The Future Is Bilingual podcast

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Today's podcast guest is Urmi, a polyglot who speaks 4.5 languages (I love this description!) She grew up in Italy speaking both Italian and Bengali as her first languages. She currently resides in Montréal, the largest city in the French-speaking Canadian province of Québec. She tells us about living and working in a bilingual city and how they know which language to use with clients at work. We discuss how Urmi learned all 4.5 languages and how she continues to maintain them while also working on her newest one (Spanish). Urmi has a YouTube channel where she shares her knowledge about finances, public speaking, language learning and more. Be sure to follow her there and on her other platforms. And don't miss the end of the episode where she tests my Italian and teaches us a useful Bengali phrase ;) Follow Urmi: Her Blog - https://www.myways.ca/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/urmamio/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@urmihossain French YouTube resources: Piece of French - https://www.youtube.com/@pieceoffrench French mornings with Elisa - https://www.youtube.com/@FrenchmorningswithElisa Ma prof de français - https://www.youtube.com/@maprofdefrancais Spanish YouTube resources: Spanish with Vincente - https://www.youtube.com/@SpanishwithVicente Spanish After Hours - https://www.youtube.com/@spanishafterhours…

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Ep. 66: Expert Advice from Fellow Polyglot, Teacher and World Traveler - Interview with Christina 1:14:57

1 year fa1:14:57

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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, what to focus on, how to maintain them, where to find great free resources, and more. ----- Resources mentioned: Hebrew Time Podcast Piece of Hebrew YouTube Channel Piece of French YouTube Channel Easy Languages YouTube Channel…

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Ep. 65: Multilingual Parent, Poet & Teacher - Interview with Suzy 59:04

1 year fa59:04

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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 better relate to their students and to their struggles learning English while living and working in the U.S. They also discuss how important it is to learn about the culture as well as the language and grammar if we want to become proficient speakers. Suzy grew up in L.A. which has many dual-language programs and she is happy her son will be attending one and gaining exposure to a fourth language through school. To follow Suzy and her work: Instagram Linktree Other resources mentioned during the episode: Poetry Unbound Armenian YouTube Channel Armenian workbooks French YouTube Channel…

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Ep. 64: Deep Dive into Indian Linguistics - Interview with Devina 56:22

1 year fa56:22

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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 preservation, and we also get into translanguaging and how it can be used in the classroom. Devina share so much knowledge and real-life wisdom with us regarding the highs and lows of bilingual parenting and being multilingual. The fact that her son is a budding polyglot making the effort to learn more languages on his own at the young age of 12 speaks volumes to how much languages and cultural understanding are valued in her home and community. ---- To find out more about Devina: - Follow her on Instagram @devinakaul (https://www.instagram.com/devinakaul/) - Follow her research on ResearchGate (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Devina_Krishna) and Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UGDP0YMAAAAJ&hl=en)…

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Ep. 63: Heritage Speaker Connecting Us to S. Asian Languages - Interview with Anita of Bhasha Kids 1:16:04

2 years fa1:16:04

1:16:04

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 talk is identity and being a heritage speaker. Anita offers tons of resources, some of which are free!, on Instagram and her ⁠Linktree page⁠. ----- If you enjoy this podcast, please do one (or more!) of the following: - follow it wherever you listen - follow me on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual - share it with a friend and on your social media - take a minute to rate it - leave a rating and review here - buy me a coffee here…

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Ep. 62: Studying Japanese at Uni - Interview with Tanner 57:08

2 years fa57:08

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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 school she taught for. ------ If you enjoy this podcast, please do one (or more!) of the following: - follow it wherever you listen - follow me on Instagram ⁠@thefutureisbilingual⁠ - share it with a friend and on your social media - take a minute to rate it - leave a rating and review ⁠here⁠ - buy me a coffee ⁠here⁠…

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Ep. 61: Straddling Two Cultures - Interview with Maria, author of "MariVi: The Master Navigator" 46:47

