Over the last 15 years, visiting parents have often queried whether their children should be learning a second or third language from an early age and if it is beneficial to their development into adulthood. Such questions are of course still pertinent as our international society has diversified. Multi-cultured and multi-linguistic couples, expatriate work situations and patch-work families have led to an increase of children becoming multilingual.

07 October 2020 Sonya Maechler-Dent

It is, I must admit, not without a little nostalgia that I sometimes look back on my pre-Tandem IMS days. The freedom to be a mum that no-one knew, instead of the mum everyone knows; the ability to choose my own employment opportunities, instead of choosing who to employ; being a parent who can join the PTA and go out for drinks, not the school head who joins PTA meetings to listen to the summary of discussions that were held over a nice glass of wine; being a staff member who can ask for an honest appraisal from a supervisor and be challenged to improve, and not instead, being the one delivering advice and encouragement.

21 November 2019 Sonya Maechler-Dent