Jabberlingual

Jabberlingual

An Apology For Being “Inconsistent”

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Originally appeared in Multilingual Living Magazine. One thing I’ve been confused about in our multilingualism-adventure is the “consistency” factor. It crops up everywhere: Bilingualism yes, but make sure you’re consistent. Choose a method and stick to it. But always be consistent! This worries me. For there seems to be an unspoken, unwritten [...]

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Jabberlingual

Sacking an Ideal: The Evil Ambilingual

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Photo Credit: Liz Ambilingual. The name itself sounds as though we are talking about an unpleasant sort of reptile, with yellow scales and gleaming eyes (at least five).   It may very well be such a monster! The Ambilingual is the epitome of everything in multilingualism that gives us parents headaches, worries, stress, [...]

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Jabberlingual

No Talent for Multilingualism?

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Photo Credit: Mykl Roventine I don’t like numbers. I have no talent for Math and computation. I just don’t have that numbers gene. Never had, never will. But that’s fine with me! Languages and words are a lot more fun anyway and I collect them like pebbles on the beach. I guess [...]

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Families

On Multicultural Marriages, Burnt Potatoes and Why Life Is Beautiful

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Photo credit: Aaron Alexander There are days when I just feel completely overwhelmed by over-boiling cooking pots, poopy underwear (yeah we are regressing again with potty training), colicky screams, endless piles of dirty laundry and annoying household machines that just keep breaking down in the most inconvenient moment (like our washing machine [...]

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Jabberlingual

To Send My Child to a Bilingual School or Not? That Is the Question.

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Photo Credit: MIKI Yoshihito One would think that for a multicultural family the answer’s obvious: yes, of course you send your daughter to a bilingual school! How can you even pose this question! Nevertheless I hesitated. I pondered. I weighed my choices back and forth in my mind. You see, it’s not [...]

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Jabberlingual

The Speckled Band: Or Learning English with Sherlock Holmes

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Originally appeared at the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network in July 2006 Photo credit: Alterego “It was the band! The speckled band!!!” my mother read with dramatic intonation. My brothers and I huddled against her. I didn’t understand a word she said, but fidgeted around with excitement nevertheless. “Was ist das, ‘speckled band’?” we [...]

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Jabberlingual

The Diga-Diga Syndrome. Or: Confessions of a Worrisome Trilingual Parent

by Alice
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By Alice Lapuerta Originally appeared in April 2006 on the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network. Photo Credit: gazzaPax As if parenthood doesn’t give us enough to worry about as it is, with bilingual children we worry just a tad bit more. One particular pet-worry is our children’s speech development. Counting and analyzing our children’s words as they [...]

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