#000 I Why BOLD & BILINGUAL?
Show Notes
If there is one thing I have learned from my journey, it is that there are some really good guides for binational parents who would like to raise their children bilingually. However, when it comes to bilingual education with a foreign language, it becomes much more difficult to find information and advice.
And that's exactly why I created the podcast BOLD & BILINGUAL.
In episode #000 I Why BOLD & BIlingual? you will find the following information:
Relevance of foreign languages in everyday life
The host introduces herself
Bilingual with a foreign language: from the idea to “let's just do it”
Who is the podcast for?
Why BOLD & BILINGUAL?
The podcast format:
Weekly episodes in German and English
The episodes will be around 10 minutes longer
Solo episodes and interviews
The BOLD & BILINGUAL COFFEE CLUB
Next episode: My own language journey
Links mentioned in this episode:
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bold-bilingual/id1618614100
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tf4R6OGfgpbIortNxtBDI?si=346f4c3eaaae41cc
Music:
Track: Ikson - Blue Sky [Official]
Music provided by Ikson®
Listen: https://youtu.be/zc4ET9viVQ0
OTHER WAYS TO ENJOY THIS POST:
Join our BOLD & BILINGUAL COFFEE CLUB
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Transcript
Why BOLD & BILINGUAL?
Bringing up your children bilingually you have different opportunities to achieve your goal: you can be strategic and plan way ahead by marrying a partner who speaks another language, or you can move abroad, or you can hire an au pair or a nanny who speaks another language. So far, bilingual kindergartens and international schools have been the exception. So what can you do if you want your children to grow up bilingually with a foreign language?
I’m Sabine Edelhoff, mother of 4 children, project and process manager, and founder of blah - be lingual at home, the first online program for parents who want to raise their children bilingually with a foreign language.
It wasn't that long ago that I lacked the self-confidence, the resources, and the time to plunge into the adventure of our family language journey. But then suddenly I was brave enough and just started with English as our second family language.
Today our children can understand English without any problems and the two older children experience English lessons at school with so much more ease and fun.
I started the BOLD & BILINGUAL podcast to give you simple, actionable step-by-step strategies that will help you do the same.
If you've ever asked yourself, can I raise my children bilingually with a foreign language? and what is the best way to do it so that it will be easier for them to speak foreign languages in school, at work, or later in their everyday life?
Then you are exactly in the right place.
Let's get started.
Relevance of foreign languages in everyday life
Foreign languages surround us in everyday life. In particular, we find the English language on every corner. Babysitter, cheeseburger, fake news, laptop, live stream, make-up, outfits, and podcast are just some of the words that have firmly established themselves in our vocabulary in Germany. English is now taught as the first foreign language in almost all schools and we come across it, again and again, every day. Why is it so important to be able to speak several languages, what effects does this have on us and especially for our children in their future and what can you do to make your children STRONG in LANGUAGES? That will be the content of this podcast BOLD & BIlingual.
The host introduces herself
But before I tell you why I named the podcast BOLD & BIlingual, I would like to introduce myself to you briefly:
I am Sabine, mother of 4 children between 2 and 11 years of age and we live with my husband in the beautiful city Hamburg in Germany, the “gateway to the world”, as we call Hamburg so beautifully here.
By profession, I am employed part-time as a project and process manager and I also started my heart project blah - “be lingual at home” in 2020.
Bilingual with a foreign language: from the idea to “let's just do it”
For a long time, I had thought about the idea of whether I could teach our children English in our everyday life with my own foreign language skills. Again and again, there were well-known preconceptions in my mind like, it's not my mother tongue, I speak English with a German accent, what if I lack the words in English, and so on and so forth ...
But then I asked myself the question, isn't every word that they will pick up in English in our everyday family life just a gift for them so that their English lessons at school will become easier for them?
Why BOLD & BILINGUAL?
