Paperback news for Mother Tongue Tied! MTT is getting a refresh with a new colour combo for the paperback edition out February 26, 2026. Best of all, the PB is the perfect travel companion. Thank you @bonnierbooks.bsky.social & Footnote Press. Pre-order wherever you get your books.

Can't stop thinking about The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House @tatemodern.bsky.social esp. in context of immigration, multilingualism & homes we create through language. When does a building become a home? What spaces do we carry with us? Where do space and memory begin and end?

This week on Motherlingual: Thoughts on the new AirPods & their real-time translation feature. Who really benefits? Plus, Bad Bunny, @slowhorsesappletv.bsky.social, Philly slang in #Task and getting detention for using (meaningless) slang. malwinagudowska.substack.com/p/found-in-e...

Hey. The fragmentation of the social media landscape has been hard on indie #scicomm 🧪 projects So if you'd like to follow a podcast that's enthusiastic about #linguistics, could you check out @lingthusiasm.bsky.social? And if you think your followers might like to, could you give this a repost?

Polish and NATO jets scrambled, Warsaw airport closes after Ukrainian reports of Russian drones over Poland.

Beautiful setting for this year’s #baal2025

Claire's was once a place where tween girls went to be tween girls. Now it's in trouble, @elcush.bsky.social writes: https://theatln.tc/8D1ts6RS

In this week’s Motherlingual, riveting content about Emma Thompson, loos & much more language-related stuff including algospeak & tradwives

I know it is August but if you are a planner and interested in hearing me speak about my book and about navigating multilingual parenthood, please save the morning of Sunday, January 25th, 2026! Details & tickets at the link below. I am looking forward to meeting you!

What goes around comes around, especially in journalism! This week, two stories in @nytimes.com caught my eye b/c I wrote about both topics nearly 20 years ago for Canadian mags @avenuemagazine.bsky.social & Swerve - @calgaryherald.com: One about Trisomy 18 & the other about the allure of smoking.

Some thoughts on August, time, space, narratives, perception, connection and more, with a nod to the fascinating book "Gesture: A Slim Guide" by Lauren Gawne @superlinguo.bsky.social of the wonderful @lingthusiasm.bsky.social over at Motherlingual. open.substack.com/pub/malwinag...

Post-holiday thoughts how travelling shapes & changes my family's multilingualism & my favourite British-English & American-English lost-in-translation moments from Lena Dunham's new series, Too Much over at Motherlingual on Substack. Plus, Churchillian fashion! open.substack.com/pub/malwinag...

This week in the newsletter, Motherlingual: Jenny Saville at the National Portrait Gallery & Expressions of the Skin open.substack.com/pub/malwinag...

Today is the one-year anniversary of my book, Mother Tongue Tied. Thank you a million times to everyone who sent me a photo, bought a copy, recommended it, reviewed it, read it, told me it meant something to you & supported me & my work. Paperback news coming very soon with something new!

Wrote about Trent Alexander-Arnold's @lfcr.bsky.social Spanish skills from last week's #RealMadrid conference & what it means to be "nearly-fluent" or "not wholly bilingual": malwinagudowska.substack.com/p/nearly-flu... @plnews.bsky.social

The difference is that the Jan. 6 rioters were mostly fascist white people fighting to illegally overturn a democratic presidential election and the LA protestors are mostly Black and Brown people fighting to protect their communities from this fascism

Meet your language where it is & a few more fun language-related things (SATC's NY) in today's newsletter. Plus, what I thought I would never say to my children about our multilingualism, but unfortunately recently did: malwinagudowska.substack.com/p/meet-your-...

"banality is responsible for so many of our collective actions, because institutions are always the path of least resistance. It’s simply easier to mold ourselves to social structures, in same way that it’s easier to go with the flow of the crowd instead of against it" @etymologynerd.bsky.social

Here's a warm and friendly video that @malwinagudowska.bsky.social made before our event together in London the other week: malwinagudowska.substack.com/p/on-the-nar...

On the language of peonies but also, so much more today in my Motherlingual newsletter: open.substack.com/pub/malwinag...

Such an important message, rooted in taking children seriously, treating them with respect and nurturing their interests. If we want children to become lifelong learners, this is surely the way to go?

