Unlimited Possibilities
Let's just assume ...
... you have a daughter just like Sybill who has a real talent for languages, adores Jacques Brel and always wanted to speak French fluently. Through the Global Natives Club, Sybill's family teamed up with a family in Paris. They had a teenage girl her age with a passion for Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Trenet and Joe Dassin. So the two turned out an excellent match.
For a start you would visit each other during the holidays, this proves to be an enjoyable and efficient way to get to know each other better and to get familiar with your partner family's home and surroundings. It also makes for a great start practising the language and prepares the ground for an exchange year.
How much more sense will this make when the girl's parents have a lot in common with you, when you are on the same wavelength through your profession, your hobbies, your values and aims in life? When there is a great chance of becoming friends and there's plenty of potential for future co-operation? Trust and familiarity would grow, so would the fun-factor, and your personal involvement would turn from parental duty to family pleasure.
For a start you would visit each other during the holidays, this proves to be an enjoyable and efficient way to get to know each other better and to get familiar with your partner family's home and surroundings. It also makes for a great start practising the language and prepares the ground for an exchange year.
How much more sense will this make when the girl's parents have a lot in common with you, when you are on the same wavelength through your profession, your hobbies, your values and aims in life? When there is a great chance of becoming friends and there's plenty of potential for future co-operation? Trust and familiarity would grow, so would the fun-factor, and your personal involvement would turn from parental duty to family pleasure.
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Now, let's assume ... your best friend from university has settled happily in Berlin many years ago. Or your brother lives and works in Singapore or maybe Sydney with his wife and his children ...
Chances are you would use these contacts to help broaden your own children’s horizons. Within such a scenario it would be easy to establish a tradition of reciprocal visits and calls, to exchange mails, photos, books and perhaps favours. Naturally, there would be more activities in your family life, you and your kids would experience more things together. How would that - in years to come - affect your communication with your adolescent kids when feelings occasionally run high? And how about the relationship with your children when you look a few decades into the future ? |
Your friends and relatives don't really fit into this scenario?Not to worry. Build your own famillage instead! |
Education, diversity, creative capacities :Learn and improve language skills with native speakers, get easy access to summer schools, find a place to stay during an exchange student year, benefit from regular conversation, exchange good books, web links and insider knowledge - get the full advantage of hybrid education into your lives.
Save money and improve results by arranging your kids’ language training as a holiday with friends - an efficient and very affordable strategy ! Benefit from the two-generation idea and redefine your holiday arrangements: enjoy language and cultural exchange as a win-win system. |
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Introduce your kids to people with new ideas and let them find new perspectives ! |
Team up with other members to show your kids which values are valid on a global scale: empathy, a sense of honour, responsibility, good manners, spiritual awareness, love of the arts, a sense of duty to friends and society and a longing for independent enquiry and intellectual curiosity.
Travel, culture, values - variety !
Visit other countries off the beaten tourist tracks (!) and use the opportunity to see interesting places from the insider’s point of view. Get to know local sports and new culinary delights, learn about regional customs and gain historic insights.
Exchange city life for the countryside or the other way round and enjoy the benefits of local guidance with it. Meet people who share your passions and your values ... perhaps they’re just as fond of Shakespeare or the Rolling Stones, maybe they feel strongly about the same NGOs as you do. Put on offer what you have easy access to yourself, give help and advice where you have the means and the experience. |
Peer benefits:Adolescents long for the approval of their peer group.
(more about peers here). Find parents who also encourage their kids to learn to play an instrument, to enjoy good literature, to appreciate decent manners and to get a kick out of a good conversation. Establish friendships with people of various nationalities to offer your children an inspiring insight into other walks of life, other ways of thinking & behaving, other daily routines than your own. |
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