Blog
Book review: Teach like Finland. 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms by Timothy D. Walker
Once, I walked into [the] first grade classroom at my Helsinki school, and I found tiny children with real needles in their hands. It was especially scary, because I couldn’t find [the teacher] initially. Timothy D. Walker Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The...
Read moreMy Long Weekend in Montolieu Book Village – A Booklover’s Paradise
Book Village Montolieu is a charming village in the Aude département of France – half an hour’s drive from World Heritage Site, Carcassonne. The utopian brainchild of bookbinder Michel Braibant, since 1989, Montolieu has been known as the “Village du livre”, or Book Village. This village of 800 inhabitants boasts...
Read moreBook Review: Silence by Erling Kagge
I read this book in one day and couldn’t to put it down because it was so fascinating. The book is written by Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge who once spent 50 days in silence walking across Antarctica. The author explores the idea of silence by answering some fundamental questions: what...
Read moreBook Review: My Reading Companions to Prague
Prague is a fascinating city. It’s beautiful and magic, but full of paradoxes. Reading about Prague is like discovering some secret spot that was once internationally recognised for its intellect, mystery, architecture and culture. Let me take you on this reading journey to discover Prague once again. Pocket Rough Guide....
Read moreBook Review: My reading companions to Crete
What did I read when I travelled to Crete? A rather eclectic selection of travel writing, which I enjoyed reading and from which I learnt a lot more about Crete. Greek Islands, Lonely Planet I think I have a good relationship with the Lonely Planet guidebooks. I’ve been using them...
Read moreBook Review: The Accidental Asian by Eric Liu
Eric Liu is a monolingual American whose Chinese parents emigrated to the USA and lived there for the rest of their lives. In Liu’s memoir, The Accidental Asian, he presents a series of essays on ethnic identity, assimilation and “Chinese-ness ”. He chose topics that are particularly close to him,...
Read moreBook Review: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton
Like any “Art of…” book, this publication focuses on how to, in this instance, travel better. It takes the reader on a fascinating intellectual journey through ideas, thoughts, paintings, literature, cities, countries and much more. I will say no more other than that it was a pleasure to read. Written...
Read moreInterview with Multilingual Matters
Multilingual Matters is an international independent publishing house with lists in the areas of bilingualism, second/foreign language learning, sociolinguistics, translation and books for parents. Most publishing companies tend to be based in London. Why did you choose Bristol? The company was originally based in Clevedon where the company’s founders Mike...
Read moreBook Review: Growing up with Three Languages by Xiao-Lei Wang
Raising children bilingually sounds challenging enough, but trilingually? Xiao-Lei Wang and her husband decided to teach their children their heritage languages: Chinese and French, while living in the USA. They were very serious about this project and gave their full attention and creativity to make it work for their boys...
Read moreInterview with Writer & Illustrator Ella Frances Sanders
As a linguist, I found your book particularly interesting. Was your work linguistically motivated in any way? Do you have an interest in translation? That’s lovely to hear, thank you! I suppose in retrospect, the book was linguistically motivated without me necessarily realising—but I think Lost in Translation is often...
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