Make Your Child Multilingual!
The 10 Step Success Plan to Raising Bi-/Multilingual Children
A Workbook
By Silke Rehman (MBA, ACC, CPCC and NLP Coach)
Raising children with more than one language is exciting and gives them an advantage for life. Being raised with an extra language is indeed a gift for life. It means access to another culture, heightened self-esteem, increased career options and more flexible and divergent thinking. Most parents would love for their child to grow up with an additional language and yet, many struggle and some never succeed. And what's worse, they don't even notice it until their child is older, when it is much harder to correct the earlier mistakes.
What parents need is more than knowledge of the topic. They need a step by step approach to apply the knowledge to their specific family situation and put it into practise. Parents don't fail in theory, they fail in practise.
"Make Your Child Multilingual!" empowers you to successfully raise your child with more than one language by leading you through the practical steps of planning your child's language journey.
Once you have worked through the book you will hold your own personal language success plan tailored to the needs of your family.
Give your child another language for life. The younger your child when you start the better. Download the e-book and start today.
Regular price $24.95
Intro Offer $19.95
Buy Now
Anne H., mother of 2 nursery age children being brought up with French, English and German.
How is this book different from other books about bi-/multilingualism ?
"Make Your Child Multilingual!" is the first book on multilingualism based on a real-life success story and the proven successful workshop which has made hundreds of families succeed already. It is not just theory. It's a workbook that integrates powerful coaching tools and a thorough planning process to provide a practical approach to successfully raising multilingual children - tailored to each family's unique situation and needs. It provides it all in 10 easy steps: A powerful success plan.
"I have been through it all myself and in 'Make Your Child Multilingual!' I share the wealth of experiences I have gained over the years as well as the experiences of hundreds of other parents who attended my workshop and support group meetings for multilingual families. My own daughter just turned 9, speaks, reads and writes fluently in both English and German, and also speaks basic French and some Arabic. In 9 years we moved countries 4 times.
I have written 'Make Your Child Multilingual' with the mission to empower as many parents, care takers and teachers as possible to raise the children in their care with more than one language. Language connects people, opens their eyes to new perspectives and brings about cross-cultural understanding - not even mentioning the economic advantages of being multilingual." Silke Rehman, author of "Make Your Child Multilingual!"
Specifically, "Make Your Child Multilingual!":
✔ provides exactly the information you need to succeed - no information overload, no unnecessary academics
✔ guides you through developing a personalised success plan tailored to your family needs - no one-size-fits-all solutions
✔ is based on the proven successful workshop "Raising Bilingual Children" and real-life success stories - not just theory and case studies
✔ offers dozens of tried and tested tips and tricks from hundreds of workshop participants and multilingual network support group parents
✔ is written by a multilingual, professional, certified coach (MBA, ACC, CPCC, NLP Coach)
Anna P., mother of two school-age children being brought up with English, Spanish and French.
What people loved about the workshop this book is based on:
98% of participants said the information fully met their expectation.
100% of participants said they would recommend the workshop to a friend.
"I thought it was great! Bravo!"
"I loved everything. Very interesting!"
"Both theoretical AND practical and how to actually practice the target language in other language environments"
"Very impressed. That's helpful!"
"Was very useful!"
"Well organized and developing an action plan."
"How to specifically improve my situation"
"The personal suggestions."
"Thanks for a great workshop and the hope of being able to give the children the best chances for their future."
"The workshop is of a highly practical nature. I leave the coursefeeling better equipped to guide my children successfully on their language journey: The few beginner's mistakes I have made, I now know how to mend. And with the second child, I can start from scratch."
Martynke Venema (also published in Gulf News November 2006 - see full article below)
"Rehman is a passionate linguist ! A workshop in multilingualism taught her the essentials and prompted her to study the subject in depth. And it paid off. Despite her daughter's tender years she is already fluent in English and German, speaks basic French and is learning Arabic."
Gulf News February 2006
Give your child another language - a gift for life ! The younger your child when you start the better. Download the e-book and start today.
Regular price $24.95
Intro Offer $19.95
Buy Now
About the Author
Silke Rehman is a professional, certified coach who helps women (and their families) to realize their dreams (see www.developandgrow.com for information about coaching and coach training). She has a passion for languages, is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish and has studied some Chinese and Arabic. She is married to a British husband who grew up bilingual with English and Urdu and has a 9-year old daughter who speaks, reads and writes German and English and holds basic conversations in French and Arabic.
Silke graduated with an honour's degree in business administration from WHU university in Koblenz (Otto Beisheim School of Management), Germany and has also studied in Madrid, Spain and in the MBA programme at Texax A&M university in the USA. She brings more than 12 years of professional experience in European and Global Marketing Management at Procter & Gamble working in several countries such as Germany, UK and Switzerland. Since 2004 she works as a workshop leader and coach helping clients to become clear about what they want from their life, overcome possible life issues, reach their goals faster, find their life purpose and realize their dreams. She loves her work!
