It was my childhood dream to speak six languages, as I heard a man declare in an interview about his own language knowledge. Today I can say that this wish has not only come true, but, on the way to fulfilling this dream, I got its premium package with living in several European countries and getting a double citizenship. 

Working in an international environment for my whole adult life trained my eye for noticing patterns that multilingual people develop, which I wanted to understand also from a theoretical perspective. This led me to graduating from a master programme in Intercultural Communication and Education, where I focused mostly on the close relationship between linguistic aspects and socio-psychological phenomena related to migration. In lay terms: how long we need to learn a new language, what advantages there are in speaking several languages, why we feel like we fully belong neither to our home-country, nor to the country we live in now etc. etc.

I was fascinated with my recent discoveries and with the life stories I heard during the interviews conducted for my master thesis, so I wanted to share the lessons learnt with the world. I started by holding seminars and workshops for future teachers to help them understand how to use language more effectively with their pupils. Thus I discovered that parents need to join hands with teachers in this endeavour. In order to do so, they should understand basic linguistic mechanisms as well, so that they can support their children learn languages easier. But wait, some of these parents are themselves multilinguals with insufficient knowledge in the targeted language or lack of confidence in their own language abilities. Or, on the contrary, they usually use their native language only and thus cannot understand their family members‘ daily challenges of switching between several languages. My conclusion was that help is needed also on an individual level.

This is how the idea of this website was born. By noticing how much easier it has been for me to regain my confidence in my language knowledge after having learnt so much about migration and its effects on language learning and identity. As well as by painfully observing many of my multilingual friends struggling to find information in an accessible language to ease their own or their offsprings’ integration in a new country. So I could no longer remain silent. Or help only one group of people, as I did in my university seminars.  

Now I want to support those of you, whose mind constantly highlights the grammar mistake you have just made instead of focusing on how unexpectedly you used a difficult phrase correctly. And those of you who are so driven by this internal nagging that you prefer to be silent or use only standard sentences in a language you do not yet feel comfortable. And those of you who feel ashamed of your foreign accent. And you, the parents, who cannot understand why your children mix up languages constantly, in spite of your efforts to set these languages apart. As well as you, who cannot reach the homey feeling even after spending several years in another country.

The practical information offered on this website is meant both as a helping hand and as a comforting hug.

You are not alone, all you’re going through is normal – look, it is proven by science, here is how you can make it at least a bit better.

I’ve been through this myself and I’m mostly out of the woods. Let me help you find your own path to becoming a confident multilingual and share it with your world.

Yours confidently,

Corina