As we move between two, sometimes three languages in our family, I often wonder if we do enough to encourage our kids to be bicultural as well. We visit South Africa every couple of years, but we don’t specifically talk about the differences and similarities between the two cultures. Do you have to work at being bicultural, or is being bicultural something that you absorb just by being part of two different cultures?

Exploring a different kind of playground in South Africa.

Does speaking two languages mean that you are bicultural too? I don’t think so. It is possible to speak two (or more) languages without ever leaving your country / hometown / culture. And I guess the opposite is true too: you can be bicultural and monolingual (think Australian and South African, or British and Canadian).

In a recent article in Psychology Today, Francois Grosjean writes that there are many advantages to being bicultural: for instance having a greater number of social networks, being aware of cultural differences, and being an intermediary between cultures. He states that recent research has shown that biculturals have greater creativity and professional success: hooray!

I’ve never deliberately thought about fostering biculturalism in our kids. They have two passports each, and have traveled back and forth between South Africa and the USA more times than they can remember, even before turning 10. I’m grateful that they feel at home in either country, can navigate the social rules, can make a new friend at the playground lickety-split, and know what their favorite candies and food are in each country. I’m thankful that even without us really trying, they have become bicultural.

What do you do to nurture biculturalism in your kids? Do you watch cultural movies, visit the second culture often, send them to spend time with grandparents or cousins in the second culture, or do you talk about the culture often? Comment with some ideas for us all to try!

Helping our kids become bilingual is a great gift we are giving them. But helping them become bicultural is also an amazing gift, one we don’t think about often.

In our house, you can hear a mixture of languages. We speak Afrikaans to each other. We live in the USA so English and Spanish surround us. And sometimes we mix all 3 together. Our girls (ages 9 and 10) seem to be taking this in their strides.

It has not always been an easy journey to stay a bilingual family, or more recently, to try to become a trilingual family. When the girls started preschool, they didn’t understand a lot of English because we only spoke Afrikaans to them at home. It would have been easy to give up. When family commented that sending our youngest to a Spanish Immersion school will just make her confused, it would have been easy to give up. When we moved and there wasn’t a Spanish Immersion school in the area, it would have been easy to give up.

But I know that the earlier in life we work on our language skills, the easier it will become for us later on to expand our language capabilities. When I started learning Spanish at age 40, I could definitely see the difference between learning a language earlier or later in life! The girls picked it up much faster than me, probably because they were not afraid of making mistakes when speaking Spanish.

I remind myself constantly that it is all a process, with no road map for us to follow. Sometimes we work more on one language than the others. Sometimes we only read in one language (usually English) for weeks, because we don’t always make the effort to read books in other languages too.

But, I love the advantages of trying to raise our girls trilingual. I love that our girls can talk to their extended family in South Africa in Afrikaans. I love that they can speak Spanish whenever they find out that a person is Spanish speaking. And I love that we understand a little bit of multiple languages when traveling.

My advice: don’t listen to others who may tell you that you should only speak one language to your kids. Don’t give up. Give your family the gift of languages, and in doing so, give them the gift of opening up the world to them.

Wade Davis is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” In a 2003 TED talk, he talks about the endangered cultures that he has had the privilege to spend time with. He says that “only the rhythm of our dances are different”, that we have so much in common even though our way of living looks so much different. One of my favorite quotes from this TED talk is: A language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules. … Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

Wade Davis laments the fact that languages are dying; that a lot of endangered languages are not taught to babies anymore.

“What could be more lonely than to be enveloped in silence, to be the last of your people to speak your native tongue, to have no way to pass on the wisdom of the elders, to anticipate the promise of the children. This tragic fate is indeed the plight of someone somewhere roughly every two weeks.”

About cultures, and what we do to each other in the name of “development”, he says: “Genocide, the physical extinction of a people, is universally condemned, but ethnocide, the destruction of people’s way of life, is not only not condemned, it’s universally celebrated as part of a development strategy.”