2 years fa46:47

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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 media. She strongly felt the need to start a conversation about the experiences bicultural children have and her books and animated TV show do just that. She's embarking on no small feat. She plans to create a massive resource of 18 books spanning 6 years of schooling (from 1st to 6th grade, 3 books per school year) showing all the different aspects of growing up biculturally and bilingually. Her first two books are out and available on Amazon: ⁠School Crossing (Book 1)⁠ & ⁠Weekend Ways⁠ , and the 1st season of MariVi the animated TV series is available exclusively on the new free streaming platform Nuestra.TV . --- Other resources mentioned: - Study about marketing to Hispanics: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2007/10/17/hispanic-search-marketing-u-s-focus-global-perspective/ If you enjoy this podcast, please do one (or more!) of the following: - follow it - follow me on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/) - share it with a friend and on your social media - take a minute to rate it - leave a rating and review (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual) - buy me a coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual)…

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Ep. 60: Empowering our children - Interview with Jesse 1:22:13

2 years fa1:22:13

1:22:13

Today's guest, Jesse, is a multilingual father of two and a seasoned English teacher living in Spain. He first started teaching English in South Korea and shares stories of his seven years spent over there. Throughout the episode we talk about the importance of intentionality when raising our children, for example we both make a concerted effort to expose our children to different cultures and different ways of living. We also get honest about parenting and the struggles we face raising bilingual kids. We swap stories about teaching students of different levels and drop some hilarious truth bombs. We hope this episode will resonate with you and we would love to hear your comments on instagram @thefutureisbilingual or via email TFIBPodcast@gmail.com. To get in touch with Jesse: - LinkTree (Social media information and resources): https://linktr.ee/jesse.sweed - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/sweedacademy - His free resource "The Conscious Leading Playbook" (resources, 10-minute framework to journal consistently and focus on your goals, and a unique format for your day planner): https://eaglemethod.newzenler.com/f/playbook…

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Ep. 59: Les enseignants de langue natifs vs. non-natifs 47:37

2 years fa47:37

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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 hâte d'écouter vos pensées, vos réactions, et vos expériences personnelles alors partagez-les avec moi sur Instagram @thefutureisbilingual et continuons cette discussion (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/). Vous pouvez aussi trouver plus d'informations sur mon site-web (https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/). Si vous aimez ce podcast, suivez-le, partagez-le, donnez-lui 5 étoiles sur votre appli préférée, et laissez un commentaire ici (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual). Vous pouvez aussi soutenir mon travail en m'achetant un café ici (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual). Je vous remercie du fond de mon coeur <3 ----- Personnes et choses mentionnées dans cet épisode : Ma conversation avec Guillaume, un hyper-polyglotte belge qui est aussi enseignant de langues (Ep. 36 & Ep. 37) - Ep. 36: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-future-is-bilingual/episodes/From-Polynot-to-Polyglot---Interview-with-Guillaume--Part-1-e101af4 - Ep. 37: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-future-is-bilingual/episodes/Interview-with-Guillaume--Part-2-e10b315 - Son IG: https://www.instagram.com/cameleondeslangues/?hl=fr - Son site-web: http://cameleondeslangues.be/ - Son YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5K9FTeQtm6YvlVml6oxuig Les transcriptions et traductions de notre conversation - Ep. 36: https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/2021/05/09/from-polynot-to-polyglot-interview-with-guillaume-ep-36/ - Ep. 37: https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/2021/06/03/interview-with-guillaume-part-2/ Mon amie Heidi et son podcast "Love, Joy and Languages" - Son IG: https://www.instagram.com/love.joyandlanguages/ - Son Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Ea7UwPYgrR3Zc1bpY0VkE - Son site-web: https://lovejoyandlanguages.com/…

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Ep. 58: Native vs. Non-native Language Teachers 57:49

2 years fa57:49

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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 posts on Instagram on the topic or writing me a message (https://www.instagram.com/thefutureisbilingual/). You can also find out more about the show on my website (https://thefutureisbilingual.wordpress.com/). If you enjoy this podcast, please consider doing one (or more!) of the following: - follow it - share it with a friend and on your social media - take a minute to rate it - leave a rating and review (https://ratethispodcast.com/bilingual) - buy me a coffee (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futurebilingual)…

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Ep. 57: Planting Multilingual Seeds 🌱 - Interview with Maman Earth aka Tiffany 1:05:05

