Bilingual Babes

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Jeux de mots

2012-01-13T06:42:00.001-08:00

My kids' favourite joke at the moment is:

'As-tu un cerf?'

'Non'

'As-tu un veau?'

'Non'

'Alors tu n'as pas de cerveau!'

'Do you have a stag?'

'No'

'Do you have a calf?'

'No'

'Then you don't have a brain!'

Cerf = Stag

Veau = Calf

Cerveau = Brain

Also after years of enjoying the Babapapa books in English, the penny finally dropped at the French school fete that the gorgeous round pink hero is based on candyfloss! (Barbe à Papa, literally 'Daddy's beard', is French for candyfloss).

PROFILE: Aleksander (German & Dutch in the US)

2012-01-12T12:42:00.000-08:00

General background

What are the names and ages of your children?
Aleksander, age 2

What languages do you speak and to what level (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced/Fluent)?
I speak German, fluent (non-native). My husband is from the Netherlands and speaks Dutch & English fluently plus advanced German.

What languages are you passing on to your child?
English, German and a tiny bit of Dutch. I decided not to use OPOL. I found I just couldn’t give up my own English culture of words, books, songs, etc. And since my husband is Dutch and didn’t grow up with these things, I knew he wouldn’t be able to supplement. Thus I settled on a compromise of spending half of each day in German. Or at least trying to!

Why have you chosen to raise your child with more than one language?
Even before I started learning a second language, I have always been fascinated by other languages. I’ve always thought it would be such a gift to pass my a language on to my children. Learning from the beginning seems so much easier than waiting until they start teaching it in school – especially here in the US, where they usually wait too long.

How are you passing on the different languages and/or culture?
I speak German with Aleksander. We also read books, sing songs, and watch DVDs. I try to incorporate holiday traditions, too. And I’m looking for a German-speaking babysitter to help reinforce input when I’m not with Aleksander.

Non-native issues

Do you seek to improve your own non-native language and, if so, how?
Speaking German with a baby/toddler has definitely opened my eyes to large holes in my vocabulary. No one teaches you the words for diaper, bib, a thousand different trucks, etc. in school! I try to keep a list of words to look up and make them part of my active vocabulary. I’d love to continue to work more on my German, but mostly I settle for learning new things as I read and sing with Aleksander.

Do you get support for teaching your child from native speakers?
I have a friend who is a native-speaker and also has a son about Aleksander’s age. So that is really helpful. In the future, I will definitely consider some kind of Saturday school (although the teachers aren’t necessarily native-speakers).

Does your child ever teach or correct you?
Aleksander only just started talking, so he’s not correcting me yet!

In terms of your emotional relationship with your child, do you feel speaking in a non-native language adds something, takes something away, or both?
I find it really challenging to keep up the German when things get more emotional – either comforting Aleksander or when I get really frustrated with him! For me, I don’t feel I can comfort him in German the way I can in English. But when I think about it, it probably doesn’t make so much difference to Aleksander. After all, he’s used to me speaking both languages. It just seems so strange to me! And when I get frustrated, I just have trouble accessing all the vocabulary I need.
On the other hand, I feel like speaking German with Aleksander brings us closer. It’s a special bond we can share. And even if it gets hard, I think it’s so worth it to give him this opportunity.

Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to speaking a non-native language with your child?
Well, obviously, I don’t speak perfect, native German. I wonder sometimes if that will be a problem for Aleksander. Will he pick up my mistakes with grammar or vocabulary? I hope that by offering other input from other German-speakers, DVDs, books, etc. it will compensate.

How have your family and friends – and strangers - reacted to your decision?
I have had nothing but support. It’s wonderful to know our families support and encourage us. We also belong to a playgroup that turned out to be quite international. We all met at prenatal yoga, and out of the six of us, five couples are made up of at least one person who is not from the US. So I’m not the only one speaking another language, which makes it easier for me. Out in public, I have to admit I have trouble sticking with German. I don’t want anyone to feel out of the loop. But when I make the effort, I never get any negative feedback.

