! Regards, Ute
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I’m delighted I came across your site and was wondering if you or any of your readers can give me some advice about recruitment in the Netherlands. I’m working for a company that is looking to expand into the Hague and was wondering if anyone had any advice on the best places to advertise locally. We are looking for English speaking businessmanagers so any advice would be greatly appreciated. We’ve advertised on Linkedin and Monster.com but haven’t had much luck attracting the right applicants.
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I’m glad you found my blog. There is a site where you can advertise for businessmanagers etc.: http://www.indeed.nl , or http://www.vacatures.nl (both in Dutch, I’m afraid…). There is also the http://www.xpat.nl/ and the Expat Journal (http://www.xpat.nl/xpat-journal/), and DutchNews (http://www.dutchnews.nl/). Or if you would like to advertise on general sites too: AngloInfo Zuidholland, ACCESS-nl.org, iamexpat.nl?
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Thank you very much, for your help and devoted time. Any info and knowledge you have and would like to discuss, you can send to barrymurphy@hogoglobal.com
This is our website: hogoproservices.com
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Hi Ute
I follow your blog and like what you’re doing!
Here some info that might be interesting to share with your readers
I founded http://www.medihoo.com
It is a platform for expatriates and travelers. Everyone should have easy access to quality health care whilst abroad. Medihoo helps expats in need to find good health care providers abroad.
It is a terrible thing falling sick or having an accident in a foreign country.
With our community based tool expats can help each other by adding/ recommending healthcare providers and rating them.
It is free for use!! Help us to help expats. Share if you think it could benefit your followers and readers!
Our Motto: Let’s Share Good Care
Cheers and THANKS!
Jeroen
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Thank you very much, Jeroen, for your comment and very precious hint. Would you be interested in writing a short post about medihoo? I’d publish it on this blog and on my “other” blog called “Ute’s Expat Lounge” (www.UtesExpatLounge.com).
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sure shall I copy it in here as reply or do you want me to send it to an email address?
Jeroen
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Dear Jeroen, I’m really sorry for my late reply. For some reasons the comments disappeared from my blog for a few days. I saw your post and will publish it next week, if this is ok for you?
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Absolutely, no problem…thanks for sharing. Could you let me know when it’s done? Cheers Jeroen
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Hi Jeroen, I’ve just published your post on my other blog (www.UtesExpatLounge.com) and will publish a “parallel” post over here too on Sunday. Thank you very much! If you want me to add a link to your personal site, please let me know. Cheers, Ute
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Dear Ute, that is wonderful. I am sure your readers will make good use of it.
You can always link my name to my personal Linkedin page: lu.linkedin.com/pub/jeroen-van-de-velde/4/4aa/381/en
Warmest regards
Jeroen
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Dear Jeroen, I’ll do that. Thanks again for writing this post and, yes, I’m sure many readers will benefit from this information!
Warm regards, Ute
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I’m an expat Italian mum raising 3 kids, living in Australia at the moment. Your blogs looks very interesting to me. Sono felice di averti trovata 🙂
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Mi fa tanto piacere 😉 Vedo dal tuo indirizzo di posta elettronica che parli anche olandese?
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ho vissuto in Olanda per un paio d’anni e ho imparato un pochino la lingua ma l’ho sempre trovata difficile da parlare! Te come la trovi?
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Non capisco come mi possa essere sfuggita la tua risposta. Scusa tanto… Riguardo all’olandese: lo parlo, non è troppo difficile se parli anche tedesco e quel suono gutturale, ebbene, ce l’abbiamo anche in tedesco (e svizzero-tedesco). Per il resto, mi pare che la lingua olandese sia più semplice… mi manca l’italiano, l’Italia, la cultura italiana… ho nostalgia di casa 😉
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Dear Ute, perhaps interesting for you and your readers:
I am very proud to announce that MEDIHOO got named – this week in Brussels – WINNER in the category “city next” of the EUROPEAN APPCUP 2015.
27 Countries have participated in the contest. Read more on our Blog: http://goo.gl/t7N37V
All the best
Jeroen
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That’s great, Jeroen! Congratulations!
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Dear Ute
I found your post https://expatsincebirth.com/2013/09/13/is-saudade-really-untranslatable/?blogsub=confirming by chance, and I want to say thank you for sharing this!
I am interested in the concept of saudade and in untranslatable words,so at the moment I am doing a saudade photographic project as part of my MA degree. Your post has given me wonderful insights and it is probably the most comprehensive information I have so far found.
Thank you and keep blogging!
Regina
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Thank you very much, Regina, for your feedback! I’m so glad you liked my post and that it was helpful for your research. I’m very interested in your project, could you please tell me more about it? You can mail me at ute (dot) limacher (at) gmail (dot) com.
With very kind regards,
Ute
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Hi
My name is Joyce, I am a marketing executive at expatfinder.com which is a leading expat information and services website.
I saw on your blog that you are and expat. I wish to interview you to further share some of your tips. The questions are mainly about the housing, the daily life etc.
It just takes 5 minutes (or more depending if you have lots to say 🙂
Of course, if you accept we can add a link to your blog or some of your website.
If you are interested to participate at this project, please send me an email at interview@expatfinder.com.
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Hi Joyce, for some strange reason some of the comments on my site were hidden… I’m sorry for my very late reply… I would love to do the interview. Please let me know when you would like to meet.
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