Thoughts about Language

I have just started the International Teaching Certificate (ITC) and recently attended a three day workshop to familiarize myself with the course. One of the focusses was on language. As I work in international education language is important for many reasons. 

We have lots of students joining us with little to no English, as well as parents and we also have many who are bilingual or multilingual. This is the same for teachers and I have many colleagues with mother tongues that are not English. It's also increasingly important in a global world that we are able to communicate with others, so having an additional language is very important. It also helps us understand different cultures and helps us build empathy and connect with people. 

I will share more about the importance of teaching different languages, as well as the important of having an understanding of people's different language backgrounds when I work more on that area of my ITC course. 

For now, enjoy these videos and images that were shared in the workshop and that I have stumbled upon:

Also...not the most academic link I am going to share...but check out how many of these points are related to language in Buzzfeed's ​22 Signs You Were An International School Kid.