On the 4th of March 2010, The Stichting Lingua Franca Foundation has received an official Piccolingo Campaign for early foreign language learning certificate. This Foundation has shown great interest in supporting and encouraging parents in exposing their children to language diversity! We believe that at a very early age, children are able to enjoy learning diverse languages and at the same time, gaining knowledge of other cultures and belief – hopefully this will create a new perspective over tolerance, acceptance and mutual respect amongst the younger generation.
Because of this great interest, the Foundation has created a club for kids – which one of the objectives is – to also initiate such project among children. 
It is also another approach to reach out to all types of children despite their nationality, race and religion. What more of a better way than children reaching out to other children? They can learn to encourage and support each other – giving hand to-hand guidance – while having fun together and getting to know one another more thoroughly and put aside their differences to find a common ground between them so that they can live in a more harmonious way.
So, there it is! It’s now OFFICIAL ! The Stichting Lingua Franca Foundation is now a member and supporter of the Piccolingo Campaign. For your information, the Piccolingo Campaign is an initiative from the European Union under Education and Culture DG.
Marco Bertolini, the co-Founder of Lingua Franca Foundation, has been appointed as a supporter for the Piccolingo Campaign for Belgium from PICCOLINGO.
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Posted in Cultural diversity, Early learning, Kids 4 Kids, Language learning, Projects, communication
Tagged acceptance, Brussels, child, children, club, Cultural diversity, Early learning, East/West, Europe, expert, family, first steps, foundation, Kids for Kids, language, Language learning, learning, Lifestyle, mutual respect, pedagogy, piccolingo, preschool children, project, reaching out, Social, tolerance
Each Individual is Unique
Stichting Lingua Franca Foundation realise the importance of each client’s individuality and uniqueness. We acknowledge the existence of the client’s own specific needs and demands. We also acknowledge that each client needs to take total control on the development of his/her need(s) through out the entire course and everybody has his/her own pace to tackle the need(s) according to the level of understanding and acceptance.
Walking through the sand
We want the client to know that we actually understand their needs and the manner of wanting their needs to be fulfilled. Face-to-face interaction is one of the basic methods we use to penetrate the client’s true wish. Some people are afraid of spilling out what is truly in their hearts; thinking that others might make a mockery out of them. Some even think their needs and demands are too impossible to achieve. We are here to break that barrier of endless fear. We are here to assure them dreams can be realities if you work hard to achieve it. Dreams are not impossible. It is solely up to YOU to make the impossible possible.
Tailored Made Programme
The services offered by the Stichting Lingua Franca Foundation are specifically designed around YOUR NEEDS. Yes, YOUR NEEDS. We will propose to you a programme/service/workshop/course specially for YOU. A tailored made programme to solely suit YOUR EXACT NEEDS. Considering all factors and wishes from YOU the client, the Foundation will evaluate seriously all levels of the individual’s potential and achievement. From there, we will create a course that you are comfortable with to enable you to finally achieve your goals.
Personal Development and Performance
Posted in Free tools, Job search, Language learning, Languages, Lingua Franca Academy, Projects, Working in Europe, communication, pedagogy
Tagged business, business creation, coaching, communication, course, demand, design, diversity, East/West, Europe, foundation, Group training, individual training, individuality, job coaching, job search, job training, language, Language learning, needs, outplacement, pedagogy, personal development, programme, services, tailored made, unique, work, workshop
Have you ever witness little children who are able to read without having to teach them how to read the language in the first place? This is without sending them to a specific language school, or send them to special language class to enable them to learn to grasp the language and to fully understand the concept of the language itself. I am talking about literally putting a book in front of them and they start reading simultaneously, and surprisingly with almost no fault nor correction! I am not saying that you shouldn’t teach any language just by speaking alone, but believe me! It helps a lot in grasping the meaning and pronouncing the words faster than usual.
boy reading a book
I have been speaking English with my children since they were born. It’s not their only language since we speak more than three languages in the house. But to my astonishment, my children are able to recognise words and sentences from any English book and are able to read them fluently. All I know is that, all these years we never stop talking and practising the language. We speak English every single day.
One thing here that I feel the urge to mention is that I make sure the children speak proper English. Not any ‘broken’ English as most people put it. I have the tendency to keep correcting their sentences whenever there is the need for correction. This is because I know for a fact that it is crucial to speak the language correctly so that the person receiving the information will benefit from understanding fully what you want to relay in the first place – hopefully without having to repeat over and over again for clarity.
boy and girl reading a book
Now, it seems that my hard work has been paid off – slowly (I am waiting for a big fat cheque at the end of all this! Haha, just kidding…) Honestly, I am genuinely happy to see that my children are benefiting our endless effort all these years. There are a lot of sweat and tears along the journey, however, I am more than satisfied with the fruitful result. Imagine that throughout the years, it was I who read the books to the children almost every night. And now? Now, it’s totally a different story altogether. It’s a total opposite, really! The children are the ones who read pirate adventures books, or stories about beautiful princesses and the ever lasting Prince Charming. Or stories about little boys and girls, or stories about frogs and swans, gnomes and fairies and even funny comic books to me instead! You should have seen the look in their eyes once they start reading on their own. As if they have found the long lost treasure from Treasure Island. They are so proud to tell me, ” I can read, mama…. I can read!”
