Book Post: Bilingual Success Stories Around the World

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I’m very excited to share a book that means very much to me personally. Let me first explain why:
As you might know, I’m passionate about languages and I’m an expat raising my daughter bilingually. But did you know my fascination with bilingualism dates back to middle school? It got another boost when I spent a year as an exchange student in Canada, living with a bilingual host family.

At university, I embarked upon a bilingual course with a binational diploma, and my diploma paper was on bilingualism in the German-French border area, and more specifically in kindergarten classes on both sides of the border. I read a number of books for my research, but the book I would really have needed then, and again when my daughter was born, hadn’t been written yet. Now it has, and I am proud to say, that I played a tiny little part in it.

But enough about me. Adam Beck, the author of this book, is the founder of the blog Bilingual Monkeys and the online forum The Bilingual Zoo for parents raising multilingual kids. An educator for over 30 years, Adam has worked with hundreds of bilingual and multilingual children as a classroom teacher and private tutor. Originally from the United States, he has lived in Hiroshima, Japan since 1996 and is raising two trilingual children in Japanese, English, and Spanish.

His previous publication include the bilingual-parent handbook Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability, the playful “picture book for adults” titled I WANT TO BE BILINGUAL! (illustrated by Pavel Goldaev), 28 Bilingual English-Spanish Fairy Tales & Fables and a humorous novel for children and adults titled How I Lost My Ear (illustrated by Simon Farrow).

Along with his books and his online writing, he provides empowering support to bilingual and multilingual families through personal coaching, online and off, and through speaking appearances at conferences and workshops worldwide. He is on the consultation team at the Harmonious Bilingualism Network (HaBilNet), led by Annick De Houwer.

For Bilingual Success Stories Around the World, Adam interviewed families all over the world raising their children with more than one language. He presents their many different situations and lets them describe their approaches, the obstacles they encountered, and their successes in their own words. Some families have very young children, others live with teenagers or are already in their second generation. Some use the “one parent one language” method, others “minority language at home”, some have only one parent speaking the minority language, others have three languages in their daily lives. (And as you might have guessed, one of those families is mine.)

This is the book I wish I had when my daughter was born!

(Well, this and Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability). I hope it will encourage many other families to embark or continue on the path of bilingualism and multilingualism.

Bilingual Success Stories Around the World: Parents Raising Multilingual Kids Share Their Experiences and Encouragement is a real-life roadmap to greater success and joy for any parent raising bilingual or multilingual children. Written in the same empowering spirit as Adam’s first book Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability, this practical, worldly-wise guide features the success stories of a wide range of families and details the kinds of attitudes and actions that can enable your family to enjoy the same sort of rewarding success. The focus of this book is on the actual practice of raising children to acquire active ability in more than one language, conveyed through the revealing experiences of parents who are now succeeding admirably at their bilingual or multilingual aim. Read this book for ideas and inspiration to help you realize your own family’s joyful success story!

Here you can download a free PDF sample of the first 37 pages – go ahead, it’s just a click away!
Adam provides all the links to buy Bilingual Success Stories Around the World on this page, here are some of them:
Amazon.com
Amazon UK
Book Depository
Amazon France
Amazon Germany

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Brittany and the Hermine

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The hermine, a white weasel, is represented in heraldry by its fur. It is one of the historic symbols of Brittany. Legend has it that Anne de Bretagne, during a hunt, cornered a hermine. The animal had to choose between certain death or getting soiled on a swampy path, and it chose death. Anne de Bretagne was impressed by its attitude and let it live. The hermine became the emblem of Brittany for its courage and gave birth to the motto “Potius mori quam fœdari”, Rather Die than the Stain.

At the royal palace of Amboise, when Anne resided with her husbands King Charles VII and King Louis XII (see the explanation here), the columns in the council hall bear the fleur-de-lys of France and the hermine of Brittany.

The hermine can also be found in the Gwenn ha du, the Breton flag. It consists of black and white stripes and the corner of black hermine son a white background. Gwenn ha Du means “Black and White” in Breton.

The Gwenn ha Du floats on Brittany town halls

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River power in Brittany

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In the north of the département Ille-et-Vilaine, two rivers hold extraordinary powers of very different nature: the Rance and the Couesnon.

The Couesnon is a coastal river of just 100km length. Still it crosses three départements that coincidentally belong to three different regions.
Its source is in Mayenne (53) which belongs to the Pays-de-la-Loire region. Then it runs through Ille-et-Vilaine but finishes in the Normandy département Manche (50) just west of the Mont Saint Michel.

