Today's interview is with Christina, Heather's friend and colleague at Freestyle Languages. Christina's life has brought her into contact with many languages and she has embraced each opportunity to broaden her horizons and learn more. She tells us about how she learned Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, French and Moroccan Darija, and not only that but how she maintains them. Our discussion covers many topics including traveling and living abroad, learning a language for a relationship, and teaching all different levels and ages of students. Christina offers many great tips on how to learn languages ..read more

Suzy is an Armenian-American EFL (English as a foreign language) instructor, multilingual poet and mom raising two young multilingual children. She grew up bilingually and much of her poetry focuses on the immigrant experience, especially for children of immigrants like herself. She shares with us her journey learning her various languages, how she met her French husband, and how they are raising their two children to be trilingual in Armenian, French and English. Suzy and Heather, who both teach English to foreigners in the U.S., agree that their experiences living abroad in France help them ..read more

Today's episode is a deep dive into the complex linguistic reality in India with Dr. Devina Krishna, assistant professor of linguistics at Patna Women's College in India. Not only is she an expert in the field but she is also raising her son to be multilingual. We get into the languages they speak and what communication looks like (spoiler: there is some code switching happening!). India has 22 official languages and we discuss mutual intelligibility between them and the logistics of recognizing regional languages. Devina brings up the important topics of language endangerment and linguistic p ..read more

So many truth bombs and inspiring tales in this interview episode with Anita, the founder of Bhasha Kids (⁠@BhashaKids⁠)! Anita is a Malayalam-American mom whose company helps kids (and adults!) connect with South Asian Languages and Cultures. Anita and Heather talk all about raising multilingual kids and the best ways to support them in their language learning journey, like why it's worth getting a tutor and/or resources. They also get into linguistic topics such as phonological awareness and the different proficiency levels (e.g. the European framework A1-C2). Another major theme in their ta ..read more

Today's interview is with Tanner, a college student majoring in music business and minoring in Japanese. We talk a lot about Japan and Japanese culture, but first we discuss the other languages she has studied and what got her interested in Japanese. We touch on how her classes are taught using a flipped classroom model, which Heather also uses when teaching with Freestyle Languages. Tanner shares her experiences, tips and interests related to learning Japanese but also dabbling in Mandarin Chinese and Korean while Heather shares some travel stories of when she visited Japan with the high scho ..read more

Today's interview is with Maria Twena, a second-generation Latina, a bilingual children’s book author, and the creator of "MariVi: The Master Navigator". Maria tells us about what it was like growing up and straddling not only two languages but also two cultures and two opposing worldviews, one collectivist and one individualist. She only realized as an adult how challenging her experiences had been and that many bicultural children share these same experiences. She created her book series "MariVi" because she didn't see herself depicted in the general media nor in the Spanish-language me ..read more

Bienvenue au premier épisode du podcast "The Future is Bilingual" en français ! ? Nous savons que les mots "natif" et "non-natif" sont problématiques, mais ils font partie de notre réalité et peuvent sembler inévitables. Réfléchissons un peu plus sur ce sujet. Cet épisode est divisé en trois parties : 1. Mes expériences personnelles en tant qu'apprenante de langues, y inclus un grand secret 2. Mes expériences professionnelles en tant qu'enseignante de 4 langues 3. Les réflexions partagées avec moi pendant une discussion ouverte que j'ai menée à ce sujet au Polyglot Gathering en mars 2023 J'ai ..read more

In this episode, I attempt to tackle the highly controversial topic of native speakerism and what it means to be a good language teacher. The episode is divided into three main parts: 1. My personal experiences learning multiple languages, including a shameful secret 2. My professional experiences as a teacher of 4 languages 3. What I learned from others during an open discussion I lead at the Polyglot Gathering online this past March on the same topic. There are so many things that could and need to be said on this topic, and I invite you to keep the conversation going by replying to my post ..read more

Episode 57 - Tiffany takes us on a journey around the world from Colombia to France to the U.S. and back again. She tells us about her adoption, growing up bilingual in France, what it was like going to an international school, how she met her husband, and how they are raising their two children multilingually. So much wisdom in this episode! Tiffany works as a communications associate at The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law so I am delighted to have this episode come out on Earth Day 2023! I love Tiffany's message that we don't have to chose which parts of our identities to embrace, we can ..read more

Episode 56 - Today's episode is with Lauren from Polyglot Station and Language TV Club! She is a language enthusiast and a speech language pathologist. She tells us how she started Polyglot Station and where the idea for the Language TV Club came from. They regularly have clubs in German, Italian, French, and Spanish, but they also include other languages. The idea is we all watch the same show on our own time on Netflix and meet to talk about it in the target language. It’s the perfect way for intermediate and advanced learners to practice and continue using their language while also learning ..read more