Summer Solstice & Pub Week

Signs, pauses & arbitrary dates

George Kashche via Unsplash.

I both love & loathe “signs”. Sometimes, I notice things or rather, I think I notice things to the detriment of my mental health and I begin to spiral. At times, these “signs” bring me great comfort and I appreciate the way my mind works. Some of these “signs” (always in quotations because they really are so subjective) have to do with language, others are more symbolic and often abstract. My partner, who is thankfully much more pragmatic and steady in most thing than I am will often remind me that no, I can’t control things through signs and my mind is not that powerful even though he also lets me indulge in my over-analyzing and sign-seeking when I need it most. If you know what I mean, it is an exhausting way to live even if it makes for what I believe can really be a meaningful existence. But ignorance, or maybe it is pure pragmatism, also seems like complete bliss and I often envy those minds.

Mother Tongue Tied is officially out this Thursday (tomorrow!) and it feels both surreal and arbitrary. Surreal because I have published a book and that is a really hard thing to do. Arbitrary in the sense that it is one day and I hope the book lives a long time beyond tomorrow. Besides, friends sent me photos from bookstores where the book was already on the shelf last week so June 20th really is arbitrary in many ways. But I have always loved the idea of a “pub date” so here we are, June 20th. This morning, I re-read

Sara Petersen

wonderful newsletter on her experience one month after the publication of her book. I am grateful for other authors writing and sharing their experiences because it allows me to see how strange, magical, wonderful and truthfully, also sometimes deeply disappointing this process is.

Seen in the wild in North London last week!

I wrote the book because as a journalist I wanted to, or maybe thought I should, write a book and the timing aligned in many ways, not so much in other ways (sorry PhD dissertation and caregiving of young children). But most of all, I wanted other mothers of multilingual children to feel less alone like I often do. Even though there is incredible research in academia also guiding multilingualism and raising multilingual children, sometimes, people just want to read a pretty-looking book (with tons of research and science-based evidence!) instead of an academic journal. I also wrote it for my children as I wanted them to one day read about the experience of raising them in multiple languages and cultures and how it was, and continues, to never be straightforward.

My publication day falls on the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. The summer solstice is of course the longest day of the year with the shortest night. I am always cautious with noting etymology because language changes so we have to be careful how we consider what something once meant but for fun and this one time, solstice comes from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to pause and be still). Some stuff online also mentions the idea of change, new beginnings but I am not going there and have never really been into this sort of thing even if it rich with signs! But I do love the idea of pause. There is an entire section in Mother Tongue Tied about my son’s comma and the idea of a pause in caregiving, mothering and language. Is it coincidence? Probably. A sign? Maybe. Simply a nice way to think about stepping back and taking in an accomplishment on the longest day of the year after the darkest six months of my life? I’ll take it.

I write about the comma as interruption or, a pause in an early part of the book inspired by the way my son first made his commas.

Although I will still mention the book in this newsletter for some time because it took years to finish and authors have to promote themselves, I promise for those of you who are tired of hearing about it, there will be other stuff coming soon. I recently re-watched Arrival and have so many thoughts about linear time and language! Coming soon. I am also working on a reading list for you from the book. I will try to do a video and if not, just a stack of books. One of the greatest pleasures of writing this book was reading other writers, scholars, creatives and citing their brilliant words and ideas. I want to share their words and work with you in a list and/or stack soon.

Finally, I have a few things coming up. If you are in or near Oxford, come to Caper Books on July 2nd. I will be in discussion with the wonderful host of The Language Revolution podcast Catherine Hamilton. And if you are in London tomorrow evening and would like to come to a gathering to celebrate the book launch, send me a message and I will send you details!

Did I have cookies made with the cover? Funny you ask.

If you’d like me to talk about the book or about raising multilingual children or my linguistics research for your podcast, book club, multilingual parenting association, let me know. Ultimately, I really do want to disrupt the prevailing myths around raising multilingual children and how we can all do better when it comes to language and multilingualism so if it helps one person, I am here for it.

If you have a pre-ordered already, a million thank yous. If you are interested in buying the book, check your local independent bookshop, they need so much support and are so wonderful to have in a community. You can also request the book at your local library. And to those asking about North American rights, I promise I am on it and hope to report back very soon.

Thank you as always and Happy Summer Solstice. I hope you can take a pause in any way that works for you.