Has it ever proved difficult or challenging? And, conversely, what has been the most rewarding aspect?
Of course!! It’s challenging every day! I have so much to learn. It’s frustrating when I stumble of my words or can’t think of the right noun gender or don’t know the right preposition or case. I also struggle with consistency. Since I split my days between English and German, I’m used to both. So I sometimes forget to switch over to German. All I can do is persevere, though.
There have already been some amazing moments with Aleksander in regards to German. The first time I realized he understood me, he was about a year old. He was going through the baby gate at the top of the stairs, and I told him to watch out for his fingers. It’s a little more complicated to say in German, so when he moved his hand, I couldn’t believe it! At just a little over age 2, Aleksander started talking. Hearing him speak German gives me such a thrill! It’s also amazing to witness how he is learning to separate the two languages. It makes it all worth it!

And finally, do you always plan to speak the non-native language with your child?
I do plan to always speak German with Aleksander. I know there will be new challenges in the future. And I hope he never goes through that phase where he doesn’t want to speak German! It’s helpful to have found the blogging community of other parents who speak a foreign language with their children. I get so inspired by their stories, so it makes me want to keep going when I feel like giving up. In the end, I hope Aleksander will get to a place where he really appreciates being able to speak more than one language. I also hope we can visit Germany now and then, so he has even more of a connection to the people and culture.

MULTICULTURAL PRODUCTS: Our Toys & Books

2011-10-25T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've written a lot lately about finding toys that represent my kids' skin tones, so I thought I would post a few pics of things we already do have! Here is Schmoo with her Barbie collection (the 2 white dolls were gifts - so if I hadn't bought the others, those would be the only ones she'd have...):

And here with her cute brown wooden doll's house dollies:

I've mentioned that she also has a rag doll and a baby doll - here they are!

We also have quite a few books that feature brown-skinned heroes/heroines, here are some of them:

And some reference books about children from all around the world:

And finally, 2 books in our collection that present rather different ideals...
This book entitled 'Les Contraires' (Opposites) has, as its main illustration, a black girl and a white girl, which seems to indicate that black and white people are opposite from one another - the very opposite of the message we want to give our children! One for the recycling...

On a more positive note, this version of 'The Beauty and the Beast' shows the Beast turning into a handsome brown-skinned Prince at the end:

Xmas will no doubt bring a whole host of new toys, so will report on those when they arrive!

MULTICULTURAL PRODUCTS: Brown Action Heroes

2011-10-23T07:21:00.000-07:00

Well, if I thought it was tricky to find brown mermaids, that was nothing compared to uncovering a brown animated action hero! There are a few to be found as secondary characters in films with white action heroes (lists of non-white action heroes often refer to these), but I was looking for a character that was the real star of the story, so my son would be totally focused on him! Also, as my son is only 4 years' old, I was hoping to find a cartoon figure, or at least family-friendly film hero.

We have had the 2 wonderful films of Kirikou, an adventurous talking African baby, since the children were very small and we even have the book now, which my son still loves.

But he has recently become much more interested in tough men heroes, like Batman, Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, Ben 10, etc and I'm very keen to show him that heroes can also have brown skin!

A long search online did not bring many results. There are a few brown-skinned comic book heroes, but few of these have been made into animated feature films, and in any case, they are on the whole aimed at much older children or adults. Eventually I came across Static Shock, a very cool Ghanaian/American teenage boy who can generate static electricity. I especially love Static's hair, which is all over the place, just like my son's!

The only film of Static I could find was Region 1. As we only have a Region 2 DVD player, we will have to view it on the computer (it's easy to change the region of your DVD drive, but take care, as you can only change it a set number of times and then it locks on to the last selected region).

The only other brown-skinned child-friendly animated action hero I could find was Rex Generator, a Hispanic (Argentian/Mexican) boy, who can grow machines from his body! He sounds super cool and exactly the kind of thing my son is into right now - robots, machines, technology... There seems to be a lot of tie-in merchandise available with Rex, so if my son likes this, we are set! Again, only available in Region 1.

As for film, the main option for family-friendly viewing (it's a 12) seems to be Hancock. We look forward to that when our kids are a little older. There is also Blade, but as an 18 rating, it's no use until they're much older! As my son enjoys Star Wars, I thought I could also make something of Mace Windu, Samuel L Jackson's jedi knight, although he is very much a supporting role in the film. I've bought him this lego figure and a playset featuring Mace.

And I'm afraid that was all I could find! Please do let me know if you know of any others.

