Testimonials
FROM PARENTS: PERSONALIZED CONSULTATIONS
"We had a one hour session with Anne Rimrott to discuss how to raise our 3 years old daughter in a trilingual setting. Anne delivered incredibly helpful, structured, and customized advice. She started off the consultation with a presentation to provide us with background information around language acquisition. Next, she adopted that framework to the specifics of our situation to help us think through different options available and relative benefits and disadvantages of each option. Finally, she took her time to answer all our questions. Overall, we came out of the meeting with a sound understanding of language acquisition and with the confidence to make our decision in an effective and informed fashion. We cannot recommend Anne enough to those faced with the challenge to raise multilingual children."
"I have a 2 year old daughter who I am trying to raise with both English and Korean. I consulted Dr. Rimrott about some of the challenges I was facing and found the consultation thoroughly helpful and eye-opening. I was very impressed with Dr. Rimrott's vast knowledge on up-to-date research on bilingualism, and found her practical suggestions based on the scientific research very informative. She followed up the consultation session with helpful suggestions on how to obtain materials such as Korean children books and DVDs, where to go to form play groups with other Korean kids at my daughter's age, and information on Korean language classes for children. I am now more motivated to continue my efforts to raise my daughter as a bilingual."
"My wife and I, coming from two distinct cultures a world apart, definitely wanted to raise our daughter to speak both our languages, not to mention share in both of our cultures. We've researched as much as we could find on raising one's child bilingually, but, surprisingly, there's really not much information out there for the average person to stumble across. So when we sat down with Anne we had an opportunity to not only voice our concerns (and get some myths dispelled), we also received practical information on how to best support not only our child but ourselves in the process of encouraging our child to simultaneously embrace our family's second language.
In short, we got an opportunity to sit down and spend time with an expert. An expert who not only answered our questions and assuaged our concerns, but who simultaneously reassured us that bilingualism is both an attainable and literally life-enriching goal for our child. Thanks, Anne, for your time and enthusiasm, you made a difference in how we will raise our child."
FROM PARENTS: WORKSHOPS
"Very useful workshop. I got the answers that I needed and great advice for the future. I will improve my efforts to reach the goals that I'm looking for: Now I know how!"
"My husband and I attended Anne's workshop thinking of just getting a few tips on how to raise our son in a bilingual environment, but we ended up learning a great deal on the importance and strategies of maintaining bilingualism in the family. Anne is excellent and her workshop is very informative and definitely an eye-opening session. We thoroughly enjoyed it."
"Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to learn more about my child growing up bilingual. You did a great job presenting the pros and cons and made this easy to understand and fun. I feel a lot better and more relaxed about this whole issue knowing what you taught me!"
"Thank you for sharing all your insight and knowledge! Will take lots of great tips home!"
"I got a lot of insight about bilingual acquisition and wish that I had learned this information while my children were young. I can see how much harder it is for me now to teach them my language."
"Anne gives excellent, high-quality professional advice to all families who are considering raising their children bilingually. When I went to her workshop, I thought I knew it all already and just wanted to confirm that I am on the right track. However, I couldn't believe how much I actually learnt in the short period of time, making me implement some tips I received and reconsider some ways I have been dealing with my kids as far as language usage is concerned. Anne is undoubtedly an expert in her field, knowing all the answers to everyone's questions because she understands how language is acquired and how language learning works. I hope that many more people will gain from her invaluable advice so that more children will have the advantage of being (and remaining) bilingual."
"Thank you Anne for sharing your knowledge. It is very insightful and I enjoy your sense of humour."
"Anne provided a very informative workshop in a one-hour period. I think her knowledge on bilingual education and families would be even more helpful with a long period of time or as ongoing help. As a parent who wants to raise my child to be fully bilingual, I fully agree with her methodology and philosophy. Thank you for giving back to the community."
"It was great. I learned a lot."
"Certainly brought to light the importance of maintaining the home language at the highest level."
