Do you know that feeling when the smell of something or listening to music brings you back in time, reminds you of happy moments spent with dear friends or family? Smells and sounds have this effect on me. They bring me back in time and I feel exactly […]
When your German friends wish you a “Guten Rutsch!”, “Einen Guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!” or say “rutsch guet übere” (Swissgerman), they don’t want you to “slide” or “slip” (rutschen=to slide; (aus)rutschen= to slip). They simply wish you a smooth start into the New Year. Can’t they just […]
If you live in Europe, you know that Fondue is a dish. It is actually a Siwss, Italian and French dish of melted cheese, served in a pot (caquelon) over a portable stove (réchaud) and you eat it by dipping long-stemmed forks with bread into the cheese. Fondue […]
In many countries like Germany, Switzerland, Skandinavian countries etc. it is common use to take off the shoes when entering someone’s home (*). The custom of removing shoes is widespread also in Eastern countries like Japan, Korea and Turkey. In these countries it is considered a major faux […]
When we teach our children about our culture(s), we often draw on traditional folkstales. The versions of a folkstale often vary in the same culture: for example, in one version the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood gets killed by a hunter (or lumberjack), in another one he […]
St Nicholas is celebrated in many countries of Europe, mainly in German speaking countries and throughout the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, and is usually accompained by helpers. This dark or threatening companion of St Nicholas is called Krampus in Austria, Bavaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Friuli (North Eastern […]
In my former posts about the “Buy nothing new month” initiative, I gave some hints about the idea behind it and how to do it. I found it very interesting to see how people I told about this in “real life” and on social networks reacted to the […]
We all know that the best way to help our children become (and stay!) multilingual is by talking the languages we want them to become proficient in as often as we can and by providing an attractive context (with friends, family etc.). By acquiring other languages, our children […]
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Expat Since Birth – A Life spent "abroad" 