As I research words for MotherTongues products, I come across many words from endangered languages. Maybe preserving it on a t-shirt or in an app, the words and their unique meanings will be with us a little longer.

Watch this Wade David TED talk and let me know what you think!

A new song was launched today by UN Women. From China to Costa Rica, from Mali to Malaysia acclaimed singers and musicians, women and men, have come together to spread a message of unity and solidarity: We are “One Woman”. ”One Woman” reminds us that together, we can overcome violence and discrimination: “We Shall Shine!” Enjoy this musical celebration!

My company, MotherTongues, has been giving $1 of every t-shirt sold to the Center for Women in Transition in Holland, MI, for about 5 years now. I hope to support more non-profits that help women who have lived with abuse and violence, as MotherTongues grows. Thank you for helping MotherTongues make a difference!

Reading time at home

February 21 is promoted by UNESCO as International Mother Language Day. The day was first proclaimed in 1952 as “Language Movement Day” by Dhaka University students in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) who were protesting suppression of their Bengali language. Police and military forces opened fire, killing many young people in attendance. Let’s not forget that it is still very difficult for lots of people in the world to get an education in their mother tongue.

The theme for 2013 is “The Book”, with the idea to read books, poems, etc. in your local language or a lesser resourced language “somewhere in public”, if possible, to make people aware of the status of many lesser resourced languages or local languages in the world.

If you don’t want to read in public, you can also do it at home. Read a book today in your mother language, listen to a podcast, write a letter, or dance to some music. And remember to share your love of language with your kids.

In the video, she shows a graph about the “critical period” for learning a language: before age 7. In our family I know our kids have been able to learn Spanish much more easily than my husband and me. But I do have hope that it is still possible to learn a new language(s) after the age of 7!

It is upsetting to me that schools are shifting the learning of another language to Middle School or even later.  We should learn from other countries where second language learning starts in Kindergarten.

l’espirit de l’escalier (French). Literally: “the spirit of the staircase”. When one ponders what one should have said in a previous conversation (as you are going up the stairs, I presume).

Dil baagh baagh ho-gaya (Urdu and Punjabi). Literally: “My heart became a garden”. Used to express overwhelming joy.

Siku ya kufa nyani miti yote huteleza (Swahili). Literally: “The day a monkey is destined to die, all trees get slippery.” There is no escaping one’s fate.

Gadrii Nombor Shulen Jongu (Tibetan). Literally: “To give a green answer to a blue question”. Giving an answer that is unrelated to the question.

Egyszer volt budán kutyavásár (Hungarian). Literally: “There was a dog-market in Buda only once”. A favorable opportunity that only happens once. It is something to be grasped with two hands, otherwise you will find yourself regretting it later on.

And a last one:

Ukuph’ ukuziphakela (Zulu: South Africa). Literally: “Giving is to serve a portion for oneself.” Kindness is reciprocated. When one gives to another it is like serving a portion for oneself because when in need, it is most likely that the person one has helped, will return the kindness.

Please tell me your favorite sayings, and remember to add the translation too!

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence started a Day of Unity in 1981 to connect battered women’s advocates across the nation who were working to end violence against women and children.

Did you know that 2 out of 5 women will experience abuse or violence during their lifetime? The statistics are shocking.

For the last 6 years, MotherTongues has given $1 of every t-shirt, apron or tote bag sold, to the Center for Women in Transition (CWIT) in Holland, Michigan. This amazing organization helps women and children deal with significant life challenges. I’m proud of how we have been able to help out, in our small way. And thankful for organizations like CWIT all over the country, helping out in the communities where they are located.

This month is a time to celebrate survivors, congratulate advocates, empower victims, and mourn the deaths of those lost to domestic violence. Find out if there are vigils in your community (or organize one), go listen to survivors speak out, and talk to your kids. Because we are part of an Ubuntu community – a community who cares.

This word is my new mantra. I have woohitike inside of me. May you embrace your woohitike!

Ps. This word is from the World Words iPhone/iPad app. Learn a new word every day!