Summer greetings from Belingual

The sun is shining, and the summer is upon us! We have a great Belingual Language Club season behind us with 17 clubs in 12 different languages and 40 volunteers helping with our clubs! We also held our first family event in Tampere at Lastenkeskus Rulla, took part in three multilingual events in libraries across Uusimaa and organized a summer picnic for multilingual single parent families. Thank you to all the families who came along to our clubs and to our amazing volunteers who make our clubs possible! 

Summer is an amazing time to spend time together and support your child’s language learning and identity development. Read our blog on how to make the best use of traveling to your family’s other home country (if you are lucky enough to do so this summer).  If not, every interaction our children have with their environment and community is a learning opportunity, use the world around you to learn new words and embrace diversity.  We have listed some fun activities to take part in this summer. 

Familia is taking part in Pride this year, take the opportunity to show your child what diversity is in action and come march with Familia on Saturday, you can still sign up! 

Wishing everyone a wonderful summer! Check out our upcoming activities this fall, sign up for volunteer training to start your own club! 

Registering more than one mother tongue

Finland is a multilingual country, but officially everyone can have only one registered mother tongue. Registering more than one mother tongue would promote equality among languages used in within families and give a better picture of the linguistic identity of individuals. Help make a Finland where no family has to choose between their family languages and read more about the initiative here and sing the innitiative by 11 July! 

Belingual Blog: Tips for travelling with a multilingual child

Traveling allows you to introduce the child to their other culture and may strengthen their motivation to use their minority language. That's why we have collected some interesting blogs with tips and recommendations related to traveling with a multilingual child. 

A qualitative study is being conducted for Belingual. We are looking for interviewees whose family has participated in one of the language clubs of the Belingual project. for the thesis. The purpose of the interviews is to find out the views of the families on the effects of taking part in n the clubs on the linguistic and cultural identity of the children of the participating families. Participation is voluntary. 

If you are interested and would like to participate in the interview, you can register you interest my clicking the link below. 

Do you want to help make our Belingual Langauge Clubs happen? Why not become a Belingual Club Facilitator! 

Read more about becoming a Belingual Volunteer

Belingual Events

We have lots of activities coming up over the next 6 months! Make sure you save these dates! 

• 20. 7 Belingual comes to Rovaniemi - Come meet other multilingual, intercultural families in Rovaniemi! For more information: yanika.wilen@familiary.fi
• 19.8 Fala Cultural Day -  Come celecbrate African culture and multilingualism with your children at Pasila Library
•  26.8 Familia Family Day: Come meet other intercultural families and celebrate our Family Day! 📅 When? 26.8.23, 11-18.00 📍 Where? Hanna Asukastalo Sturenkatu 12, 00510 Helsinki
• 14.9 You are enough - Peer discussion for single parent families
• 14.10 Belingual Family Day:  Expert presentation on supporting childrens Identity developement as fun acitvities for children at Familia's offices (Helsinki) and online
•  2.11 Monikielisyys yhden vanhemman perheissä: Meidän perheemme muistoboksi
• 9.11 Biligual Lab – Peer workshop for fathers of multilingual children 
• 16 or 17.12 World National Arabic Language and Culture Day celebration for Arabic speaking families 

Other Events 

Resources - Summer reads

• Monikulttuurinen vanhemmuus – miten kasvattaa ruskeaa tytärtä valkoisena äitinä?
• Language acquisition of children in multilingual families – an intersectional approach
• Embracing Linguistic Diversity: The Significance of a Multilingual Finnish Society and the Importance of Registering Multiple Mother Tongues
• "Lapsella tai nuorella voi olla paljon kielitaitoa, vaikka hänen kielitaitonsa koulun opetuskielellä olisi vasta aluillaan" - Maailman Kuvalehti

Summer listening for kids ( in Finnish)

Story of our family: Story of our family tells the story of many different families from all over Finland. In the episodes, you can go spelunking with Sandra, eat pancakes at Rainer's grandmother's house and learn about the traditions of the Day of the Dead together with Anna. Tarina meidän perheestä | Yle Areena – podcastit