Hi! I’m Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori. I am half-French half-Japanese and grew up in France. This is where I learnt to read and write in Japanese. And it hasn’t been an easy journey. As I became a dad, it was very important for me to provide a more enjoyable, fun experience to my sons of learning to read and write in their home languages. My (now twelve years of) experience as a secondary school language teacher has helped me tremendously in this respect, and I have founded The Library 4 Multilinguals to help fellow parents and educators create an enjoyable experience for their children and students.

This is how I came to write The Parents’ Guide to Raising Multi-literate Children, and now In Search of the Lost Words – A Bilingual Time Travel Adventure. The former, as the title suggests, is aimed at parents (and educators). And the latter is a graphic novel aimed at multilingual children aged 8-12. It is a book specifically designed for multilingual children by its content AND format.

The format is probably what makes this book the most unique. On the one hand, it is designed to create opportunities for parents and children to discuss their family and culture. This is done by inviting the reader to complete some of the illustrations that demand details specific to the grandparents’ country and/or culture.

On the other hand, it creates a genuine need for the reader to write in their home language. Anna, the main character hardly speaks her father’s language. She (and the reader) therefore needs to work out from the situation and some words she can pick up (written around the speech bubbles) what the people are saying.

Is a bilingual/multilingual child someone who speaks equally well, and “without an accent” in all their languages?
This is one of the important questions I wanted to deal with in this book.
Representation matters. And this is also why, the main character, Anna is an “unbalanced” bilingual person – i.e. she speaks better one language than the other. It is important for children to understand that the widespread idea that a bilingual person speaks equally well both their languages is unrealistic. There are of course people who are more balanced. But it demands tremendous work and is relatively rare. This book both normalises the above but also demonstrates how to help our children want to speak more their home languages. Spending time with the family is what motivates Anna, the main character, to speak again her dad’s language, and consequently reconnect with her family.

Regarding “accents” I would like to quote my good friend Tetsu Yung who once said, “Accents are like good looks. We can all agree that there are times when they can be helpful in life, but they are not necessary”. To be bilingual, does not mean “sounding like a native”. And in many cases, regional accents make people sound different in various parts of the same country. Accents are part of our identity. They are our history. Our children’s accents are the reflection of the incredible life they are living. They have a foot in many cultures, and roots in different countries. Let’s treasure their accents!

How can we motivate a child to talk in their home language(s)?
This is a very frequently asked question. The most important point is to create an environment where they hear the language. So, we, parents and carers, should speak as much as possible in the language(s) we want our children to speak. It is a whole environment to create.

Of course, this is not all. On top of that, helping our children want to speak our language(s) with them is crucial. In our family, we have game nights, movie nights, and bedtime stories that are all mainly in our home languages and happen on a daily or weekly basis.

When we watched “Home Alone” with our sons, for example, they found it so funny that they re-enacted some of the scenes. But because we watched it in French, they were speaking in French. On game nights, when we play some traditional Korean games, we are going to say things in Korean. For children who are not that confident speaking in their home language, games that have set phrases to be said, and only a few of them, are ideal.
Going on holidays and getting away from the term time schedule and stress has also helped our sons be more inclined to speak in our home languages. And I don’t just refer to holidays in our home countries but any holidays. Going camping for a few days, sleeping in a tent, cooking on a barbecue, lighting the campfire, and going to the beach, were all things that contributed to our sons speaking to us more in our respective languages (French with Daddy, and Korean with Mummy). They learnt the terms related to the different activities such as preparing and cooking on a barbecue with us. So they know more the vocabulary related to all these activities in French and Korean, than in English. And when they’ll want to talk about them, the words that will come to their minds first will be in French and Korean (rather than in English – their strongest language).

Another important way to motivate our children to speak their home language is to NOT FORCE it onto them. Sometimes our children want to tell us something that is very important to them. It might be easier to say it in their school language. If at that time we decide to prioritise the language used over the message, we are showing our language as a barrier, and our home language can endorse a bad connotation…

How can we motivate a child to read, and later on write, in their home language(s) and not just be read to?
In the same way, as for speaking, we need to first create an environment for them to see how much fun they can get from reading. In the beginning, we, parents are those reading 100%. This shows them what they can get on their own once they can read.

It is important to not solely focus on books in the home language(s) to avoid making it/them “limiting criteria”. By this, I mean that we want our children to see that being able to read in more than one language gives them access to more books. This is why for bedtime stories, we read books in all our languages (French, and Korean of course, but English as well).
Once they love reading, deciphering the letters are the only barrier to doing so on their own. If we, parents, are those teaching our children, I would highly recommend doing it in a playful way. Because let’s be honest, children who want to work outside school are very rare. If you want some ideas, feel free to check The Parents’ Guide to Raising Multi-literate Children where there are 70+ activities that help you do that in a fun way.
Here is a video with 3 examples of games.

