Chontelle Bonfiglio

English Teacher and Mom of Bilingual Children

Chontelle is an Australian living in Italy. She is a certified ESL Teacher, mother, and Creator of Bilingual Kidspot, a website offering practical advice for parents raising bilingual children. She offers inspiration, tools and support; with strategies based on experience as a parent, and as a teacher of a foreign language to children. After university, I took what was meant to be a year out to travel around Europe. Catching the travel bug and wanting to explore more of the world, I gained my ESL Certification, and started working with young children as an English teacher and Governess in schools, nurseries and within private families. Travelling extensively, and working with children in Switzerland, Germany, France, Russia, and Italy, I was able to experience first hand how easy it is for children to learn a foreign language, and how quickly they are able to pick it up at a young age. Now, more than ten years later, I am based in Italy, married to my Italian husband and have two young children who are bilingual. Speaking English and Italian fluently, they are currently learning Spanish as a third language, with hope that in the future we can also introduce Mandarin. With a passion for languages and children, I am constantly studying bilingualism. Having learned to speak Italian as an adult, I know how hard it can be to learn a language later in life. I believe that with the many benefits of being bilingual, that every child should have the chance to learn a second language. I created Bilingual Kidspot to share my knowledge and experience with other families who would like to raise bilingual kids.