MULTICULTURAL PRODUCTS: Brown Fairies, Mermaids, Princesses, Ballerinas, Ice dancers & more!

2011-10-10T01:39:00.000-07:00

My daughter was recently asked to draw a princess at school and, despite all my careful promotion of brown princesses, such as Jasmine from Aladdin, Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, and Pocahontas, she drew the archetypal white girl with long blonde hair. I commented 'That looks like Rapunzel, you like her, don't you?' just to draw her attention to the fact that she had selected particular characteristics. But it did remind me that the bombardment of white images, particularly in regard to princesses and fairies, is very powerful and that I need to continue with my efforts to present my children with other ideals of beauty in the home.

This morning on the school run we played a game I invented on the spot, called 'Name a Princess'. My daugher picked Cinderella, I said Jasmine, she said Ariel, I said Princess Tiana - at that point, she said that she'd wanted to pick her, which I was rather pleased about! But the aim of the game, as you may've guessed, was to remind her that lots of beautiful brown characters are princesses, as well as all the lovely white ones :-) So to continue from my last post on trying to find brown Barbie dolls for my daughter, I thought I would see what other products I could find that represent my children's skin tones! I mentioned that it is extremely difficult to find brown fantasy figures, such as fairies and mermaids, but this seems to be changing, at least with fairies, so I'll start with them.

FAIRIES

'Rainbow Magic' produce modern fairy stories and take care to include all skin tones and hair types among their many series. And luckily for us, these books are also available in French! Check out cool Ashley the Dragon Fairy with her gorgeous afro, which my daughter is reading at the moment:

I also discovered this story about a little boy and his very funky tooth fairy at the local library:

Disney includes the cute black fairy Iridessa in their film 'Tinkerbell & the Great Fairy Rescue', but I did find that this fairy gets a bit lost among all the other white fairies and my daughter only seems to remember Tinkerbell, the star and main focus of the story.

Then I uncovered a brown-skinned Barbie fairy (try typing 'Barbie Fairy Doll African' into Google):

MERMAIDS

Mermaids are trickier! Although mermaid myths are told around the world, in the West the image of the Caucasian mermaid brushing her long blonde hair is strong. However, I did uncover 3 Barbie mermaid dolls, though being fairly rare, they are quite expensive.

Fountain Mermaid Barbie - African American (loving the fabulous pink hair!):

Barbie Sparkle Lights Mermaid Doll - African American:

Jewel Hair Mermaid Barbie - African American (with mermaids, it's all about the hair, and this doll has it all the way to the tip of her tail!):

Dora the Explorer, with her pale brown skin and big brown eyes, has a mermaid version!

For stories about non-white mermaids, I had to spend quite a bit of time on Google! Here are the results, I am going to check some of these out and report back:

PRINCESSES & FAIRY TALES

There is now a nice mix of skin tones in the famous Disney Princess line-up, which includes:
Princess Tiana
Princess Jasmine
Mulan
Pocahontas

Here they all are:

As my daughter is quite keen on Cinderella and Rapunzel (as well as Princess Tiana, Princess Jasmine, etc!), I wanted to offer her an alternative to the blonde blue-eyed ideal of beauty. There are some great story books that offer alternative tellings of Rapunzel et al, with brown-skinned heroines.

Here is a wonderful version of the Cinderella story, with a brown-skinned Cinders, Whitney Houston as fairy godmother and Whoopie Goldberg as Queen Constantina. It's only available in Region 1, though, so we'll have to watch it on the computer!

BALLERINAS
As always, there is a Barbie for every occasion!

Here's a ragdoll from Dolls Like Me for a softer look:

As for the all-important dancing ballerina jewellery box, I could only find one featuring a brown ballerina, a luxury and therefore expensive one, from US site Music Box Attic:

And for inspiration, some real-life dancers! This is Aesha Ash, a ballerina who danced with the NYC ballet:

And another ballerina, Tai Jimenez who danced with the Boston Ballet:

And finally, Whoopi Goldberg has produced a whole series of books about ballerinas, with brown-skinned girls taking center stage:

ICE SKATERS

As always, Barbie has the doll!

Winx are a series about fairies, who include some brown-skinned characters and who sometimes dance on ice!