With this, I am now teaching the children the proper structure of the language through writing. I do not have to start at the very beginning since this is no longer an unfamiliar territory. I am sure that the children will have more pleasure in learning the language thoroughly since I am already seeing signs of ‘having so much fun‘ while they are reading and writing English. I am entirely convinced that the children will be able to read, write, speak and hear the language in full gear in the very near future! Never under estimate the power of the mind of a child….
Posted in Early learning, Language learning, Languages, Lingua Franca Academy, Projects, pedagogy
Tagged children, communication, Early learning, education, first steps, foundation, Language learning, preschool children, reading, speak, speaking, teaching, writing
In French, “Trouve ta voie” means “Find your Way“. This is a new blog in French, destined to people in Belgium and France who want to know better about job search, job coaching, business creation, communication techniques, positive thinking and much more.
The Lingua Franca Academy will soon develop activities in Brussels, the Belgian capital, and this blog is aimed to inform Brusselers about our courses, job opportunities, coaching, and the goals of the Lingua Franca Foundation.
We will tell you soon where we will settle our Academy in Brussels. You can already find this blog by cliking here.
There is a new project buzzing around the local neighbourhood. I heard this through a contact of mine. We accidentally bumped into each other 2 days ago at one of the Youth & Family Development centres. The last time we spoke, I told her about my idea to propose a project in exposing children to multiple languages at very tender age.
Apparently that somehow caused some sort a chain reaction since, mysteriously out of the blue, she suddenly told me that she (and other colleagues) are in the process of trying to propose some sort of programme to develop children’s mind from birth till they are 4 years old.
Unfortunately we had to cut our conversation short due to appointments we both had to attend (but at different location with different people), but now it gives me a very strong impression that people do think the idea of teaching children and exposing them to new methods of learning, or a new language, etc. is extremely important in order to maximise the potential of the child’s mind and to gear it up to its fullest capacity. I have to say; I got excited! And I fully support this notion.
Continue reading →
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Posted in Cultural diversity, Early learning, Language learning, Languages, pedagogy
Tagged child, children, communication, Cultural diversity, culture, diversity, Dutch, East/West, Europe, european project, information, language, Language learning, Languages, learning, mixed couple, pedagogy, piccolingo, preschool children, project
The European Union is made of 27 members states and has no less than 23 official languages… That means that languages are an important matter for the European Institutions.
Measuring the language skills of their public servants is also a matter of importance as they have to cope with so many complex topics in so many languages.
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Posted in Free tools, Language learning, Languages, Lingua Franca Academy
Tagged adult learning, andragogy, Brussels, course, Europe, evaluation, free tool, language, Language learning, Languages, learning, lifelong learning, online course, onsite course, pedagogy, tool, training, work
The Piccolingo logo
As you have read about the Piccolingo – an European program aimed to promote early language learning for preschool children; I am wondering and strongly hoping that this sort of project is achievable and manageable in the Dutch region.
The Lingua Franca Foundation (Lingua Franca Academy) – is seriously promoting such cause – wanting full exposure for very young children to adapt to more than one language. Having to master more than one language is considered a skill – and to be able to learn and sharpen one skill at a very tender age is a long lasting investment! Not many children having this unique advantage, but those who do, should be given full boost to further their knowledge in this field.
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Posted in Early learning, Language learning, Languages
Tagged communication, culture, Dutch, Early learning, european project, first steps, knowledge, Language learning, learning, Lifestyle, mixed children, piccolingo, skill, Social, the netherlands
Two days ago, I published a post about Piccolingo, an European program aimed to promote early language learning for preschool children. Here, is an article I wrote several month ago on early language learning and its benefits.
Some myths and legends about language learning seem very difficult to eradicate…
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The European Union is backing up language projects aimed to preschool children
“Every child should learn at least two languages”. The European Council.
The Piccolingo logo
For the European Union, “multilingualism lies at the heart of the EU.” Therefore, the European Institutions, throughout the Lifelong Learning Program is supporting initiatives related to language learning. For the European Commission, there are 3 strands of the multilingualism policy :
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Encouraging language learning and promoting linguistic diversity in society.
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Promoting a healthy multilingual economy.
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Promoting social integration through improved knowledge and acceptance of languages.
As languages are one of the four key activities, the Lifelong Learning Program offers a wide range of actions designed to support language learning, including language learning at an early age.
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It is also another approach to reach out to all types of children despite their nationality, race and religion. What more of a better way than children reaching out to other children? They can learn to encourage and support each other – giving hand to-hand guidance – while having fun together and getting to know one another more thoroughly and put aside their differences to find a common ground between them so that they can live in a more harmonious way.
