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Monica Bravo Granström, (MonicaBG.com) is a Swede living in Germany with her Spanish husband and two multilingual children. Besides of being an academic at the University of Education in Weingarten, she also works voluntary in many ways for multilingualism, e.g. writing for Riksföreningen Sverigekontakt. She is also the Chief Editor of Magasinet SMUL. Monica has written a book, ” I love svenska” (released on the 26th of September 2013). The book helps Swedes living abroad in their effort to pass on the Swedish language to their children.
We discuss her family language portrait, her journey in her career as a language expert, sending her kid to an immersion school, her book and her online magazine.
In this episode of Bilingual Kids Rock Podcast:
00:34 Introduction to Bilingual Parents Connect
2:00 Introduction to Monica Bravo Granstrom
4:37 Learning Spanish in high school
5:50 Monica’s family language portrait and what language does she speak to her kids
8:53 Challenges in learning a second language at school
11:45 Discussing research on school concerns
13:03 Monica talks about her book, “I love svenska”
19:43 Discussing the online magazine, “Magasinet SMUL” – Swedish magazine
23:00 Discussing the research and program
24:46 Switching and mixing languages
26:10 Importance of reading and learning another language
30:00 Encouraging kids to learn another language by making it fun
33:00 Language support and play dates
34:55 Importance of internet and technology with communication
35:33 Challenging thing in raising a multilingual
41:23 Advantages of having an academic background in language to raising her kids
43:09 How learning to speak English paved the way for Monica’s career
45:52 Monica’s advice for people to raising kids bilingual
55:56 Closing remarks
Quotes:
- “I think being a multilingual is not dangerous for your child and it’s so sad that these myths are still living today. I can’t believe it but some people do believe these myths but at the end of the day, they’re just myths”
- “I thought that I’m helping Swedish people who are living abroad that’s why I wrote it in Swedish”
- “I always speak Swedish with my kids. I have to help them with their input on Swedish because most of the time they only hear it from me. You have to work on the language and give them the words.”
- “You push them a bit but be gentle. It can be tricky but you just have to be patient” – Monica on teaching your kids another language
- “I think learning a language is very important for communication. It has always been important and I’ve always liked languages.”
- “Keep talking but don’t give up” – Monica’s advice for parents who are looking to raise bilingual children
Items mentioned in this episode:
“I love Svenska” – Monica’s book (now available at Amazon)
Magasinet SMUL – Swede online magazine founded by Monica and two friends of hers, one in Canada and one in Italy
http://bus.swea.org/ – Organization of Swedish Women abroad
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