In this episode we interviewed Anna Attal, a native English speaker who attended a dual immersion school in Spanish. She tells us about her experience learning Spanish as well as the other benefits of early exposure to other languages and cultures. Overall, she highly recommends the program and says it made her more confident, open-minded, and passionate about learning languages.

In this episode, we interview María Elena Gutiérrez, daughter of a Spanish dad and American mother, who grew up in the US, went to UT Austin, became a dual immersion teacher, and is raising two bilingual daughters. Given that our children have similar profiles, we allow ourselves to imagine that our children will be just as bilingual and confident as Maria Elena is! We discuss her dad’s quizzing methods, maintaining Spanish traditions in the US, learning to read and write, using (peninsular)...

In this episode we sit down with the two adult daughters of Spaniards, Mili and Pedro, who we interviewed in our last episode of season 3. Sofia and Paula grew up between Germany, the United States, and Hungary, and have now decided to study in the Netherlands. They reflect back on their international upbringing and how it shaped their worldview and identities. Despite having their lives uprooted several times during their adolescence, both appreciate the experiences their parents provided...

We wrap season 3 of multilingual mamas reflecting back on the diverse selection of interviews we conducted this season. This time around, we learned about testing practices in US public schools, the bilingual parenting mental load, and how raising bilingual children in a country where two languages or more share a co-official language status looks very different. As usual, in this episode we share where we are in our bilingual parenting journey, including specific information about the...

Lina Mueller, the daughter of two Americans who was born and raised in Guatemala, discusses what it was like to grow up speaking Spanish without it being a part of her familial heritage, the confusion some express when they hear a Guatemalan accent come out of a blonde who also speaks perfect English, how her mom created an international school in Antigua, what her identity as a white, English-speaking woman has meant for her experience with bilingualism and biculturalism, and how immersion...

En este episodio hablamos con Mili Paredes y su marido Pedro, una pareja española que emigró a Alemania y que ha criado a sus hijas en tres países diferentes: Alemania, EE .UU . y Hungría. Nos hablan de los factores que tuvieron en cuenta a la hora de mudarse, las ventajas y desventajas de su estilo de vida, y de que es importante abrirse a nuevas experiencias y no quedarse anclado en echar de menos la patria. También nos hablan de sus hijas, donde viven ahora y de cómo su estilo de vida les...

In this episode we chat with the Mayers, a family of two non-native speakers of Spanish raising their two children bilingual in Spanish and English using an unconventional method. Instead of the more common, one parent-one language method, they would speak in Spanish Monday through Friday and English on the weekends as an entire family. We discuss the benefits of this method such as familial cohesion, cross-linguistic skill transfer, and space for a break from the minority language. It just...

In this episode we sit down with Dr. Kim Potowski, professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and one of the leading experts on dual immersion and Spanish heritage speakers in the United States. She discusses not only the lessons she’s learned from working with Hispanic families trying to raise bilingual children, but also her own experiences raising her two children bilingual in Spanish and English. She has created a treasure trove of materials for parents and teachers that can be found...

In this episode we talk with Diandra Morse, a social worker and founder of Bilingual Playdate, an Instagram account and online platform that advocates for multilingualism and serves as a resource for bilingual families. Diandra discusses many topics in this interview including their family’s decision to have her non-native Spanish-speaking husband use only Spanish at home, the mental load of bilingual parenting, obstacles to multilingualism in the US, and how race and language intersect to...

When Veronica Benavides decided to reclaim her Spanish, a language she was discouraged from speaking as a child in Texas, and raise her children in her heritage language, she realized that most bilingual parenting resources for non-dominant parents were geared towards second language speakers. Given the unique emotional and linguistic experience with heritage languages and the lack of existing resources for these families, Dr. Benavides founded the Language Preservation Project...

In this episode we talk to Juliana Ramírez, a bilingual school psychologist and owner of a consulting firm, PERA Services, who explains everything you need to know about special education services, your rights in the US, and how bilingualism might impact your child’s assessment for services. One of our most practical, this information-packed episode is a must listen for any parents confused about educational bureaucracy or anxious about their child being misunderstood due to limited English...

Dr. Sergio Loza, professor and Director of the Spanish heritage program at the University of Oregon, discusses his experiences growing up in Arizona in the late 90s and early 2000s when English-only and other anti-immigrant legislation was being passed. He describes how he went from hating school, doubting his abilities, and envying his white classmates to valuing his bilingualism, revering his community, and leveraging his talents to improve the educational experience of future generations....