As teachers, teaching through games has tremendous power. But as parents, it helps us spend time in a fun way and creates bonding moments. At home, any work might be felt like an extra effort that our children’s friends don’t have to do. So this can be demotivating for our children. But which child would say “no” to a treasure hunt, or a memory game? It becomes 80% of fun for 20% of effort. And in that case, the effort is felt as being worth it as they are having fun! (The Parents’ Guide to Raising Multi-literate Children explains in detail how to adapt the level of difficulty to keep the effort around 20%).

And on top of this, one important habit to keep or include in our daily routine is to read regularly together. In our family, we read bedtime stories. Generally, my wife and I read most of the books. This helps our sons access the story effortlessly and see how fun they are. What is great is that in the morning, they often take that book back and pick up where we left off. Please note that this is because they can now read more or less fluently in French and Korean. But what helped the most is definitely finding the books they can’t get enough of! So spending time on blogs, reading reviews of books, and asking for recommendations is very much worth it!

The main message I want to convey is to attract our children towards reading and writing in their home language(s) with fun (instead of pushing them towards it).

Once they can read, writing is only a step away and can be achieved in exactly the same way. (Again, I will direct you to The Parents’ Guide to Raising Multi-literate Children).

How can children’s books, and your new one, in particular, help us achieve that?
Finding/creating the motivation to read and write is key. The story of In Search of the Lost Words features a main character who does not speak very well her dad’s language. She can only pick up a few words when people speak to her in that language. The scenario, therefore, gives a genuine reason to have empty speech bubbles that the reader will complete. It follows as well the 80% fun 20% effort ratio advised earlier.
Children are free to write texts that are only a few words long or more elaborate sentences. It is totally adaptable to the reader’s ability.
One thing I want to stress is that this book should be used mainly for parents and children to connect and talk about their language, family, and culture.

They can read it casually together. Children don’t HAVE TO write in the speech bubbles straightaway. Whenever there is an empty speech bubble, they can work out what the characters are saying. And if it’s a nice sentence that your child wants to keep in the book, that’s when they can write it.
Because it is going to be in a book, it is likely that your child will want it to be neat and “perfect” (i.e. without mistakes).

This becomes an ideal moment to teach your child about spelling or grammar rules. It will therefore help with the retention of this teaching/learning moment. Feel free to discuss these rules together and write on a separate sheet before your child copies the sentences in the speech bubbles. That way, they will feel in a safe environment and will learn better.

This book is therefore NOT a workbook to complete one speech bubble at a time. It can be completed over many readings, always by following your child’s lead.

In Search of the Lost Words – A Bilingual Time Travel Adventure
Support the campaign to help this book come to life!
You can learn more about the book, its benefits, and the rewards available as part of the Kickstarter Campaign here!

The post Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori, a trilingual language teacher: Advice for parents raising bilingual children and his new book! first appeared on Maltamum.

It’s snowing outside here in Horten and it’s freezing cold. Being a Mediterranean girl at heart who has spent most of her life under the sun, the short, dark winter days of Scandinavia are hard to get used to and have taken a toll on me. We have decorated our Christmas tree, we have bought most of the gifts, we have baked traditional Norwegian biscuits and Greek delicacies. It’s that time of the year… I never liked making big plans for the new year to come, it never worked for me, but I always try to take the time and look back at the things that went well, which gives me strength to try and do more next year. Like a positive kick on the butt of sorts. Why only the good things one might ask. What’s done is done and I find it’s much more productive to try and remember the good stuff, build on them and keep on working on top of them instead of dwelling over the bad ones. It’s the remembrance and reinforcement of the positive memories that propel action and energise me.

A while back I joined a writers’ group on Facebook, my very favourite group of this sort, where writers share knowledge and ideas, uplift each other and work as a community. One of the admins, a writer I admire, started a new thread asking ‘WHAT WERE YOUR 2018 ACCOMPLISHMENTS? As the year winds down, let’s look back on it. What were your biggest accomplishments of 2018, as they relate to book publishing?’. And it got me thinking… This is what I need to reflect on to get back my positivism, strength and energy flowing through my body again and ‘get back to work’.

Writing and books play a major role in my life, and if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I am currently working on the publication of my first children’s picture book, ‘Where am I from?’ which will be published in the summer by Faraxa Publishing. I ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in July to validate the book concept, market the book and raise the necessary funds to produce it. It just occurred to me I never found the time to actually sit down and sum up in a blog post the outcome of that campaign and celebrate the subsequent journey and the small, step-by-step victories.

First things first, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for a truly spectacular level of support you’ve shown me this year. To everyone who’s been reading my blog, bought something from my eshop, has ordered content and translations, supported financially and pre-ordered Where am I from ? via Kickstarter and now via Faraxa’s website, interviewed me or featured the book on their newspaper / magazine / website / blog, helped spread the word on social media, invited me to speak, shared your own time, skills and wisdom, mentored me and helped me avoid potential disasters, left an encouraging word or comment online… I thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart! I am forever grateful and aware that I never EVER manage things on my ‘own’. This is pure arrogance. We are all connected, one way or another, and it is thanks to each and every one of you that I keep on progressing towards what feels as the right path in my life. Thank you for a wonderful 2018 and I wish you and your loved ones the very best on your own personal journeys <3

Back to the question about what were my 2018 accomplishments related to book publishing.