And here is one of the tie-in Winx dolls:

And, just for fun, a couple of shots of one of the most famous ice skaters ever to come out of France, the astonishing Surya Bonaly:

BIG GIRL DOLLS

Brown baby dolls and ragdolls are fairly widely available, but older girl dolls a bit less easy to find. This one from Argos has long luscious locks just like my daughter and will probably be her Christmas present!

DOLLS HOUSE DOLLS

Again, not as easy to find as brown baby dolls or ragdolls, but there are still some good sets out there. I love this one from Kids Like Me:

BOOKS

My favourite baby book of all time, partly for the utterly gorgeous illustrations, partly for the hilarious message to both parents and babies (please, please, let me sleep!):

For younger readers, 'My Two Grannies' is great for representing our kind of family!

and it's follow-up, 'My Two Granddads':

'What Will I Be?' for girls and 'Choices, Choices' for boys show all sorts of job options.

Mary Hoffman's 'Grace' series of books includes picture books and follow-on tales for ages 7-10.

Another writer, Malorie Blackman, has quite a few books for older readers:

I've listed some good places to source multicultural children's products on the right of this blog.

But how about the boys? Now that my son is getting older (now aged 4), I am becoming a bit concerned that all his favourite characters, such as Batman and Spiderman, are white - not that he knows it yet, not having seen them without their masks! He is also very fond of Ben 10 and Buzz Lightyear - again, white heroes. I will make this the subject of my next post!

RESOURCES: The best 10 things about going bilingual

2011-05-28T00:28:00.000-07:00

1. When people ask my kids where they're from (a pretty common question for anyone with brown skintone in this part of the world), they say France! (Sadly, neither me nor their Papa have any direct connection to France, I just happen to've studied the language and decided to pass it on!)

2. Seeing my children chattering away with their French buddies - friends they'd never've made if they only spoke English! Also, planning a trip to visit some of those friends this very summer :-)

3. They've picked up loads of super-cute French sayings, like:
My son yelling 'Tchac! when playing, the French equivalent of 'Bash!'.
Schmoo acting like a French tween with phrases like 'Ben, oui, hein?!' (something like, 'Well, of course, duh!')

4. All the new words Schmoo's taught me. She keeps coming home from school with new vocab, then there's all the words we learn together doing her homework (I always keep my iPhone with its WordReference app handy!). In fact, just improving and keeping up my French altogether. At first I was mainly learning child-centric words, like 'le pot' (potty) and 'le doudou' (comforter), but now the books I read with Schmoo are far more grown-up, about the level of Roald Dahl stories. And because of the need to keep up, I make more of an effort to read books in French myself, listen to French radio, and talk in French with the francophone mums at the school gate (even though most of them are fluent in English!). I'm sure that if I hadn't gone the bilingual route, my French would be desperately rusty by now!

5. Feeling less self-conscious when telling the kids off in the supermarket! Knowing that most people around you can't understand your threats and/or bribes really takes the edge off feeling judged when the little ones misbehave! Promising a kingsize chocolate bar if they get up off the floor NOW?! Don't worry, no one's going to frown and shake their head in disgust at the bad mummy who can't control her children without a massive bribe!

6. The children being able to read wonderful classic stories like 'Tintin' and 'Le Petit Prince' in the original. Some things do get lost in translation!

7. Discovering and celebrating twice as many festivals! In addition to all the English ones, we now have La Galette des Rois (Epiphany, where a 'King' is chosen by discovering a token in a cake) in January, le 14 juillet (Bastille Day) in July and a second Mother's Day in May!

8. Recent research (The NY Times, 30 May 2011, 'The Bilingual Advantage') has uncovered new pluses of bilingualism, eg bilinguals get Alzheimer's later in life than monolinguals, and are better at discounting useless information when trying to solve a problem. All great news (and something to hold on to in sticky moments)!

9. My children code-switching (ie moving from one language to another in the same conversation, sometimes in the same sentence) - this is generally considered a bit of a no-no, as surely it's confusing both them and the person they're talking to?! Will they ever be able to talk even one language properly?! But my children are used to talking to bilinguals - most of their friends and teachers speak both English and French, so it's fine to slip a French word into an English sentence or vice versa. And they're definitely not confused, because they take care not to code-switch when chatting with monolinguals. For me, it just sums up how very bilingual they are, and that can only be a good thing!

