Heritage Language Blog ~ by HL Global Think Tank & FOHLC Europe

A slide showing the history and growth of the Czech School of Dublin . “Parents think it will be easy for their children to pick up multiple languages — because children are like little sponges,” said guest speaker Ivana Rocca Kovářová at the most recent FOHLC Café ( Forum of Heritage Language Coalitions in Europe ). “But then their children start school in Ireland and they see what a challenge it is.” Participants of FOHLC Café. Seeing the need for extra support, Ivana and her colleague founded the Czech School Dublin little more than ten years ago. “We started in the garden of a friend’s house, with five children,” she recalled. Not long after, the school gained access to a community center and the local library for its classes. “ We know children need to move at this age to learn and stay focused. ” Ivana manages the preschool section which contains two groups: “Talking with preschoolers” for children aged 3 to 5 and “Zero Year” for children aged 5 to 7 which she also leads as a te...

From October 23 to 26, 2025, educators, researchers, and community leaders from across the world gathered to discuss Justice and Social Inclusion in the Teaching of Portuguese as a Heritage Language (SEPOHL) in Brussels, Belgium. The symposium celebrated the power of language to connect, resist, and empower, especially when community initiatives and universities work together to create a more equitable educational landscape. Some attendees from the final day of the VII SEPOLH in Brussels, 2025. From multiverses to multivoices The opening address by Dr. Ana Souza invited us to imagine the “multiverse ” of Portuguese as a Heritage Language — diverse, overlapping, and ever-evolving. She reminded participants that “the identity of POLH reflects the identity of its teachers”, and that linguistic justice depends on redistribution and political representation. Her words resonated strongly with the experiences of community educators across Europe, many of whom operate independently, often with...

Interview and text by Naoko Yamamoto, originally posted on HLE Network site “There just aren’t any good Japanese textbooks for kids living abroad!” That’s how the Ohisama Project , a team based in the Netherlands, began developing Ohisama , a Japanese language textbook designed specifically for heritage language learners. Since its release in 2018, the series — which now includes the Ohisama Workbook  — has sold over 20,000 copies worldwide and become a trusted resource for families and schools raising multilingual children. The project’s creators — Junko Ueno, Emi Yamamoto, and Yoshie Mera — talk about how they built this groundbreaking textbook series from scratch. Junko Ueno (left), Emi Yamamoto (center), and Yoshie Mera (right) of the Ohisama Project  team ~ Photo: Ohisama Project 　　 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Profile: The Ohisama Project The Ohisama Project promotes high-quality Japanese language education for multilingual childre...

The HL Global Think Tank and FOHLC Europe are joining forces — and we’re excited to announce that the Heritage Language Blog will now serve as the shared space for both! We expect this to become the go-to space for inspiring stories about community-based heritage language education. For years, people involved in heritage language education, especially for migrant minority languages, have often worked in isolation. These programs face obstacles, limited resources, and a lack of visibility, making it challenging to advocate for linguistic rights and recognition. Some regions had already built strong coalitions, creating networks to support programs locally. Thanks to the growing network of the HL Global Think Tank and FOHLC Europe, educators and coalitions are now connecting across borders and raising the profile of their work. This merger reflects that major development: heritage language education is becoming a more visible, recognized, and collaborative field. This image is from the p...

For the last five years, FOHLC Europe has been collaborating with the U.S. Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools. Each October, the coalition holds its annual conference in Washington, D.C., now in a hybrid format, so participants from Europe can join online.  Participants learn about the recent developments in heritage language education in the U.S., and (re)connect. This year, several of us from FOHLC Europe attended the 12th Annual Community-Based Heritage Language Schools Conference: Better Together (October 3 - 5, 2025). As usual, the two days were packed with eye-opening presentations, discussions, workshops, panel discussions, and networking sessions. The conference is rich because the program not only includes talks from experts, but it also gives a podium to the language communities to showcase some of the things they are doing that are working.  Topics included teaching methods, certification, cultural literacy, heritage language learner identity and...

In an increasingly diverse world, the ability to honour and celebrate linguistic variety has never been more important. That’s precisely the aim of Traditional Tales, Untraditionally Told   — a project I lead at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with the Maker{Futures} team. This project invites schools and libraries to reimagine storytelling through the lens of multilingualism and creative, maker-centred engagement, and holds exciting opportunities for heritage language education. A fresh take on storytelling: Language meets making At the heart of Traditional Tales, Untraditionally Told is the belief that storytelling doesn't need to be confined to a single language or traditional format, and that children should be encouraged to bring their home/heritage languages into public spaces. The project brings multilingual families into libraries and schools, empowering them to tell stories using all their languages  — t hrough playful, hands-on making and digital, sto...

A new "Review Rubric" has been published for heritage language (HL) programs worldwide, designed to help managers, teachers, and administrators reflect on their organization’s practices and spark discussion on improvement strategies. It is simple, accessible, and will spark constructive discussions—even for programs new to self-evaluation. A new "Review Rubric" has been published for heritage language (HL) programs worldwide. It was developed by members of the HL Global Think Tank, building on years of international collaboration to define universal principles and good practices that can guide HL programs regardless of language or location. Who's it for? The rubric is designed for managers, teachers, board members, and volunteers who want to reflect on their organization’s values, operations, educational offerings, and community outreach. It is simple, accessible, and will spark constructive discussions—even for programs new to self-evaluation. Adaptable tool Th...

On the weekends you do your best for your community, you volunteer your time and hard work  –  and during the week you still attend your regular job. Or maybe you focus all of your time on your heritage community. Either way, you do it just because it is the right thing to do, the thing that helps so many people around you. You do not expect anything from it. Probably people do not even see all that you do. However, sometimes the hard work can show: we would like to congratulate our team member Jana Nahodilová, originally from the Czech Republic, who recently received a medal from the Czech Prime Minister for her long term support of the Czech community in the United Kingdom and for her extraordinary contribution to the development of the Czech language, culture, and historical heritage abroad. And what is Jana's long term contribution? Jana is not only member of the FOHLC Europe team, she started her own Czech and Slovak school "Okénko" in London more than 13 years ago. ...