When I was first starting out on our multilingual journey, I was finding it difficult to meet up with other parents in my area. Now with a better access to social media, it is easier to virtually meet up with parents around the world who are raising multilingual children. In this post, I am sharing three facebook groups that I think every multilingual family should join because you are sure to find another family with your language combinations or who are going through the same challenges or language combinations.
Multilingual Parenting
This group is run by Rita Rosenback, author of “Bringing up a Bilingual Child” and the popular website MultilingualParenting.com
This group is for you if you are interested in the topic of raising children to speak more than one language: an aspiring or expectant parent, parent, grandparent, teacher, childminder, linguist or any other professional who engages with bilingual / multilingual children.Please read Group Rules before posting. Ask questions and share your own experiences and information relevant to the group. Give more than you take.
I enjoy this group because you can ask questions and you will receive answers from other parents around the world. I also like that you can participate in surveys or case studies of other people in the group. Also bloggers can participate in non-promotional threads where they can share latest posts about children and langauges.
Multilingual Families
This group is run by Ute Limacher-Riebold, language coach and consultant of Ute’s International Lounge and blogger at Expat-Since-Birth.
This group is for multilingual families, i.e. families who talk more than one language on a daily or weekly basis, as well as for everyone who works with multilingual families (parents, educators, researchers, health practitioners, speech therapists&pathologists…)You are welcome to share your readings and experience about multilingualism.You are welcome to share your experience, struggles, fears, milestones, successes, achievements etc. in Deutsch, Italiano, Français, Nederlands, English, Español – and other languages of course.We don’t only pass on our languages, but also our cultures, our values, beliefs – we want our children to be able to distinguish between different registers, maybe become biliterate/pluriliterate…If you want to know how you can help your children not only acquire and learn several languages, but also maintain them throughout their first 18 years and beyond, this is the place to share your questions, doubts, issues and support each other.This group is for anyone who would like to:– support a child growing up multilingual – with two or more languages– know how to make sure to maintain his/her languages– know what languages to maintain on an international journey (and why)– know what “warning” signs to watch out for I will share information, useful links, dates about upcoming workshops I hold on this topic etc.
I like this group because there is a survey that asks about all of the languages of the families in the group and it is fun to see if you can find another family with the same as yours. Like Multilingual Parenting, this group as well allows you to ask your questions pertaining to raising multilingual kids and often you will receive an answer from Ute herself and other parents around the world. Ute will often post research or discussion questions to get the conversation going.
MKB’s Global Village for Raising Multicultural Kids
This group is run by Leanna Guillen Mora, founder of Multicultural Kid Blogs and blogger of All Done Monkey. It is not just for multicultural families but multilingual ones too.
MKB’s Global Village for Raising Multicultural Kids is a community to support each other as we strive to raise little world citizens, through arts, activities, crafts, food, language, and love.
MKB Mission Statement: “Multicultural Kid Blogs is a supportive community which brings together parents, educators, bloggers, writers and artists from across the world. We work for understanding among people and oppose any kind of discrimination. Our mission is to inspire and support parents, caregivers and educators raising the next generation of global citizens. We do this by creating educational and parenting content which celebrates global cultures, languages and belief systems and by promoting diversity in all its forms while recognizing our common concerns and dreams for our children.”
I like the hospitality of this group for example, a new member introduces them self and then receives a warm welcome from other group members. Also, you can submit questions anonymously that will be answered by the “village”. Leanna posts alot to encourage further conversation and discussion about multicultural issues around the world.
Opportunity for a Virtual Meet-up
The three Facebook groups mentionned above are a great opportunity for parents wanting to raise their kids multilingual because they can virtually meet and connect with other parents who are on a similar multilingual journey. Parents can ask questions, receive answers, swap stories and share ideas all in one place.