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Krista Byers-Heinlein, a Professor of Developmental Psychology at Concordia University, who specializes in infant development with a focus on language acquisition. She talks about her personal experiences growing up bilingual in Canada, as well as raising a bilingual child in Montréal, the largest metropolitan French-speaking area in the province of Québec. We also discuss how bilingualism researchers are able to study infants long before they’re talking...

In this episode, we chat with Dr. Silvia Perpiñán, a linguist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona and mother of a trilingual daughter. One of the languages Silvia and her daughter speak is Catalán, the Romance language native to several regions of Spain and southern France, but which is now a minority language despite concerted revitalization and maintenance efforts. Dr. Perpiñán reflects on the difference between indigenous language maintenance and immigrant language maintenance as well...

In this episode we talk to Dr. Julio Torres, professor of Spanish at UC Irvine and specialist in bilingual education and instructed heritage language acquisition. Dr. Torres, who himself grew up bilingual between Puerto Rico and the mainland US, reflects on the language ideologies he encountered in his different Spanish and English classes and how they shaped how he viewed his own multilingualism. He now trains future teachers in critical language awareness and hopes to empower future...

In this episode we talk with Burkel siblings Eric and Martine about their experience uprooting their lives in Southern California in the early 70s and moving to France as pre-teens. They discuss the difficulties they encountered not being able to attend public French school due to not speaking any French at all (initially), and how their adolescence in France changed their outlook of the world in a positive way despite the initial culture shock. Eric and Martine speak openly about their...

Dr. Iulia Pittman, born and raised in a Hungarian-speaking region of Romania, has dedicated her life to learning and teaching languages. Her recent work in the United States as a German professor and linguist has shown her firsthand just how challenging it can be to raise multilingual children here. In our first episode of season 3, we sit down to talk about her about her adolescent children, her book for bilingual parents, and how to avoid some common mistakes parents make when trying to...

We wrap up our second season of Multilingual Mamas reflecting, once more, on all the things we have learned from professionals and fellow parents. This has been a big year for us, going from adding members to our families to seeing our kids become more and more verbal as well as aware of their multilingual environment. Once again, we provide an update on our children’s language development and on our personal journey raising our kids multilingual. We end the episode with a sneak peek of what...

In this episode, we sit down with bilingual children’s book author, Natalia Simons, a Spanish-English bilingual who grew up in England. She talks about her desire to help children going through the experiences of isolation, confusion, and alienation that can come with bilingualism and biculturalism, and to instead help them view their dual identities as their superpower. Her books, including The Spanglish Girl are available for purchase on Amazon...

In this episode we tackle an issue that comes up for many multilingual or multicultural families: moving. We talk with psychiatrist Dr. Alma Moser about her work with “third-culture kids”, or children who are forming their own individual identity, different from that of both their parents and their peers. Dr. Moser discusses common challenges children face when moving and how parents can best support their children through this process. Books referenced: Zurer Pearson, B. (2010). Consigue...

University professor, Jöelle Muhlemann, recently moved with her two adolescent sons and husband to Belgium from the United States. Her children were already trilingual, speaking French, English and Swiss German, and Jöelle talks to us about what the process of adapting to life in Belgium and learning Flemish has been like for her family. She shares some wonderful advice for anyone considering taking the big step of immigrating and helping children adapt to life in a new language and culture.

Gabriella Gómez Saxon, a proud Colombian-American and Wake Forest University student currently studying abroad in Spain, talks to us about growing up bilingual in North Carolina and attending a K-8 dual immersion school. She talks about how important it was for her to have Hispanic friends and role models from a young age, to maintain strong ties to the Hispanic community in Charlotte, and to never have her bilingualism or biculturalism questioned. Despite Gabriella’s skills and confidence,...

In this episode of Multilingual Mamas we talk to Mavi Turner, a bilingual young adult who shares with us her experience growing up bilingual in the US. She discusses her relationship with Spanish grammar as well as how she felt visiting family in Spain at different times during her childhood and adolescence. Mavi embraces bilingualism and hopes that she can pass Spanish down to her children in the future.

En este capítulo hablamos con Javier Garrido que nació y se crió en Suiza, como muchos de los hijos de inmigrantes españoles que emigraron a diferentes países a finales de los años 60 con el objetivo de mejorar su calidad de vida. Javier nos cuenta que él nunca se llegó a sentir suizo -aunque así lo llamaban en el pueblo de sus padres cuando iba de visita en verano - a pesar de haber vivido en Suiza los primeros 15 años de su vida. También nos habla de cómo fue la experiencia de emigrar a...