Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brain Power
Last week, National Public Radio (NPR) reported a story, Being Bilingual May Boost Your Brain Power, that bilingual children may have more brain power and that Alzheimer's disease may be delayed or averted if one...
I don’t “speak white”. Multilingualism is my identity.
For those of us who are bilingual or multilingual, our languages may shape our identities and cultural affiliations more so than race, economic status or religion.
With about 20% of children in the US population...
How to raise a bilingual or multilingual kid
I am typing this just after having a trilingual conversation with my nephew who just came back from Ecuador. When I speak to him in Russian, he responds in Spanish. When I speak to...
Multilingual California beaten by Rhode Island, offering trilingual school
I live in Silicon Valley where Mandarin Chinese is widely spoken by the large Taiwanese and mainland Chinese community in the area. However, the schools in Cupertino only offer Mandarin immersion programs from Kindergarten...
Why It’s Smart to Be Bilingual: The brain’s real super-food may be learning new...
A recent article in Newsweek, Why it's smart to be bilingual, shows some positive and negative elements of multilingualism. I didn't know that those who know more than one language may have a reduced vocabulary...
Mutlilingual identity: diversity of languages and ways of being
Scientific American magazine published an article about how speaking various languages can alter the personality of the speaker:
Polyglots Might Have Multiple Personalities
People take on different character traits depending on which language they are using
This...
Multiculturalism failed? Change your educational system!
Earlier this week, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor remarked that Germany’s attempt at multiculturalism was a total failure and that Germany’s immigrants need to learn German to integrate. I thought about the problems of...
Multilingual ≠ not a racist or a terrorist
I'd like to think that those who are multilingual are less likely to become racists and revert to deadly extremism because communicating with people in other languages opens one’s mind and introduces one to...
Proposed cuts in funding for foreign language programs in US
Public foreign language programs may now be cut or eliminated because of education budget cuts to the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP), the only source of federal funding for K-12 foreign language programs. This...
Speaking in Tongues documentary on public television
Speaking in Tongues is a documentary about raising multilingual children. I just saw it on public television in the US and it's excellent. It shows the controversy over bilingual education and how and why families...