• Signed a contract with the award-winning small press in Malta, Faraxa Publishing
•  The street artist Platon agreed to paint the graffiti and illustrate Where am I from ?
• Planned and executed a Kickstarter campaign where we raised about 10.700 euro to publish this book
• The backers, our supporters, 139 individuals, come literally from all over the world (we even got orders from as far as Australia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Canada and USA!)
• All children, the baby and the mum characters to be featured in the book (except from the main character which we decided not to commission) were commissioned by individuals who all except one are of a multicultural background!
• We received financial support by 3 public sector institutions, namely:
  a) 200 books ordered by David Muscat, Head of the National Literacy Agency, Malta, to be distributed to the public school libraries of Malta
  b) 20 books ordered by Aase Wivestad, Libraries Counsellor, Vestfold Municipality, Norway to be distributed to 13 public libraries in Norway
  c) 12 books ordered by the Central Library of Malta, to be distributed to the public libraries of Malta
• Newspaper features in 3 countries (Malta, Greece, Norway) and other features in Maltese, Greek, Norwegian, Turkish and international blogs and websites
• 2 speaking engagements; one in Norway where I was honoured to be invited alongside writers who have given so much to the Norwegian community like Veronica Salinas and the best-selling author Jan Mehlum, and one in Scotland where I got to spend 4 days with my family alongside the most inspiring and amazing women

While the artist is working on the art to accompany the book, I decided to take a ‘break’ during the month of December, read some books and enjoy the holidays with my family. 1st of January we’re heading to Thailand for 3 months. I always get inspired there and get more things done. These months prior to the publication of the book are far from idle. I actually had never imagined there is so much work involved behind a children’s book. I am learning as much as I can about publishing and marketing books, I am working on the lesson plan and accompanying fun activities for the book (putting back on my teacher’s hat which hasn’t been used since I left my home country), going through other book ideas.

I wish you all Merry Christmas <3 I hope you will get to enjoy the holidays with your loved ones, will be able to get some well needed rest to keep the creative juices flowing, and can manage to be as kind to yourself as you are with the others around you.

Love, as always, Liza.

The post Reflections on the positive things that took place in 2018 first appeared on Maltamum.

Erik (5 years old) grows up in a home which is a little bit different than others in the small city of Norway that we’ve been living during the last 2 years. His mum (me) is a native speaker in a language that his dad (Roy) doesn’t speak. His dad is a native speaker in a language that his mum doesn’t speak and which she only recently started to decode. There is a third language at home, which is considered the ‘family’ language, and which is Erik’s 3rd language in terms of fluency. Dad grew up in Norway, mummy in Greece, Erik was born in Malta and Nelly, his younger sister (2 years) in Norway.

Now throw in the mix one-two more languages that Erik is exposed to during the winter months, a bunch of countries where he has lived in or visited, friends with their own cultures and languages. It might sound confusing but one thing is pretty clear. His worldview, the way he sees what is acceptable and what not, what one can or cannot do, is a bit different from his peers and his behaviour may challenge the norm.

It starts with the smallest things such as mismatching the socks. ‘Isn’t it fun to wear two different socks?’, ‘Why should we only wear a pair?’, ‘Spiderman and Superman cannot be matched?’. More often than not, his choices look similar to the one in the photo. He came home the other day telling me some kids were teasing him about his different socks and were laughing at the kindergarten. That it’s not OK to not wear matching socks. ‘Does it make you feel bad?’ I asked him. To which he replied ‘No, I don’t mind. I like wearing different socks’. End of story, a ‘man’ of few words.

His friends did not have bad intentions. They just genuinely found it funny. Kids, like grownups, learn how to figure out the world by categorising stuff and putting them into boxes. Starting with the small things, such as people wear matching socks; no asking whys. Isn’t it often the case that we take things for granted, that this is how they are supposed to be, simply because we grew up in a certain why? What if we had grown up learning that the right way is to mix and match our socks?

I am just happy the teasing didn’t bother him and that for now he keeps on doing his own thing. I am almost certain this will change, if not in the coming years then during the teenage years when he will need to blend in as much as he can, but it’s a promising character trait which I have high hopes it will resurface again and again later on his life when it will matter the most.

I wish you all a lovely weekend and thanks for reading.

Love, Liza.

My forthcoming children’s book Where am I from? will be
out late summer 2019. Sponsored and endorsed by David Muscat, Head of Literacy Agency, Malta, Aase Wivestad, Libraries Counselor, Vestfold Municipality, Norway, Malta Libraries, and many individuals. Email liza @ maltamum.com for pre-order info or order it right now on Faraxa Publishing‘s website.

Get all the behind-the-scenes updates as we create this one of a kind, graffiti illustrated book, by joining ‘Elisavet Arkolaki ‘s Behind The Book Club’ here.

The post The mismatched socks and the multicultural child first appeared on Maltamum.