"When our daughter was born in French-speaking Switzerland, I was overwhelmed with the task ahead of me. I am a native German speaker myself and have a bi-lingual English/Urdu speaking husband. I had no idea how I was going to handle 3-4 languages (German, English, Urdu, French) in the life of my new baby girl. I read everything there was about the topic. My rescue was a workshop on multilingualism that taught me all the essentials and exposed me to other parents with similar issues.
In Switzerland, England and Dubai, I have met many couples who spoke different native languages but did not manage to pass this gift on to their children. They felt very sad and frustrated about it. I discovered they all made similar mistakes.
I decided to put all my theoretical and practical knowledge into a workshop and developed a method for empowering parents to raise their children with more than one language.The workshop turned out to be a huge success, the feedback was overwhelming and it was run again and again. When we left Dubai, I felt I needed to leave this workshop for all the other parents who were constantly arriving new. A friend who had successfully attended the workshop urged me to turn it into a book and make it available to parents worldwide. This is how the idea for this book was born."
Silke Rehman - www.themlnetwork.com
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making more children multilingual!
Here is a review from one of the workshop participants:Bringing up children with more than one language is an art in itself. How your children become fluent in a second language, when to start, what to do and how to do it best are issues dealt with at the workshop "Raising Bilingual Children" by Silke Rehman. Martynke Venema reviews.
People from all over the world come and live in Dubai to seek their fortune. In fact, over 80% of its 1.2 million inhabitants are expat. These are families that from Dubai's multicultural and multilingual backbone. However, in this stimulating environment the danger for its children to get lost in translation is present. Confusion, mixing languages, losing the mother tongue altogether, are some of the lurking symptoms that may occur when multilingualism is not handled properly.
I am Dutch, my husband is English. We have a four-year-old son and a nine-month-old daughter. Do they have anything to fear?
Like many mothers, I find myself often speaking English to Daniel, the eldest, when I pick him up from school. Is it out of politeness towards the other mums ? It probably is.
Silke Rehman, workshop leader of "Raising Bilingual Children" and the driving force behind the Multilingual Support Network, warns against it. "As a rule of thumb - when you look your child in the eye - speak your own language. Don't mix languages for the sake of being polite."
Silke, 36, is German and married to a British man who is half Scottish and half Pakistani. Together they have a six-year-old daughter who speaks fluent English, German and some French. "This did not just happen overnight," Silke says. "It's been the product of making language decisions, setting objectives, developing a strategy and most importantly acting on it. Each family situation is unique. Yet, what is universal is the need for commitment, the willingness to make the additional effort and to persevere if need be. In the end, however, the benefits are worth the effort." (M/F)
Silke did a multilingual course herself shortly after their daughter was born. At the time they were living in French Switzerland. The insights of the course heavily inspired her to get more involved in the subject. She is now a specialist herself, based on thorough research in the field and topped with the additional bonus of first-hand experience.
When Silke came to live in Dubai, it struck her that there was no support structure in place - despite a seemingly high demand. She stepped into this void by starting up workshops and the Multilingual Support Network which enables people to share their experiences, successes and problems (www.themlnetwork.com).
Together with a dozen of other parents of different (mixed) nationalities, I attend Silke's workshop in Jumeirah 1. Most of us have a monolingual background.
In the introduction round we briefly tell about our own situation. Some have reached the stage where their child is refusing to speak its mother tongue, whereas others are still expecting. What we all have in common, however, is our wish to successfully turn our children into bilinguals. And that is what this workshop is all about: to help us create a clear action plan and to build a support network.
The three-hour long session starts off with creating an understanding of bilingualism and its advantages. "Being raised with one or more languages is a gift for life. It means access to another culture, heightened self-esteem, increased career options and more flexible and divergent thinking." In addition, the course discusses the do's and don'ts and it specifically pays attention to "my child is older - have I missed the boat?" It is hopeful to know that it never is too late, although - as always - "the earlier, the better."
The workshop is of a highly practical nature. I leave the course feeling better equipped to guide my children successfully on their language journey: The few beginner's mistakes I have made, I now know how to mend. And with the second child, I can start from scratch. More generally, I feel Dubai has a lot to gain with the arrival of this workshop and network.
The sheer weight lies in creating greater overall awareness of the advantages that bilingual children have over others. Ultimately, these are children of Dubai who make for global citizens; an important asset to cherish.
Gulf News November 2006
Give your child another language - a gift for life ! The younger your child when you start the better. Download the e-book and start today.
Regular price $24.95
Intro Offer $19.95
Buy Now
If you have any further enquiries or feedback about the ebook, please write to silke@themlnetwork.com, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.