2 years fa1:05:05

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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 embrace them all and celebrate our rich cultural and linguistic diversity. To find out more about Tiffany, check out her blog MamanEarth and follow her on Instagram @Maman_Earth . You can find Heather on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual , on her website or by writing to her at TFIBPodcast@gmail.com. If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating on your favorite podcast app and a review here . You can also buy a coffee to help support the show :)…

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Ep. 56: How to Learn Languages with TV Shows - Interview with Lauren 45:33

2 years fa45:33

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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 more about the culture. All learners are welcome to join and listen in if they’re not ready to speak much yet. I am personally very interested in this topic as I am teaching a Spanish course based on "Casa de Papel" (Money Heist) and I'm developing curriculum for a French class based on "Dix Pour Cent" (Call My Agent). If you're interested in learning more about these classes, check out Freestyle Languages , the company I teach for. During our chat, Laurent tells us the best and worst parts about learning a language through TV shows. She also gives us her expert opinion on whether we should or shouldn’t watch with subtitles. Lastly, she gets honest about the languages she speaks and the ones she only dabbled in, and what she learned from those experiences. I also ask her for her opinion on learning a language like Mandarin or Japanese that has a complex writing system since she speaks Mandarin. Thank you so much to Lauren for sharing her journey and fantastic ideas with us. You can get in touch with Lauren and check out all she's offering online on Instagram and on her websites: - Polyglot Station on IG - Language TV Club on IG - Polyglot Station Website - Language TV Club Website - Become a Host for Language TV Club - 8 Strategies to Improve Language Learning with T.V. Shows - Chrome extension for dual-language subtitles…

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Ep. 55: What It Really Takes to Raise a Bilingual Child - Interview with Mackenzie 1:17:17

2 years fa1:17:17

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Episode 55 - In this episode, Heather chats with Mackenzie, one of the hosts of the podcast The ABCs of Matrescence , about how she is raising her two children completely in French while living in the US. Mackenzie's husband is Vietnamese and she tells us about how they considered adding Vietnamese into their family language plan and what their final decision was. We get all the details on how Mackenzie's raising her children in French, her second language, and how much dedication it really takes. There is a lot of responsibility in being the primary caregiver, and even more so when you're the only person speaking a minority language to your children. Nonetheless, Mackenzie makes the great point that she finds raising her children in her second language stimulating for her, especially during this particular period in her life. Heather and Mackenzie discuss the true gift that we give our children when we make a concerted effort to raise them or teach them another language. Listen to Mackenzie and her co-host Emma's podcast The ABCs of Matrescence Follow Mackenzie and her cost Emma on Instagram During this episode Mackenzie mentioned: Concordia Language Villages and Tonies…

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Ep. 54: 35+ Free Ways to Practice Your Language(s) 41:44

2 years fa41:44

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Episode 54 - Looking for new ways to practice your language without breaking the bank? No matter what language you're learning or how advanced or rusty you are, this episode gives you close to 40 ideas to try without spending a penny. Let me know if I forgot something or what you favorite tip is! You can find me on Instagram @thefutureisbilingual , on my website or by writing to me at TFIBPodcast@gmail.com. If you enjoy this podcast, please let a rating on your favorite podcast app and a review here . You can also buy me a coffee to show your appreciation :) --- Resources mentioned in the episode: Free game night on Jan. 11th in French and Spanish with Freestyle Languages !! Free monthly events in French and Spanish with Freestyle Languages *If you're a new student with Freestyle , use my code HEATHER15 to get 15% of group classes, private tutoring, Saturday cafés, resources and more! You can take a placement test on our website or write to me and I'll help you decide.* Hoopla & Libby - library apps for ebooks, audiobooks, music and more MyTunerRadio - free radio stations from around the world Journaly - "Improve your language skills and connect with others through journaling" Inna's book "Trilingual me! Moi, trilingue!" - check it out or leave a review if you already know it! Elle's daily language challenge on Instagram (Also check out her podcast called Speaking Tongues to hear conversations with multilinguals) The Utalk - language learning app to practice almost any language or dialect My Darija tutor @my_arabic_diary…

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Ep. 53: Ask yourself this one thing 13:54

2 years fa13:54