Bilingual Avenue with Marianna Du Bosq

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a member's question on what kinds of games can be played in the car to infuse language. Tune in to hear 4 games I play in the car and one that I do with my baby as well!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Adam Beck, the creator of BilingualMonkeys.com and the Bilingual Zoo. Adam chats with us about his book, Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability.

On this episode, I answer a future mother who is hesitant about speaking her mother tongue to her child. Spoiler alert: I challenge her to do it! Tune in to find out why!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I host the very first consulting call podcast episode. I chat with Alice Jansen, a member of the Bilingual Avenue Members' Club! We talk about games for language development, the pros and cons of TV and how to establish a solid foundation for her daughter to learn Spanish!

We are a Spanish couple living in a bilingual area where Spanish and Valencian are spoken equally. Our son is 3.5 years old. I have always talked to him in English since he was born. His father has talked Spanish to him. And he has been exposed to Valencian since he was 2 years old, first at nursery school and now at school. He understands everything I tell him in English but only on rare occasions does he answer me back in English. He says some words in English, but he's hardly never able to build simple sentences spontaneously. I have used different strategies when he answers me back in Spanish. I usually repeat the sentence in English and then he says "yes", but he doesn't repeat them in English. In the last days I pretended not to understand what he was saying in Spanish to see if I could "force" him to speak English to me. But then he went to talk to his father and asked him the question in Spanish. Sometimes I think he is not getting enough exposure to English. He is at school from 9 to 5 and some days I only see him in the evening for dinner. There the vehicular language is Valencian and he gets two hours per week in English. My husband is also fluent in English and sometimes he speaks English to him at home. Should he start speaking English to him now regularly? At home or everywhere? Since both of us are Spanish it is a bit weird to speak English with each other. I teach English in a local high school and I feel confident with it, but I'm not sure if my husband could do the same. Our son has a good attitude towards learning and speaking English. His tales, cartoons and films are always in English and his bedtime stories too. We have planned a summer school in English for him to foster his exposure to English. During the last Easter holidays in which we spent more time together he started to say some short sentences in English such as "I'm ready" or "I don't know", etc. but now that he's back to school he answers me back in Spanish again. Sometimes I feel like quitting speaking English to him, but I'm afraid he'll lose all that he's already learned. What can we do?

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview fellow podcaster and multilingual mother, Olena Centeno about her language journey and the work she does to support bilingual families worldwide.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I share seven tips for finding resources in the target language. Question: Hi there I'm a Venezuelan mother of a three years old boy. I have spoken Spanish to my son from birth, I communicate in English with my husband, and my husband speaks Croatian to my son (he has no problem with the Spanish as he speaks Italian too and understand most of the Spanish words ) My son speaks Spanish and speaks-understand a bit of English and some Croatian! We actually live in Australia and it is very hard to find materials in Spanish. I would love to know where I can find resources in Spanish and how to keep my son motivated ! My son started preschool three weeks ago and sometimes he asks me questions in English, I always reply in Spanish. Answer: Thank you Maria for submitting your question! This is such a common struggle that multilingual families have. We are working hard to add more exposure to our children and so it often feels like we never ever have enough resources. You also have the added struggle that depending on your location in the world, you may have an easier time finding resources in one language versus the other. To help out Maria and those of you following along at home who may be on the same boat, I am going to run through a few resources that you can use to help you add a few more items to your toolkit The first resource is Eulingual. We had the creator of Eulingual on the podcast, Joanne Wall. She joined us back on episode 67. She told us all about how Eulingual is her labor of love where she has over 3,000 links for language learning in twenty different languages including: Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese – Mandarin, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili and at the time she was also adding Romanian to the list! This is a great collection of resources. You can go on there and dig around for hours and I know you will walk away with some wonderful resources that you can add to your toolkit. 2. The second resource is called Lingowl resources. She created this website specifically to help parents looking for language resources to help their children. It now offers dictionaries, flash cards, games, bilingual books, etc in a variety of languages including Spanish. Chinese, English, French, German, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian and several other languages. I just love this resource because it was specifically inspired to help other parents so I know you'll find some great resources to help you. 3. The third resource is Audio Books. If you are a regular podcast listener, you know I love audio books. Even though I talk about them being a good resource I am not sure that I have shared some of my favorite benefits about audio books with you so I wanted to go ahead and list a few and then share with you where you can get your hands on some. Children can understand language above their reading level when they listen to a story. Audio books allow you to bring literacy skills into the more mundane parts of your kid's routine like car rides. Poetry can be brought to life for children because a narrator can convey timing, tone and rhythm. Audio books are great at helping children develop listening skills and quiet concentration. Children can be exposed to other speakers of your target language while developing fluency! As you can see, audio books are pretty great. My favorite go to resource for audio books is Audible which is under the Amazon umbrella. If you head over to BilingualAvenueBooks.com you can get your first audio book free when you sign up for a 30 day membership. This way you can see if this is something that your children find interesting although I can already assure you that they will enjoy it. BilingualAvenueBooks.com is an affiliate link so if you choose to sign up for the Audible membership through that link I will get a small commission but it is at no cost to you. 4. The fourth resource is a multilingual alphabet. Since you are in Australia, I just have to share one of my favorite resources for multilingual families which was developed in Australia and that is The Little Linguist Alphabet from LoveYourLingo.com! It's a multilingual alphabet which has 26 objects that all start with the same letter in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Dutch. Maria, I know you have added Croatian as one of your family languages but this alphabet will come in handy when working in English and Spanish. You mentioned your son is three and so likely letters are a big part or will soon be a big part of his world so an alphabet is certainly going to be handy. 5. The fifth resource is apps. Our children are digital natives and if we use apps with a purpose we can make sure our little ones are learning language while they are at it. My two favorite in Spanish is Stories by the folks that created Gus on the Go and then Mundo Lanugo. I'll include links in the sho

