image credit: eMail, via flickr

If you’ve tried to send an email to any of the bilingualreaders.com email addresses over the last few days*, you may have received an error message stating that our mailboxes were over their capacity. We’ve tidied up our inboxes just in case, but the server doesn’t seem to care and seems hell bent on its plans to block us from receiving messages for the time being. Thankfully I’m pretty sure our web developer will be able to easily resolve this issue fairly quickly, but our frustration with the server has helped me to realize just how dependent we are on new technologies. When I arrived in Spain for the first time a little over ten years ago, finding a place to check my email was fairly low on my list of priorities. Yet now it’s hard to imagine a day gone by without seeing what my friends across the globe are up to on Facebook (our apologies in advance for the 5 second self promotional reminder: by clicking here you can check out what Bilingual Readers is up to on Facebook).  The world has changed so much over such a short period of time, and most of my generation has thrived on this new global playground.

Or have we? Are we really taking advantage of all of the possibilities these new technologies have provided, or are many of us hindered by language barriers, which prevent us from gaining access to all the information our neighbors have to offer? We now have so many opportunities to connect with and learn from people all over the world in real time, but in order to truly take advantage of these possibilities, we must first be able to speak and understand the language of those we are trying to communicate with. Just think of all the treasures out there just waiting to be discovered (and I’m not referring to the gold and gemstone variety), if only we could understand one another!

Just one more reminder of the most important reason to teach our children languages at an early age. One of our main goals at Bilingual Readers is to give the next generation the tools it needs to be able to communicate with and learn from as many different cultures as possible. Who knows what a future filled with new technological developments will hold, but we want our bilingual readers to be as prepared as possible to thrive in this increasingly global community. Let’s start a revolution, one bilingual book at a time.

*Update: Good news! Apparently, our email addresses are working again!