As famous 19th-century French writer Chateaubriand put it, “Le Couesnon dans sa folie a mis le Mont en Normandie” – the foolish Couesnon put the Mont into Normandy.
While the Couesnon does not officially constitute the limit between Brittany’s Ille-et-Vilaine department and the Norman Manche, it is true that the river despite its irregular course has always flown into the Mont Saint Michel Bay west of the Mont. Now that its banks are artificially consolidated, there is no longer any doubt about the affiliation of the Mont Saint Michel – it is located in Normandy, and no Breton protest will change that.

The Couesnon seen from the Mont Saint Michel – The Mont Saint Michel seen from the Couesnon

The Rance
The Rance is another coastal river only a little longer than the Couesnon. Its source lies in a village in Cotes d’Armor and it flows into the Channel between Dinard and Saint Malo in Ille-et-Vilaine.

The extraordinary power of the Rance is quite literally power, as in electricity, and the Rance owes it to the high tides on this part of the coast, which are in fact the third-highest in the world.

The difference between high and low tide is especially visible on the beach of Saint Malo

In the 1960s, France harnessed the power of the tides by building a tidal power station across the mouth of the Rance that remained for 45 years the largest tidal power station in the world. It has a peak output of 240MW, supplying 0,12% of the power demand of France.

The mouth of the Rance (red) and of the Couesnon (blue)
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Brittany in France

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Brittany is the westernmost part of France, jutting out into the Atlantic ocean. It has over 1.100km of coastline, double that if you include the numerous islands.

Traditionally, you distinguish between the Armor or Arvor, the coastal or maritime area, and the Argoat, the interior.

The climate in Brittany is temperate, with more rain than the French average, but the southern coast and its beaches get less rain and more sunshine than the Monts d’Arrée mountains in the interior. (Mountains being a big word, as they culminate at 385m.)

The administrative region Brittany is divided into four départements: Ille-et-Vilaine (35) in the east, with the regional capital Rennes; Cotes d’Armor (22) in the north, Finistère (29) in the west, and Morbihan (56) in the south.
Historically, the département Loire-Atlantique (44) with its main city of Nantes, also belongs to Brittany. Actually, Nantes was the seat of the Duke of Brittany, the château des ducs de Bretagne is still there to prove it.

Château des Ducs de Bretagne (Ducal Palace), Nantes

Fun facts:
The numbers behind the département names correspond to their numbers in French nomenclature, which includes the first two numbers of the postal code and the number on the right side of the license plate, above the regional logo. Many Bretons living in the Loire-Atlantique replace the Pays-de-la-Loire regional logo with a sticker of the Brittany logo (the Gwenn ha Du).

The Morbihan is the only French département (of which there are 94 in mainland France (not counting Corsica and the overseas ones) whose name is not in French. Morbihan means “little sea” in Breton and refers to the Golfe du Morbihan.

Brittany was annexed to France in the 16th century. King Charles VII married Anne de Bretagne who brought her Duchy into the marriage. In order to make sure Brittany was attached to France no matter what, the wedding contract included a clause that if Charles died without a heir, Anne would have to marry his successor.
Which is exactly what happened – Charles VII died an untimely accidental death (he hit his head against a door frame despite being only 1,52m tall) and Anne married his successor Louis XII. They didn’t have any male children either. Louis’ successor François Ier married the daughter of Louis and Anne, Claude, who inherited the Duchy of Brittany from her mother but who couldn’t inherit the throne of France from her father.
Long story short: François and Claude had several sons, and in 1532 Brittany became officially part of France.

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Letters from Paris goes to Brittany

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It’s that time of the year again – August approaches, and those who haven’t taken their annual leave in July are packing their suitcases for summer holidays. As I explained last year, many factories and businesses close down in August, resulting in a majority of people taking their summer vacation in August rather than in July, the two months of school holidays.

I’ve decided this is as good a time as any to leave Paris for an excursion to my favorite region in France: Brittany. For the next few weeks, my posts will be Letters from Brittany.

As an introduction, have a look at my Twitter feed from early 2020, when I supported the campaign for a Gwenn ha Du (flag of Brittany) emoji by tweeting daily using the hashtag #emojibzh from January 17 to February 09.

This link will show you those tweets in reverse order.

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L is for Louis

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Many French kings were named Louis, and their combined reigns stretch over hundreds of years of French history.

Louis Ist, born in 778, was the third son of Charlemagne, and became his successor after the death of his two older brothers. His grandson was Louis II, whose son in turn was Louis III, but it was his brother Charles who became the father of Louis IV and great-grandfather of Louis V.

