Talking to Grandma

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

Last year, our work with the Language Preservation Project took us to Denver, Colorado. As we began to design and think about our programming for educators and families, we met with a lot of great people in the community who all had their own journeys with language preservation and loss. In this episode, we highlight the voices of Denver as they share their stories. It was a reminder to us of why we started this work. We hope you take away as much inspiration as we did.

The reason for language loss in a family can be deeply personal and complicated. In this episode, we talked with Dr. Vanessa Santiago Schwarz about the complex history of both her heritage languages, how that impacted her own relationship with language, and how she uses what she’s learned as an educator and mother today. Find out more about our guest on her website www.vanessasantiagoschwarz.com

Creating resources that bring beauty and joy to the people we serve has become a goal for The Langauge Preservation Project. In this episode, two LPP collaborators, Maried Rivera Nieves and Nansi Guevara talk about creating art and design with equity and representation in mind. Listen to how representation shaped their own stories of language and cultural loss and preservation! Learn more about Maried's work with Bank Street College of Education Center on Culture, Race, and Equity and Nansi's art.

As we start year 2 of our work with the Language Preservation Project, we want to share the stories of some of the other amazing folks we have worked with over the past year. The work we do is truly by us and for us. In this episode, Vero talked with Jenn Pressman & Irene Vergara, about making connections to language through little moments, food, and music! If you've struggled with finding ways to make connections to language for your kiddos, we have some gems of wisdom for you! You can find more about Jenn and Programa Familiar de Lenguaje on Facebook or Instagram (@programa_familiar_de_lenguaje)