The Bittersweet Life

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Episode 218: POSTCARDS Aug 13, 2018

Show notes

A postcard captures a moment in time—a literal snapshot of a place. But according to Katy, people make the best postcards. If you visit a place often enough, every time you go back, you'll inevitably find faces you've seen before. Locals whom you've noticed many times—and who have perhaps noticed you—although you may know nothing about them. May have never even spoken… and yet they are every bit a landmark of your experience of the city as an Eiffel Tower or a Colosseum.

Maybe it's the cashier at the supermarket down the street from the apartment you once rented, perhaps it's the accordion player who always sits on the same corner, or the young mother in the park who has a new baby every time you see her. How they change or don't change, age or seemingly defy the ravages of time, how their eyes might linger on you with a glimmer of half-recognition before returning to their inner world—these are the snapshots that truly color a city, and a return traveler's experience of it.

Katy and Tiffany explore this idea in Episode 218: POSTCARDS.

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Episode 217: BILINGUAL (with Kristie Prada) Aug 06, 2018

Show notes

Want to raise a bilingual child? Whether you are an expat or not, in a mixed-culture relationship or not, it is possible to raise your child in two (or more) languages, and the benefits you will pass on to your child are significant. But how do you go about it?

Today Katy sits down with British mum Kristie Prada, author and creator of the blog Mamma Prada. She and her Italian husband live in the UK and are serious about raising their children to speak both languages flawlessly. In her effort to do just that, she has become an expert on childhood bilingualism, and shares that knowledge onto her blog.

On this episode, Kristie shares her favorite resources for raising children in two language, the most interesting of which is double-language book series by One Third Stories. Instead of presenting the two languages side by side, these books introduce foreign words into the text slowly, until they eventually take over. Before you know it, your child is reading an entire book in a second language! She also shares the brilliant idea of teaching your child about the other country and its culture as a way of piquing his or her interest in the language (instead of the other way around), and offers tips and tricks for staying strong when your older child resists the minority language.

If bilingualism is something you want for your child, this is the episode for you!

This episode also features a bonus appearance by none other than Tiffany's son Aurelio, who offers a peek into the mind of a bilingual toddler, and answers Katy's hard-hitting questions, such as, "What does a cow say?"

You can also find Kristie Prada on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.