I just wrote “parenting journey” in a paper & hate myself a little for it but for some reason, cannot find an alternative today.

Back in London & I miss the morning soundscape of my Canadian hometown: lawnmowers!

I am always inspired & love the work of @helenzaltzman.bsky.social @mixedlinguist.bsky.social and Kelly Elizabeth Wright so no surprise this ep. of @allusionistshow.bsky.social was so great! (esp. for someone who took ages to figure out meaning of CLB recently) www.theallusionist.org/allusionist/...

I felt such relief after the Canadian elections. Now, I am hoping for the same in my other "homeland" come June 1st. There is just so much to lose otherwise. www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

Thank you to Michael, Mel and @malwinagudowska.bsky.social for a thought provoking and at times emotional discussion last night in London. Dank u wel! and Dziękuję.

Tomorrow I embark on a mini book tour in the UK. The first event is at Backstory, a bookshop in south London, where I'll be appearing with @malwinagudowska.bsky.social and Mel McEvoy. If you're in the area or know someone else who is, we begin at 7 pm!

Also at a (western) Canadian airport: “it’s your choice”

“If you lost a bag of hockey pucks, it is now at the information desk.” - the most Canadian airport announcement ❤️

Catching up on my favourite Substacks (inc. videos) and magazine articles by writers & content creators I admire. Only managed to get through two so far. The first one noted a "thick accent", the second "broken English" (in context of regular storytelling). Why oh why? So much work to be done!

The Endangered Languages Project (@e-l-p.bsky.social), in partnership with the First People's Cultural Council, recently released a guide for journalists who are writing about Indigenous and minority languages. It's great. Let me show you. fpcc.ca/resource/say...

In my latest newsletter, I reflect on some themes from a recent bi/multilingualism conference, homeland mementos, heritage tattoos (!) K-pop soundtracks and the recent comments made by the British PM about English language requirements & integration: malwinagudowska.substack.com/p/languages-...

Bluepals, this Writer Event promises to be illuminating, poignant & uplifting. I'm very sad I can't be there, but these gifted writers will make you glad you came. Thursday 22nd, Backstory Books, Balham High Road, 7pm. You can thank me later😊 @michaelerard.bsky.social @malwinagudowska.bsky.social

Next week I'm in the UK! 22 May, with @malwinagudowska.bsky.social and Mel McEvoy (see below). 23 May at University Hospitals Sussex, for a research talk 24 May at the End of Life Doula UK annual meeting The 22 May event is open to the public, so please come--it will be very special

Tell me you’re in a linguistics classroom…

London & nearby friends, very excited to be joining @michaelerard.bsky.social & Mel McEvoy to discuss the power of language at the beginning and end of our lives at #Backstory bookshop in Balham, May 22nd, 7 pm - save the date & please share

I like telling authoritarians where to shove it in multiple languages

No time to read the #research around good #EAL practice? No problem! In the latest #NALDIC EAL Journal, we have summarised 12 research papers for you! Read it on pages 12-13! naldic.org.uk/publications...

Check out this new British Association for Applied Linguistics SIG fellow #linguists! 🗣💬 They have an interesting event coming up on 5 June! #teaching #langsky #children

This may be the most Canadian sentence ever written.

Dear Canada, Pierre Poilievre is Coming for Your Reproductive Rights open.substack.com/pub/vajenda/...

Of course because...women's health. Sigh.

“Only in the face of intense political, economic, religious, or social pressures do people stop passing on their mother tongues to children, but today these pressures are everywhere. The disruption of this basic natural process has come to feel almost normal.” Ross Perlin, "Language City" More here:

"books pass through the body, are shaped in some ways by the body, but they do not—in my experience—simply emerge fully-formed from within." Loved this @heatherchristle.bsky.social @literaryhub.bsky.social Beautiful & reminded me so much of my own body & book trade-off (or not) experience last year.

A Happy Easter email from our dentist to our children in the guise of info about business hours changing this holiday weekend, but it is also giving serious "don't eat too much chocolate" vibes.

In the comments over on Threads where accentism is sadly alive and too well over a question about varieties of French.

BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week. Linguist Ross Perlin is racing against time to map little-known languages across the most linguistically diverse city in history - contemporary New York. #langsky #xl8