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Lorraine Ladish about the challenges of raising bilingual children. She shares her particular struggles while also providing great advice and perspective on overcoming common challenges when raising bilingual children.

On this episode, a father wonders what language policy would work best for his family. Should they consider the Minority Language at Home strategy to increase the exposure? Or should they give the One Person, One Language strategy a shot? I share my thoughts on what is more important quantity or quality of exposure!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Kimberly Scanlon about some of her favorite strategies to promote language development in toddlers! She shares wonderful ideas to help our children express themselves and have fun with language. Kimberly chats with us about: Her professional background and how much she enjoys work with parents of children birth to three year olds;Her book My Toddler Talks all about how to build communication skills in toddlers;How play and language development go hand in hand for children;What parents can take away from observing their child play with their toys;The benefit of creating a predictable routine for children and how they can boost language;The value of doing silly routines with younger children;The benefits of speaking to your child in a sing song manner;How giving your child choices instead of open ended questions can help to get your child talking;How anticipation can get your child to use more of their vocabulary;Some of the mistakes she sees parents make when trying to help their children speak;The importance of asking for help if you have any concerns about your child’s speech and language development;What types of goals parents should make for their children’s language development;Her latest book, “Learning to Read is a Ball”;Her advice to stay hopeful on the language journey!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I tell listeners about the Raising Global Citizens at home Online Summit! This is a summit hosted by Multicultural Kids Blog with topics all about what parents can do to help their children understand the world around them! The agenda for the summit is as follow: Day 1: Why is it important to raise global citizens? Day 2: How TRAVEL supports global citizenship Day 3: How FOOD connects us in a global society Day 4: How ARTS and CRAFTS promote global citizens Day 5: How PLAY encourageS global citizenship Day 6: The importance of MEDIA, APPS AND BOOKS Day 7: The role of LANGUAGE in raising global citizens

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, Dolores shares with us the importance of putting ourselves out there when raising bilingual children. By stepping out of our comfort zone we can connect with other bilingual families and expand our network of support and exposure!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a listener’s question and give her tips on how she can teach her son the gender rules associated with grammar.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Dr. Marnie Ginsberg, the leader of Reading Simplified. She shares tips on how we can teach our children to read and develop their reading comprehension all while maintaining a love for reading.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a question regarding the impact of having a nanny who s peaks the community language on an infant and give strategies the nanny can use to foster language development for the target language. If you have a little one one or younger, you are sure to get some really helpful tips!!!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, Elisabeth Alvarado shares her journey as a non-native bilingual mother. She shares her challenges and her successes and shares wonderful tips for parents raising kids in a language that is not the parent’s mother tongue. On this podcast, Elisabeth shares with us: -How she fell in love with Spanish;-How languages are managed in her home with the Minority Language at Home strategy;-How awkward it felt at first to speak a non-native language to her children the first day her son was born;-How she worked through that first fork in the road where she had to chose between English & Spanish;-How the effort paid off and now speaking Spanish is an engrained habit;-How books have been helpful to add vocabulary to her days with her children;-How she is preparing for when her children get to the point where they may prefer to speak Spanish to each other;-Some funny interactions they have had with others when they are all together as a family;-A proud parenting moment with family members in Peru while chatting on Skype;

