Who Are We?

The Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network is made up of families around the world who are raising their children bilingually and/or biculturally. The group provides support and resouces in the form of a website and e-newsletter packed with content as well as Seattle-based presentations, seminars and email contact.

How Did It Start?

After the birth of her first child in 2001, Corey Heller, an American married to a German, started her search for resources for families raising children bilingually and biculturally. Feeling that she wasn't finding the support she needed, Corey started the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network with a handful of other families.

What started as a group of parents who came together twice a month to discuss their joys, frustrations, concerns and ideas about raising their children has turned into an extensive network of families around the world. By sharing our stories worldwide, we hope to not only learn from one another how best to raise our children bilingually and biculturally but to teach the world by example what it truly means to be global citizens. We should all remember: Global communication begins at home.

What makes the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network special is its "grass-roots" origins and growth. Mothers and fathers around the world have been sharing in the development of this group to make it what it is today. We are dedicated to maintaining this group as a community.

Where Is The Group Going?

We want this group to be your source for intelligent, thoughtful and interesting support, resources and essays on being a bilingual and bicultural family. We want to help you become excited about raising your children bilingually and biculturally. We want to help provide you with real food for thought and advice for staying strong during times of difficulty.
What you won't find here are one-answer-fits-all advice. We aren't here to tell you what to do. We are interested in providing you as much information and as many resources as possible so that you can make informed decisions on your own. You are a unique parent and have a unique family so we are here to empower you and your family, not to tell you exactly what to do.

Who Is Doing All This Work?

Karen Wegehenkel is from Germany and is married to an American. Together she and her husband have one daughter whom they are raising bilingually and biculturally. Karen is a professional website designer and developer, photographer, artist and more. She has devoted hundreds of hours of her own time over the course of the last few years to develop and maintain the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network's website. This website and group would not be in existence if it weren't for Karen's tireless dedication and creativity. Learn more about Karen at: www.wegehenkel.com.

Thomas Spellman is Corey's brother and a wonderful uncle to his niece and nephews! He does all of our server work and makes sure our website and email run smoothly. Thomas is also the mastermind behind our discussion lists and most of the website programming. Keep an eye out for more to come - Thomas is working with us to bring you an even better website!

Alice Lapuerta lives in Austria and was raised bilingually and biculturally by Korean and Austrian parents. She and her Spanish-speaking husband are raising their children trilingually in German, Spanish and English (which you can read more about in her column). Alice is the Managing Editor of our bimonthly magazine and a continual contributer to the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network website. Our organization benefits greatly from Alice's inspiration and enthusiasm. You can learn more about Alice at her wonderful blog: stitchdiaries.blogspot.com

Corey Heller is an American originally from northern California married to a German. She and her husband have three children with whom they both speak German. During her studies in Ancient History, Corey learned Ancient and Modern Greek, Latin, German, French, Italian, Irish and even Linear A and B, ancient Bronze Age Minoan scripts. She met her husband while on an Education Abroad program in Galway, Ireland and spent the subsequent years living in Germany and traveling. Presently she works 35 hours a week as a Sr. Software QA Engineer for America Online in the Tegic Communications division where she ensures the quality of the T9 software and more than 24 languge databases.
Corey devotes her time to providing content for the website and newsletter as well as direction for the group. She gives seminars and lectures on raising bilingual and bicultural children as well as other topics. Please contact her at: corey@biculturalfamily.org if you would like her to give a presentation or seminar for your organization or school.

You, you, you! This group wouldn't be anything if it weren't for you - your ideas, dreams, requests, support and thoughts. Your enthusiasm and encouragement continue to keep this group alive every day of the year. Thank You to all of you for being intelligent, caring, thoughtful citizens of our global society. Together we are making a difference!

Contact Us!
We are always delighted to hear from you! Click Here to send us a message.

Help us keep this volunteer organization alive! Make a generous donation to the Bilingual/Bicultural Family Network!