In the first covid lockdown in March 2020 I was finally brave enough to just give it a try! So we started our family language journey and experienced surprisingly quick success and did this adventure with so much more ease than I could have imagined before.
I have been brave because I’ve decided against my own preconceptions and also against the concerns of third parties.
Our children have also become bold and strong in English. They have let English into their lives as our second family language incredibly quickly and today handle the new language in school and in everyday life without fear.
And it’s also brave because it is a step into an adventure in which there is actually little research in linguistics for non-native bilingual parenting done so far and we as parents and pioneers are breaking new ground and embarking on a wonderful journey of discovery with the whole family.
On the one hand, BOLD & BILINGUAL stands therefore for being courageous as parents to simply try a bilingual upbringing with a foreign language and on the other hand, to make our children STRONG in LANGUAGES and therefore strong in communication in an increasingly globalized future.
Who is the podcast for?
With the BOLD & BILINGUAL podcast, I would like to encourage parents who have already asked themselves whether it is possible to raise their children in their everyday life with a foreign language and to simply take the plunge into a family language adventure. It’s so worth it! The podcast is intended for parents with children up to the end of elementary school, for parents-to-be, or also for grandparents.
There is a whole range of good guidebooks for parents who already bring two different mother languages with them into their family. There is only one handful of advice guides for parents who want to raise their children with a foreign language as their second family language.
Luckily, I came across them during our family language journey, thoroughly enjoyed them with great interest, and then made a plan for how I can put the theory into practice. So if you're at the point where you're wondering, is that possible and if so, what is the best way to do it? If this sound’s like you, subscribe to my podcast right away so that you won't miss an episode with tips and tricks in the future.
The podcast format
In the following episodes, I would like to take you on our family language journey, give you an insight into how we started, what problems we faced, and how we solved them. What small and big successes we were able to celebrate and what our next goals are.
BOLD & BILINGUAL is so far the only podcast that focuses on non-native bilingual parenting. And because it is about bilingualism, the podcast will also be in German and English. On the one hand, I would like to make the concept available not only to parents from Germany but to all interested parents worldwide, and on the other hand, I take it as a personal challenge to step out of my comfort zone, out of the safe “4 walls” of our home and speak English in public here on my podcast BOLD & BILINGUAL.
In addition to a few solo episodes at the beginning of the podcast, there will also be interviews with experts on the subject, as well as interviews with parents who are also raising their children bilingually with a foreign language. Depending on the language in which the original interview is recorded, there will be a second episode in which I will then summarize the content again in the other language.
Even though I've learned to love English in the meantime, I'm far from being perfect. But that's okay. My goal is simply to boldly take the next step and my motto is always “Progress not Perfection”!
So please, be patient with me if mistakes creep in here and there or if I speak English with such a German accent that my conversational partner would answer me in German - yes, that already happened to me. But more on that in the next episode ;-) So, you see, I'll take you on my very own language journey with me.
Every week there will be two new episodes, one in German and one in English, and they will be each about 10 minutes long. 10 minutes, so that the episodes are crisp and short on the one hand and on the other hand to the point with the most important things you need to know, because I definitely don't want to waste your valuable time and also because 10 minutes can be covered on every trip within your car, or while you are running, or during your lunch break, or while you are sitting on your rowing machine ;-)
The BOLD & BILINGUAL COFFEE CLUB
So if you would like to follow me on my language journey, our family language journey and maybe even start your very own family language adventure? Then I would like to invite you to my BOLD & BILINGUAL COFFEE CLUB. A closed Facebook group where we can exchange, encourage and support each other with like-minded parents. You can find the link in the show notes of this episode.
Next episode: My own language journey
In the next episode of BOLD & BILINGUAL I'll take you with me on my very own language journey. Which languages I learned and which challenges I had to face.
BOLD & BILINGUAL too!
Ok, see you next week!
So, you can be BOLD & BILINGUAL too!
Ok, see you next week!
Sabine