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I share 5 tips (plus a bonus one!) to help non-native speakers help bilingual parents! We cover different strategies to be very intentional on how to add exposure and how to learn more language to keep up with our kids!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Patricia Zaballos, author of Workshops Work!: A Parent’s Guide to Facilitating Writer’s workshops for Kids. She shares so much insightful information to help our children become writers from a young age. She breaks down how children really learn to write and lets us know about her very useful blog! Get ready to be inspired and learn how you can get started with writing at home right away!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I give 5 tips to a family that is looking for ways to provide additional exposure to Portuguese for their son. One option they are strongly considering is switching to speaking Portuguese at certain times of the day. I give her some feedback on that idea and provide a few more strategies.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview book author and bilingual mama, Mariana Llanos. She discusses her language journey including the challenges she has faced to help her children achieve Spanish fluency. She also chats with us a bit about her books available in English and Spanish.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I share with you four fun and easy strategies to get your children to understand and use the past tense in your target language. We focus on leveraging the power of modeling and create simple routines to encourage children to use the correct grammar structures.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Kelly Serrano and discuss strategies for promoting an appreciation for reading and writing. Kelly is full ideas for parents of bilingual children on how to support their development of these literacy skills and get the most out of the language journey!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I discuss the importance of setting family language goals. I describe the types of goals you can consider setting. We also chat about The Bilingual Journal and how it can help you on the language journey!

On this episode Bilingual Avenue, I interview Emma from Lingolised.eu to chat about her multilingual family. Her family languages include German, English and Hungarian and Romanian! She discusses with us how her family has been able to infuse culture into their everyday lives and the role it has played for learning languages.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a question from a mother who feels that a language barrier is forming between her and her daughter. She speaks the minority language with her daughter and she worries that her 3 year old's lack of fluency is creating a distance between them. I share my thoughts on how at the end of the day what our children really need is parenting. Language is just one of the many aspects of parenting.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Lauren Lyons Cole, a certified financial planner. She shares some of her best tips for bilingual families interested in making a trip to expose their children to their target language. She also has some great insights for listeners on how they can take control of their money by getting organized, spending smarter & earning more.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Michele Cherie & Hanna Cheda about family trips they took during the summer of 2015. Michele took her three children to France for three months while Hanna took her two children to England for two weeks. Michele & Hanna shared all the details and logistics of how they made their trips possible.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Becky Morales, the creator of Kid World Citizen, an incredible website offering activities that help young minds go global. Becky shares with us how we can teach our children about world’s culture and how we may be able to even incorporate it into our child’s classroom!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I give a mother the tools to have an open and honest conversation with her partner on why she feels that her son should be raised in a bilingual environment. I discuss how the benefits of being bilingual including how it can help support cultural connections and encourage her to dispel any misconceptions her husband may be feeling towards multilingualism.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Maritere Rodriguez Bellas. Maritere is a bilingual and bicultural, free-lance writer, blogger and author. She just recently wrote her first book, Raising Bilingual Children and has a second book about to be released soon called Arroz con Pollo and Apple Pie: Raising Bicultural Children. She is now working on her third! To enter to win Maritere’s book, head over to bilingualavenue.com/newsletter

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I give a mother advice on how to introduce writing for her children. She is looking for tips to teach writing in the home language which will be different from the one her children are learning in school. She is also looking for advice on what language to use at home and how to help her children with their homework.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Amanda Shong-Blahdgett also known as Miss Panda. She is raising her two children to be bilingual in Mandarin Chinese and English. Miss Panda is also the creator of the Let’s Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda album geared towards young children.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a question from a father who is wondering if he should be stricter with his daughter since she is refusing to engage with him in the target language. I give him seven different strategies that he can implement at home. I also share with him the strategy we use in my family and which one the research has shown to provide the best results for boosting vocabulary.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Lindsay Dow, a private language tutor and the founder of Lindsay Does Languages. Lindsay believes in inspiring others to teach themselves languages. Whether that be in a face-to-face lesson with her, or through one of her Skype classes, or one of her blog posts or even one of her videos, she wants you to know that it is possible for you to learn a language! Lindsay shares 25 different tools to help you and your children learn a language!

