1. Can you introduce yourself? What is your professional background? What are your interests?
My name is Isabelle Barth, I’m French.
I have always had a passion for other people’s languages and cultures.
In my final year of high school, I won the European School Day Competition. It was the philosophy teacher who asked me to participate. And I won for France, which I represented at a 10-day international meeting in Germany the following August.
I was first a teacher of modern languages, either English or French, depending on the country I was in. I did all levels from primary school to undergraduate students, through specialization students such as scientists or future journalists. I am also a certified translator and work for NGOs.
I love languages, they fascinate me.
Besides languages, my other passions are theatre (I was able to combine passion and languages in my studies for my master’s degree and my first doctorate), literature in general, but especially youth literature and cooking – I can spend hours behind the stove.
2. What led you to found La Maison du Multilinguisme?
Why did I found La Maison du Multilinguisme? It’s a bit like my life path. When I met the man who was to become my husband, I was a teacher at the University of Poitiers. Then I left teaching to move to Ireland. For various reasons – I won’t go into detail here – I was never able to work in this country. Of course, I continued to translate, but I was missing something.
When our children were about 12 years old, I decided to go back to distance learning. Having seen how the fact that I spoke French to my children was decried, refused. I often fought with the school and the people I met to get them to accept that I would speak French to our children. It was really a daily battle, a real struggle, especially in an English-speaking country where I was told that English was enough. So I chose language training. At that time, there was no training on bilingualism yet, so I chose a Professional Master’s degree in Language Dissemination – which I obtained in problem. And then I went on with a Doctoral Research on what is called Family Language Policies – in a nutshell because it is more complex than that – how to become bilingual in the family. Research that I am currently completing and finishing.
It was during this training that I decided to create the association Multilingual Café and La Maison du Multilinguisme.
La Maison du Multilinguisme advises families, teachers, educators, the medical world on what family bilingualism is, how it develops… I also offer training for teachers so that they can welcome the languages of families in their schools. A language is very much linked to the culture of the people who speak it. A language is very much linked to the culture of the people who speak it, so I can’t ignore that.
My advice and training also include cultural issues. If I may say so, in some cultures the teacher is considered with great honour and respect, and parents will never question or contradict a teacher, and that is an important point to know. Because sometimes teachers are not aware of these differences and why their students do not progress in the same way. It is difficult for them to be on all fronts, my workshops and training courses enable them, certainly to have the tools to welcome all the children’s languages, but they also need to establish contact with the parents, which is sometimes much more complicated.
3. Can you describe a typical day at La Maison du Multilinguisme ?
I start by checking emails and answering emergencies. I have created a weekly routine for myself – which helps me a lot. So, depending on the day of the week, I work on my articles, on my promotion…
Each week, I have several slots to meet with families who need help and whom I counsel. The sessions are mainly done via Skype. I also have time slots for training with teachers and anyone for whom bilingualism is important. For example, a company manager who employs people who speak other languages will improve his relations with his bilingual and plurilingual employees if he understands how a person who speaks several languages works.
So all my days are different and have their share of nice surprises and nice encounters.
4. What are your motivations and goals?
What motivates me? To know that there are still, unfortunately, many people and especially children around the world who are denied the right to speak a language other than the one of the country in which he/she is living. To know that even in the twenty-first century there are still children who are punished at school because they speak a language other than that of the school.
My goals? To be able to reach as many people as possible, especially those who do not live in large urban centres and who do not have access to as many tools as others. To develop my training even more and make it as accessible as possible.
5. Can you give a definition of multilingualism?
Ah good question ! I’ve written an article on the subject – it’s the most widely read of all the articles I’ve written. It’s an article that makes the difference between multilingualism and plurilingualism. You can read it here.
Multilingualism is the coexistence of languages on a territory, in a company, in a society. These languages coexist with each other. A country like Switzerland is multilingual, a company is multilingual, a television channel like Arte is multilingual. My company is multilingual, hence its name.
Multilingualism, on the other hand, is a personal experience. People are bilingual (2 languages) or plurilingual (several languages). All languages are not separated, they do not cohabit, they are part of one and the same person.
Plurilingualism is the ability to speak several languages. It is not necessary to have them at the same level. What matters is to use them every day or at least every week.
6. What is your definition of a successful day?
A successful day is a day in which I was able to help someone, a day in which I wrote an article, a day in which I was able to exchange…
But also when I made a good cake!
7. How can we find La Maison du Multilinguisme on social networks?
On Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/lamaisondumultilinguisme/
On Pinterest : https://www.pinterest.fr/maisondumultilinguisme/
On LinkedIn : https://ie.linkedin.com/company/jeux2langues?trk=public_profile_topcard_current_company
Discover here the interview of Isabelle BARTH realised by Marypop:
https://www.lamaisondumultilinguisme.net