Linguistic diversity is a tool for achieving greater intercultural understanding and a key element in the rich cultural heritage of our continent. Today, throughout Europe we celebrate the European Day of Languages. In 2001, the Council of Europe established to celebrate an European Day of Languages every 26th […]
The conventional wisdom is that the Portuguese term saudade doesn’t have an equivalent in any other language. But according to an entry in wikipedia, there are quasy-synonyms in several languages. Saudade is… According to the Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, saudade can be described as follows (my translation): […]
Have you ever wondered how many languages a child can learn at once or if there is a ‘window’ of opportunity? Can it ever be “too late” to learn another language? Can we learn multiple languages at any time? And what are the cognitive benefits of learning more […]
This post is for this month’s Raising Multilingual Children Blogging Carnival hosted by Headoftheheard. This month’s theme is “Hidden Opportunities”. When you are multilingual and start having kids, you have to choose which language you’ll talk to your children. Linguists always recommend to talk your “mothertongue” to […]
If you really want to become a multilingual, you will succeed. You probably know about the girl (Mabou Loiseau) who speaks 7 languages. This case did provoke all sorts of reactions from linguists, parents etc. who were questioning the way this child is acquiring all those languages and […]
When asked where their home is, TCK’s (Third Culture Kids) usually don’t know what to answer. And this is not because they don’t know the feeling, but because they can’t specify one – and only one! – specific place they would call their home. The reaction of FCK […]
Some time ago I read an interesting article from a mum raising multilingual children in a multicultural environment. She told her multilingual mothering story in a very positive and encouraging way. I would like to encourage mothers, fathers, caregivers to not be afraid to speak several languages to […]
Swiss Italian is the name given to the dialect spoken by about 500,000 Swiss in the canton of Ticino and in the southern part of Grisons (Canton Grigioni). Swiss Italian is also the term used to signify the Italian-speaking autochthonous population in Switzerland.