On this episode of the Bilingual Avenue podcast, I share strategies with a listener who is interested in teaching her child two languages, English and Russian. I explain to her who the One Parent, One Language strategy works as well as the Language Time approach. I also walk her through a series of strategies that she can implement to promote language development for her little one from the early months all the way to the when her child starts making two word sentences.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Carla Curiel the founder of Mundo Lanugo. Lanugo is a Miami-based lifestyle and entertainment brand for preschoolers inspiring Latin at heart confidence and cultural pride. Carla shares with us how she has instilled a love for her culture in her daughters from an early age and has tips for parents who are looking to do the same.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I provide advice to a mother who is concerned that she may have waited too long to teach her children Italian. Her children are 6 and 11 and although they are showing interest in learning the language, she is looking for suggestions on how to pass on the language to them. I give her some tips on how to motivate older children and find age appropriate content for them.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Nicola Lathey, one of the top speech and language therapists in the United Kingdom. She is the author of the prize‐winning and best-selling book, Small Talk. We talk about how parents can promote language development with their children from birth to four years old. Nicola shares excellent strategies that parents can implement right away in their daily interactions with their children.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I check in with a mother who is concerned that her son may fall behind in Kindergarten if he attends a Spanish only preschool. I describe the different concepts that her child will likely be exposed to in preschool and assure her that many of them will be skills that he can transfer regardless of what language is being used for the instruction. For the skills that are language specific, I give her ideas on how she can incorporate them at home. I also share some ideas on how she can partner up with her child’s teacher to make sure she is able to help her son with the transition.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Brynn Barineau. Brynn is originally from Atlanta and has a BA and MA in International Communication from American University in Washington DC. It was while finishing her Masters that she met her Brazilian husband. Brynn eventually joined her then fiance in Rio de Janeiro and began teaching. After moving to Vitoria, she taught economics and American literature at Escola Leonardo Da Vinci. Brynn is currently working on building a career as a writer and publishing her first novel. She blogs at BrynninBrazil.com She has a four-year old daughter that she and her husband are raising bilingual in English and Portuguese.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I give advice to a mother who is worried that changing her language strategy with her daughter will confuse her. Currently, they are speaking English at home while her child picks up the community language, Spanish in school. They will be moving to the United States and the target language and community language will be swapped. She is concerned that their relationship will be impacted because her daughter feels much more comfortable conversing with family members in English. I assure her that although it may be difficult at first, her daughter will eventually sort out the shift in language strategy.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Annabelle Humanes, a former researcher in language acquisition and language teacher in a previous decade. She shares with you her tips for getting your hands on children's language development research and shares her personal family language journey which includes four languages!

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I describe the different types of language school models available to parents including two way immersion, submersion and transitional programs. I also answer a mother’s concern of whether her child will be able to learn the community language and give her strategies to ensure that he has plenty of exposure in that language.

This episode is sponsored by Gus on the Go, an great language app for the little ones at home! Visit www.gusonthego.com/bilingualavenue and get access to a special free printable exclusively for Bilingual Avenue listeners. On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, Alice Junglaus, a parent coach, chats with us about her cross-cultural family and how they have followed their dream of living a multilingual, pluralistic and interdependent global lifestyle. Alice also chats with us about global parenting including what it means and how it can help you and your family!

On this episode of the podcast, I answer a listener’s question who is concerned that although her family has moved to Taiwan her children may have limited exposure to Mandarin. She wants to help them to learn Mandarin, however, she already has her hands full supporting her children’s learning of Spanish. I share my advice on how she can still encourage them to learn Mandarin while maintaining a focus on Spanish.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Sonia Gil, an entrepreneur, language geek, and passionate traveler! Sonia is on a mission to show the world how travel can enrich your life without emptying your bank account. She is the founder of the digital language learning company Fluenz and she is also the host of Sonia's Travels, a two time award-winning web original series about Sonia's unique take on the places she visits. Sonia is also the lead behind the non-profit Fluenz.org which we will discuss throughout our interview today.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a listener’s question who is navigating her son’s transition to the community language. She is concerned that he will need more exposure to English to make things easier for him when he starts school. However, she is concerned that if she herself speaks to him in both languages, he may be confused. I assure her that he will be able to tell difference but encourage her to consider what languages she will want to use when her son has more exposure to the community language.

Yono Mittlefehldt was born in Israel but grew up in the United States. Yono currently lives in Germany with his wife and his 2.5 year old son who is being raised trilingual with English, German and Hebrew. He co-created Gus on the Go with Alice Zhao, an app with 10 interactive lessons and 89 words that allow kids to explore vocabulary in a new language. On the podcast, we talk about Yono’s journey raising a trilingual son and how he is managing to personally pass on two heritage languages at the same time.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, a grandmother is worried that she will have a negative impact on her grandchildren by mixing English and Spanish.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Dr. Paola Giuli Dussias, a Professor and the Head of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at Penn State University. Dr. Dussias describes to us how the brain is capable of managing multiple languages and dispels the misconception that adding a second or third language can complicate our language system.