For the International Day of Families, we have two special guests: Dr. Ute Limacher-Riebold and Korina Topalidou.

Ute is a multilingual Family Language Consultant and Intercultural Communication Trainer at Ute's International Lounge. Ute holds a PhD in Romance Philology and has taught Italian historical  linguistics at the Department of Romance Studies of the University of  Zurich.

As a linguist and life long  international, she offers tailored advice, practical solutions and  support for parents who raise their children with multiple languages and  cultures to bridge between research and practice. She helps multilingual families find the most suitable strategies and practical resources to maintain  their home languages and cultures, whilst learning others. Since 2019  Ute collaborates with Multlingual Parenting at the EU PEaCH project, and organizes the broadcast Raising Multilinguals LIVE! together with Tetsu Yung and Rita Rosenback.

Ute  is fluent in German, Italian, French, English, Dutch and Swiss German, and is improving her fluency in Spanish and Korean. She currently lives  in the Netherlands with her husband and three teenage children who grow  up with multiple languages too.

Korina Topalidou is a Spanish language teacher in a secondary school in  London. Originally from Greece, she holds degrees in International  Relations and Organisations, European Law, and Spanish Language and Culture. With her experiences as a student, translator, teacher, and  expatriate, she has always been interested in languages.

Because of this, she is involved in many activities connected to multilingualism and language learning. Korina is also involved in the EU PEaCH project, where she serves as an Ambassador to promote multilingualism, and to  support families and individuals in their multilingual journey.

She is also a member of language related associations in the UK such as the National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum, and the Association for Language Learning. Korina is fluent in Greek, Spanish, French and English, and is mother to two multilingual children.

Go to our website to read the transcript!

MLST  is brought to you by volunteers at Bilingualism Matters  Edinburgh. The  views of our guests don’t always reflect our own, as we  hope to provide  an accessible platform for the findings of current  research and the  perspectives of experts. For more resources like  definitions of  linguistic terms, episode transcripts, and information  about the team,  go to our website at www.mlstpodcast.com.

Recorded on 30/4/2021

Music: Arc of the Sun by The 126ersssssss