As many of our listeners know, heritage language learning is hard but made a lot easier when done in  community. That is what Anita Sachariah has created with her Instagram account Bhashakids which helps connect the south asian diaspora to their heritage language. In today’s episode, we hear Anita’s story of how she is teaching her kids their heritage languages, even though these languages were nearly lost in her generation. She shares her vast knowledge of language and tips to make it easier to pass on languages to your kids. Find out more about Anita's work at bhashakids.com Resources Anita shared: Bilinguitos 

Dr. Lizette B. Suxo (Sooks-so) shared her journey to connect with her Andean culture and learn Aymara, an indigenous language from the region. Like many people trying to learn their indigenous heritage language, she had to dig deep to find resources, which inspired her to create a hub for people looking to connect with their Andean culture. Dr. Lizette B. Suxo is an accomplished leadership coach. With over 2 decades of leadership in education, Lizette made a pivot in her career when she became a mom. Faced with important language learning decisions with regard to her son, and also in light of a recent rare disease diagnosis, the importance of raising her son as a multilingual global citizen quickly became a top priority. As a traveler of the world, Lizette has often worked to craft bridges between individuals and across communities. Learning the indigenous language of her ancestors has been a parallel learning experience for her as she raises a son who is bilingual and an emerging multilingual learner. After years of leading and learning in schools and school systems in the US and Latin America, Lizette is deeply interested in strengthening her connection to her cultural Andean roots by learning Aymara. While her family has spoken Aymara for centuries, their immigration to the US and Europe has resulted in a generation who does not speak it. Lizette aims to learn Aymara to ensure it does not disappear from her family and, as her teacher- or yatichiri - has said, “to learn our language is the preserve the ways in which our ancestors lived in the world. How they saw, felt, and experienced the world. How they made sense of it. If we lose our language, we lose that important vision and perspective.” Lizette is determined to strengthen her knowledge of Aymara so that she can build this connection with her mom (a native speaker) and her son, too. The Ayllu is an online virtual Adinx community for those looking to connect with Aymara and Quechua resources and people in the U.S. and abroad). Their website will go live on June 21st, which is the Aymara New Year or Wilkakuti (the 'Return of the Sun,' in Aymara) IG: @the_ayllu Aymara language resources (Lizette's 'yatichiri's (teacher's) page) FB: https://www.facebook.com/aymaryatiqana IG: @elis.ajata.rivera Quechua community resources IG: @quechuaproject UNESCO article on Aymara: https://courier.unesco.org/en/articles/aymara-has-not-said-its-last-word

Over the years, we disconnect from ourselves, our ‘ser’, the person we are before society and family and insecurities tell us who to be. This can mean losing language and culture from our lives. In this episode, we talk with Robyn Moreno about her new book, Get Rooted, and what it means to find our way back to our whole and unbreakable selves. Visit RobynMoreno.com for free meditations, to sign up for her newsletter, and check out upcoming events and offerings.

If you are a long-time podcast listener, you likely know that the emotional barriers tied to a heritage language can cause pressure or stress that non-heritage language learners don’t experience. In this episode, Wendy Ramirez shares the complexity of language as it's tied to our identity and navigating the barriers of shame. Learn more about Spanish Sin Pena at www.spanishsinpena.com or @spanishsinpena on social media!

Over the past decade, we’ve seen a shift in schools' perception of multilingual learners. Things like changing our language from “English Language Learner” to “emergent multilingual student” shows how we are moving from a singular focus on English acquisition to a more holistic approach to bilingualism and biliteracy. In this episode, we dig into that conversation with bilingual educator and specialist Josie Scherrman - in addition to being an amazing educator, she is also my sister! She talked with us about her journey to reclaim her heritage language, Spanish, and how she is now cultivating learning environments that value and encourage students in their home language.

In this episode, we talked with mother and daughter Fran and Gabrielle Kotkov about their experience reclaiming their Italian heritage language after it was lost two generations earlier. Check out Gabrielle's work at www.multilingualmontessori.org! 

Generational language wounds speak to the idea that languages aren’t lost just by chance or accident across the generations. Rather, there was trauma, discrimination, or deficit narrative that caused this language loss. In this episode, Dr. Veronica Benavides shares four steps you can take to heal generational language wounds! Don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast with a coworker, friend, or family member!

Welcome back to Talking to Grandma! We are excited to share this powerful conversation with Rhonda Broussard about the double erasure of Black bilingual Americans and the lack of access to dual language programs for the Black community. Rhonda is an author, entrepreneur, and futurist. One Good Question: How Countries Prepare Youth to Lead is her first book. Broussard is an award-winning education entrepreneur and sought-after public speaker. She is the founder and CEO of Beloved Community, a national nonprofit committed to sustainable economic equity in schools, the workforce, and housing. She is a 28-year educator and researcher who founded and led a network of language immersion and international schools in the US. For more information, visit rhondabroussard.com.

Welcome back for a new season of Talking to Grandma! We hope you enjoyed our first season and the amazing guests that brought us stories of resilience, joy, and hope on their language preservation journeys. This season, we hear stories from people who envision a world where heritage languages are preserved and valued, creating tools, resources, and communities where there once were none. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

Trying to preserve heritage languages in a monolingual society is hard! For decades, languages have been lost for the sake of survival by many newcomers to the U.S. Now, there is a generational readiness to reclaim what was lost, but where do we begin? In February, Talking to Grandma host, Dr. Veronica Benavides, appeared on KQED’s Forum and got to chat with Forum host Alexis Madrigal and Karen Garcia, a reporter with the Los Angeles Times. They dove deep into a conversation about reclaiming heritage languages and heard stories from callers in the San Francisco area. We are thrilled to bring this KQED Forum episode to our Talking to Grandma listeners. Find more from KQED Forum! Forum Website: https://www.kqed.org/forum Twitter: https://twitter.com/KQEDForum Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kqed_forum/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KQEDForum/ Reclaiming Your Family’s Heritage Language, Even if Your Elders Never Taught You: https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101892158/reclaiming-your-familys-heritage-language-even-if-your-elders-never-taught-you