Our lovely Regional Victorian club manager, Sally-Anne Symes, recently shared these great pics with us of a family hiking trip in the Grampians National Park in Victoria during the April holidays and the images really made us think about what it takes to raise a global citizen.

Helping the world communicate by sharing our love of languages and playing our part in raising children to succeed and make a positive contribution to the world is central to the Fun Languages’ mission. And it’s an ideaology that is embraced by all our club managers and teachers across Australia and New Zealand.

As we see it, raising a responsible global citizen is as much about nurturing a respect and love for our natural world as it is about giving children the tool of languages to be able to communicate with people from other cultures.

For the first time in the history of the human race, all four corners of the world are being brought into ever closer contact, with increasing integration arising from the interchange of world views and cultures.

And although it’s necessary for us, as adults, to constantly adapt to this new culturally and economically globalised environment, it is our children who will most need the adaptable qualities of temperament and mind that are necessary to handle the challenges that arise from our increasingly “small world”.

Thinking and teaching with a global perspective provides an opportunity to introduce children to world issues and concepts that help them to understand that the planet and its occupants are interconnected, interdependent and fragile!

For non-native French speakers, these phrases are sure to elicit a giggle when taken out of context.

Although the literal meaning points one way, the contextual meaning points another. While the phrases are readily accepted by native French speakers, learners of French, translating with a dictionary, will no doubt get a lot of laughs out of these expressions.

1. Ah, la vache! (lit: oh, the cow!): “oh my goodness!”
2. à l’eau de rose (lit: with rose water): sentimental/soppy
3. à toutes les sauces (lit: with all the sauces): in all sorts of ways
4. au poil (lit: to a hair): perfect; flawless
5. avoir le gueule de bois (lit: to have a wooden face): to have a hangover
6. avoir le bourdon (lit: to have the bumblebee): to feel down/have the blues
7. avoir le cafard (lit: to have the cockroach): be down in the dumps; have the blues
8. avoir le démon de midi (lit: to have the midday demon): to have a midlife crisis
9. avoir un chat dans la gorge (lit: to have a cat in your throat): to have a frog in your throat
10. avoir une faim de loup (to have the hunger of a wolf): to be ravenous/starving hungry

With the Fifa Soccer World Cup about to start next month in Brazil, we thought we’d take a look at how important languages are for top sportsmen, and in particular soccer players and managers – and the impact of multilingualism on the team’s performance.

In fact, the English Premier League, as a whole, has players from over 70 countries – and more than 300 of them don’t speak English as their first language!

Since communication is key to a sports team’s success, surely any self-respecting – and successful – football manager would have to be multilingual, or at least bilingual? If a manager cannot relate to his players, how can he successfully inspire and lead his team to victory?

Some of the most successful soccer managers are multilingual and one only has to look at the English Premier League teams to confirm this:

Manchester City is a good example of the international flavour of English football. Their manager, Manuel Pelligrini, is Spanish and multilingual.  Another top club, Liverpool FC, has Brendan Rogers as their manager. He speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish … and some Italian.  Other successful European football clubs can also boast multilingual managers.

Like most activities worth pursuing, there are times when the motivation for learning another language needs a helping hand!

Here are 10 great language quotes for some inspiration.

❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞
‒Nelson Mandela

❝One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.❞
‒Frank Smith

❝The limits of my language are the limits of my world.❞
‒Ludwig Wittgenstein

Regardless at what age your child is introduced to language learning, there is a lot you can do to encourage and support your kids in their quest for bilingualism.

And you don’t have to be a speaker of that language or be good at languages yourself! You could even take the opportunity to learn another language together with your child.

Here are 7 excellent ways to encourage your chilren’s language learning at home:

1. Nursery rhymes and songs

Young kids learn by repetition and respond well to the melody of nursery rhymes and songs. Even if they don’t understand the words at first, this is a fun yet effective way to absorb a foreign language. While you’re at it, grab a few instruments and have a morning of music and fun!

2. Story tapes, CDs or Videos

Find your child’s favourite story in another language. Listen to or watch a story about Bob le Bricoleur, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge or Blancanieve y los 7 enanitos. You can read the foreign language version along with your child, or play the CD that narrates the story for you both.