How do we make children global citizens?

The good thing about teaching children about appreciating languages and cultures that are not their own is that it’s not hard work for kids. They’ll learn almost anything that’s presented to them. It’s the responsibility of parents and teachers to open their eyes. Given the major problems in our public educational system, the parents have to take it upon themselves to teach their children.

I attended Book Expo America in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and met a couple publishers and educators who are on the right global track for children’s educational material. Putumayo gave me a CD sampler of Sesame Street music in eight different languages. I just gave my sister the CD to try out on her four and two year old kids. It will be fun to hear them singing Sesame Street in Russian. I can’t even imagine what that would sound like.

Brigitte Benchimol, a Paris native living in Los Angeles, created a children’s book, Jadyn and the Magic Bubble, to teach about India and Mahatma Gandhi’s culture of non-violence. Her illustrated book has a story CD, poster and game activities for kids to have fun while they are learning about the sights, sounds, spices, history and culture of India. Imagine children knowing about non-violence from a young age. How will that change our society? You can learn about the book, see an interview with Brigitte, and order copies at www.jadynandthemagicbubble.com. Brigitte is a former journalist and foreign language director at Berlitz.

To get kids to be multilingual without costly tutors:

David Burke’s Slangman Productions has created books and television shows that help children learn French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Hebrew, German, and Japanese through fairy tales. Kids start reading a fairy tale in English and then gradually more and more foreign words are inserted into the English text, making it easy for them to still understand the context of the multilingual sentences. He has also created fun videos to supplement the books. Soon, these videos will be on TV. The fairy tale books are also available from Japanese to English and Chinese to English. David’s is a polyglot and musician and previously made educational materials about learning American slang.

Kudos to all of those bringing the world to children. It’s about time!
—-Susanna Zaraysky blogs about being a global citizen. Her website is: www.susansword.com and email is info@susansword.com.