Are you lost yet? Me too.

Louis VI at Saint Denis Basilica (bottom left)

Let’s leave the Carolingian dynasty for the Capetians. After Louis V who died in 987, it took a change of dynasty to get to Louis VI, born in 1084. His son was Louis VII, his great-grandson Louis VIII and with the following generation we finally get to someone interesting: Louis IX, better known as Saint-Louis. We’re in the 13th century now, and Louis is king for over forty years. His reign is seen as the golden age for the kingdom of France which reached economic and political summits during this era. He had a reputation of being very pious and a high moral integrity.
He was canonized in 1297, twenty-seven years after his death, and remains the only French king to receive that distinction from the Catholic church.

Following his death, it took three generations to get to Louis X, the last Louis of the Capetian dynasty. And even after entering the Valois dynasty, it was some time before Louis XI became king in 1423. (He was the son and successor of Charles VII who was crowned with the help of Joan of Arc, with whom you might be more familiar than any of these kings.)

Onward, to cousin Louis XII, who died without giving the kingdom a successor, so the crown went to yet another cousin, François d’Angoulême (the first king named François). Contrary to Louis XII, he had a number of children, yet none of them was named Louis. (His daughter Louise died aged 3 but she couldn’t have become queen anyway.)

Louis XII and Anne de Bretagne at Saint Denis Basilica

Enter the Bourbon dynasty and the reigns of the most famous kings named Louis:

Louis XIII with his prime ministers Cardinal Richelieu and Mazarin, arch-enemies of the Three Musketeers

Louis XIV, the Sun King, who built the glorious palace of Versailles to escape the dangerous streets of Paris

Louis XV who lent his name to the architectural style Louis Quinze and reconciled France and Austria, sealing the alliance with the marriage between his grandson Louis and Marie-Antoinette.
Can you see it coming? That grandson is none other than Louis XVI who lost his head during the French Revolution.
Which makes his brother, Louis XVIII, who returned to the throne after the first fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1814, the last king of France by that name (and one of the last kings of France full stop).

Louis XVIII at Saint Denis Basilica

You’ll wonder what happened to Louis XVII and what possessed the parents to name two of their sons Louis, especially as they were born only one year apart?
I can only answer the first question: Louis XVII, or Louis Charles, was the second son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. He was considered Dauphin after the death of his older brother but died aged ten during the French Revolution, 19 years before his uncle claimed back the throne.

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Book post: A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN

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Cover Design by Sarah Taplin

You know I’m a bit of a language nerd, right? I’m trilingual, live in Paris, raise my kid in German, and write in English (all the while learning Italian and listening to podcasts in Plattdüütsch, my granny’s mother tongue.) So show me a book where languages are involved, and I’ll make a grab for it without bothering to find out more.

Laura Rueckert’s YA fantasy novel A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN is one of those books, even though her protagonist Jiara is my opposite – where I would have thrown myself into learning a new language in full immersion mode, Jiara has given up on learning languages due to dyslexia and years of scholarly struggles. Still, her motivation is the life-and-death kind, not only for herself but for her loved ones as well. For if she doesn’t find her sister’s murderer in that foreign country where she doesn’t understand anyone, her sister’s ghost may well kill all of her family, starting with Jiara herself. If the killer doesn’t get Jiara first, that is.
As if that weren’t enough, Jiara doesn’t just have to travel to the faraway land where she doesn’t understand anyone to look for her sister’s murderer, she has to marry the king of that country. Can you imagine being married to someone you can’t communicate with on top of hunting down a murderer?
Add to that awesome world building, and you have A DRAGONBIRD IN THE FERN.

Curious? Here’s all the info you need to get your hands on the book which released on August 3, 2021.

To buy A Dragonbird in the Fern:
Schuler Books
Bookshop.org
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound
Amazon
Books-A-Million
Flux
Target
Blackwell’s
Book Depository
Genialokal
Bücher, Medien und Mehr

About the author
Laura Rueckert is a card-carrying bookworm who manages projects by day. At night, fueled by European chocolate, she transforms into a writer of young adult science fiction and fantasy novels. Laura grew up in Michigan, USA, but a whirlwind romance after college brought her to Europe. Today, she lives in Germany with her husband, two kids, and one fluffy dog.


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July 14 in Paris

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July 14 is the French national holiday, known in the English-speaking world as Bastille Day. The Bastille was a fort meant to defend the Porte Saint Antoine on the east side of the Charles V city wall, and it was stormed and taken by the people on July 14, 1789 and later demolished.
The Storming of the Bastille is commemorated on July 14 since 1880.