"One day, hopefully, I'll be a dad to a bilingual kid. And, naturally, I'd want my kid to retain the second language for the longest time possible. Before attending one of Dr. Anne Rimrott's workshops, I was more or less prepared to accept the fact that my kid will at some point lose his or her mother tongue for good. Not anymore. Thanks to Dr. Rimrott, I know there is hope for my future bilingual child. I can't really stress enough the significance of what she does. And she does it in a professional, hands-on manner, with lots of humour and a passion that only comes from experiencing the issue first-hand."
"I think of Anne's strategies every day! Her advice is hands-on and very helpful for tackling the challenges of raising children bilingual. Thanks Anne!"
"Trying to raise my children with more than one language seemed to be a big challenge sometimes. Dr. Anne Rimrott's workshop changed my perspective and helps me tackle this challenge every day. Her advice is easy to follow and I am sure will help my daughters to master both languages we speak - German and English - equally, communicate well with us as their parents, their grandparents, friends, teachers and will feel like they belong to our community no matter if in Vancouver or Germany. Keep up the great work, Anne! Thanks very much!"
FROM PROFESSIONALS: PRESENTATIONS
"Fun, interactive, engaging, informative, and professional! Anne’s presentation was fantastic! She used visual tools to show the benefits of multilingualism within a family setting. This subject is very important to our program participants, and as a result they had many questions. Anne not only answered them, but also provided strategies to help parents encourage the use of their first language at home. We are very thankful to Anne for shedding light onto such a challenging topic for parents, and we are looking forward to a Part II of this workshop!"
C. Lerner, Coordinator, Queen Mary Family Learning Program
"Dr. Anne Rimrott presented a public 90-minute virtual workshop for a very diverse audience - parents as well as service providers supporting multilingual families. The participants spoke different languages in their homes, and Dr. Rimrott found the common denominators and provided useful tips for everyone. Her practical inputs based on a solid scientific basis were very informative, useful, and presented with ease and humour."
Andrea Lukic, Burnaby Public Library & Lukas Park, Literacy Now Burnaby
"Dr. Rimrott ‘s Workshop for Bilingual and Multilingual Families – A Parent’s Guide provided invaluable information and support for the many parents who attended. Parents found the practical responses to their questions and the real life examples both clear and helpful. The research presented was reassuring to families wanting to maintain multiple languages at home and thought provoking for those like myself who are involved in the delivery of early childhood programs. I think there is a need in a community as diverse as West Vancouver for more of these types of workshops."
Laura Lee Kent, Child Care Hub Coordinator, District of West Vancouver
"Thank you for presenting such a thought-provoking workshop on a relevant and interesting topic. I work with families that have children requiring extra support. Many of these families are bilingual, and some of these children have speech delay. It is effective practice to continue to support a family’s bilingual goals while providing strategies for developing speech. Thank you for bringing this topic to light in a straightforward and tangible way."
Nina Polkinghorne, Program Consultant, North Shore Infant Development Program
"Dear Anne, Thank you for the outstanding talk you gave our group of speech language pathologists. The information you imparted was very specific, relevant and useful to us. We all felt that we have learned a lot and that the new knowledge will have a positive impact on the clients and families we serve. We greatly appreciated the amount of time and hard work you put into preparing this talk and enjoyed the passion you bring into this field."
Havi Neeman, Speech Language Pathologist, Vancouver Coastal Health
"Your presentation to our group yesterday was very timely and relevant to our caseloads. I learned so much about the importance of families keeping their first language even with such disorders as ASD. Thank you!"
Kimberley Eggert, Speech Language Pathologist, Vancouver Coastal Health
"I really enjoyed Anne's workshop. As a speech language pathologist, I appreciate her strong research base and her practical and anecdotal information about supporting language learning with her own multilingual children. I particularly liked how she pointed out it's not a challenge for a child to be bilingual, but that it is a big challenge (if not a burden) for the parents to do it effectively."
Kelly Kovach, M.Sc. SLP
"Very informative. Clear, concise information. Very relevant to my practice. I will definitely be sharing this info with my clients."
Speech Language Pathologist