When the surprise at Christmas is not the one you expect and the lessons we learnt
When you get a visit you don’t expect at Christmas
The conscious way of gifting
More and more people are avoiding what has been called “the circle of buying hell” and become more conscious about the way they gift. – I have been practicing the buy nothing new for years now, not only in October, and in my family we are all more […]
Bilingualism and homework (part 2)
Bilingual children who are schooled in another language need to foster also their home language
The sense of guilt of being German
How can younger generations cope with the sense of guilt of being German
What to do when cultural and linguistic stereotyping is fostered by media
Children love cartoons, movies, games and we all know that the vilains, the “bad guys” are not only characterized by features that make them unpleasant, but also by foreign accents. Sociolinguist Calvin Gidney started to study language patterns in animated kid’s entertainment after noticing that Mufasa had an American […]
Why international days and celebrations are difficult for true internationals
I know that writing this will upset some of my friends, but I want to share this because it came up many many times in the last weeks. At the latest FIGT (Families In Global Transition) conference we talked about identity and sense of belonging and as we […]
Years spent “in between” are over
I know this sounds ungrateful or even sad, but since our move 4 weeks ago (time flies!) I realized that what I somehow felt for a long time: I had spent 12 years “in between”. Here is what I mean with “in between”. It’s when you live in […]
What the British say… and what they mean…
If like me you have learned English at school, you probably haven’t learned the different meanings of expressions and way of sayings that Brits use on a regular basis. I have been working with native English speakers for more than 13 years now and still notice that although […]