In Paris, the celebrations of the 14-juillet, as it is called in French, start on the night before with the Bal des pompiers (the fire-fighters ball) held in the city’s various fire stations. In other French towns, it is either the Bal des pompiers, or the Bal Populaire (the people’s ball), often organized just outside the local town hall. Some towns have their fireworks on July 13, others on July 14.

In Paris, the day begins with the famous parade on the Champs Élysées that is traditionally opened with a fly-over by the Patrouille de France in the national colors bleu-blanc-rouge.

Then the president descends the avenue, accompanied by the Garde Républicaine,  and takes place on the platform installed on the place de la Concorde, where he watches the parade with the government, members of the national assembly and the senate, assorted dignitaries and guests.

The parade descends from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. It is composed of military units on foot, on various motorized vehicles, on horseback, and in the air. The Foreign Legion marches in last place because their step is slowest.
The loudest applause from the spectators along the avenue is always for the firefighters who close the parade with all their different vehicles, for the Paris firefighters are part of the military. (They were founded by Napoléon Bonaparte after a fire broke out during a reception at the Austrian Embassy in 1810 during which around a hundred people died.)

During the day, the public has the occasion to meet the military, notably on the Esplanade des Invalides between the Dome des Invalides and the Seine river, where l’Armée de Terre (the army), l’Armée de l’air (the air force) and la Marine (the navy) are represented.

Show events include visiting tanks and helicopters, parachutists jumping from helicopters in the sky, and more.

The day concludes with a concert on the Champ de Mars that is transmitted live on television and the famous fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.

Spectators on the quays hoping for a good view
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Les colonnes Morris

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The round green columns covered in theatre and movie posters that you find on Paris sidewalks are called colonnes Morris, after the printers Mr Morris & Son, who won a contest in 1868 to design the new “colonnes-affiches” (poster columns). Previously, posters for shows were pinned on wooden boards on the outside of public urinals set up by the municipality. They were improved upon under Napoléon III by the engineer Adolphe Alphand who made sure people couldn’t be seen when inside and installed gas lighting inside. The masonry was replaced with cast iron, but the double function of urinal and poster display didn’t sit well with critics.

Morris senior and junior took inspiration from the German Litfaßsäulen (after their creator Ernst Litfaß), introduced in Germany in 1854 to fight fly-posting. They gave the columns a distinctive domed roof to protect the posters from the weather. Baron Haussmann gave them a monopoly for the columns. The last of the urinal-poster columns disappeared in 1877. Twenty-one years later, the capital counted 225 Morris columns.

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Over a hundred years and a few controversies later, you can still find these emblematic columns all over Paris. The posters advertising theatre plays and movies are protected by plexiglass panes, some are illuminated at night, some are rotary to better display the posters.

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Le Château du Louvre

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You have never seen it. You haven’t queued for tickets, and you haven’t been inside to see the Mona Lisa. I know you haven’t because le château du Louvre is not what you think it is. It is not the giant palace in the center of Paris housing one of the most famous museums in the world. That would be the Louvre Palace, le palais du Louvre.

Nit-picking, you say? Tell that to King Philippe-Auguste (reign: 1180-1223) who had the château du Louvre (the Louvre Castle) built to reinforce the wall he had built around the city.

Location of the Château du Louvre and the Philippe Auguste city wall (in brown) on a map of Paris

The château du Louvre was built near the river at the western end of the city, where the risk of an attack was highest as the English occupied Normandy less than 100km away. Philippe Auguste also wanted a safe place for his treasure and for his archives which had been lost in a battle with Richard Lionheart but since been reconstituted. The château du Louvre was roughly square with a moat surrounding it and a round keep at the center.

model of the château du Louvre at the Louvre Museum

At the time of King Charles V (reign: 1364-1380), Paris had spread past the old city wall, and Charles V had a new wall built. The château du Louvre lost most of its military significance, and the king could sacrifice some of the protective building aspects to make it more habitable while still providing a safe place for the king, notably after the revolt of 1358 led by the Prévôt des Marchands Étienne Marcel.

During the Hundred Years War, the English under King Henry V were allied with the Burgundians who held Paris, so the English could enter the city and occupied the château du Louvre without a fight. They stayed from 1420 to 1436.

Successive French kings demolished the château little by little and built new structures on top. During works in the 19th century, it was discovered that the foundations of the château du Louvre hadn’t been destroyed completely. The basis of the keep and two walls were cleared during the works for President François Mitterrand’s Grand Louvre project, and can be seen today during a visit of the Palais du Louvre’s famous museum, the Musée du Louvre.

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