10. Knowing they'll have so many choices later on - they can decide to do A'levels or the Baccalaureat, pick a French university or a UK one, get a job that requires French, even choose to live and work in France. Of course they may never use their French again on leaving school, but I love that they have those options!

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Teacher or Pupil?!

2011-04-11T15:00:00.001-07:00

Proudly showing off their own-design t-shirts!

I've long been resigned (though secretly thrilled!) that my 6-year-old daughter corrects my French, but I didn't expect my 3-year-old son to start just yet! But a couple of days ago, when I was offering him some 'raisins verts' (green grapes), he indignantly stated, ' Raisins blancs!' (white grapes), which I suppose must be the more accurate translation he's heard at school! Since then he has joined his sister in earnest with the corrections - a gender here, a grammatical correction there! So is he 'lancé' into the francophone world? Can I leave him to his own devices? Have I taught him everything he knows? Probably the answer is yes, but the trouble is as soon as I switch to English it immediately becomes his dominant language, to the point that he stops speaking it so much at school. So for now I am ploughing on, despite being firmly put in my place linguistically on a regular basis!

I can't complain too much though, because while I long to share more with the children by speaking with them in my mother tongue, after 6 years French has definitely become *our* language and I know I will miss speaking it when we do stop! In a way, this is a gradual fading out and I am already speaking mainly in English with Schmoo, especially when her brother is not around (it's more for his benefit now!). So today, for example, she had the day off school for an appointment and we simply spoke English all day. I have to admit, it was very relaxing!

Saying that, one of the things I love best about our continuing language journey is how every language is like a window into the world of its country. So teaching your children another language goes hand in hand with learning about other cultures. For example, in French there is a festival called 'La Galette des Rois', which involves eating a yummy cake and discovering a 'feve' within (a bit like the coin in the Christmas pud). The finder becomes King or Queen for the day and gets to wear a crown! The children celebrate it every year at their French schools, and it's a celebration that brings lots of new vocabulary. Meanwhile, in Twi, there is an expression, 'fem fem', which describes the sensation of nails scraping down a blackboard, something this culture clearly wanted to give a name to! To say 'I'm angry', you can say 'me beafu', which literally means 'I've got hairs on my chest' or 'me ni abre', which means 'My eyes are red', both nice and evocative of the emotion!

PROGRESS UPDATE: Holiday

2011-04-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

This photo is from our recent trip to CenterParcs - one of the UK ones, but we had so much fun we are going to try out the French CenterParcs next time! Housekeeping sweetly propped the children's books in front of their 'doudous' on their beds - you can see that Schmoo is reading 'Barbar' and Pan-Pan has one of the 'Editions Fleurus' books with photos of little plasticine objects.

We are now 2 terms into Schmoo's first year at the French school and couldn't be more pleased with her progress. I recently asked her teacher whether her French was up to the class standard (which, after all, is full of children either raised in the UK by French-speaking parents, or children just arrived from France) and she told me the language is not an issue at all :-) Despite Schmoo learning to read in English first and modelling her French reading on English (so she reads letter by letter, instead of syllable by syllable, and she might mispronounce words like 'part' in French that are said differently), she is coping very well with having all her schoolwork in French. One of the trickiest things has actually been maths, as in French the word for '70' literally translates as 'sixty and ten'. It gets more complicated with '80', literally 'Four twenties' and '90', which is 'Four twenties and ten'! I am struggling to help her, as I fumble with my own rusty maths and counting in French!

Meanwhile, Pan-Pan has joined the French nursery school that Schmoo went to for 3 years. It was a tricky transition, unrelated to any language issues, just the newness of school life after spending every waking moment till now with Maman, but coming up to Easter and he is finally (more or less!) happily going to school in the morning and coming out full of pride in his achievements. His French, which was frankly starting to die a death, has undergone a magnificent revival since starting in his immersion French class.

The funny thing is, the children at Pan-Pan's school tend to play in English together, so he seems to have got it into his head that you speak French with adults and English with children! He always talks to me in French now, a new habit, but with his sister it's almost always English. I asked Schmoo recently why she didn't talk more in French with Pan-Pan and she said, 'Well, he doesn't really talk French'! I think because his English is dominant, she just prefers to quickly chat with him in that language. Ah well, although I do love hearing their little conversations in French from time to time (and it ebbs and flows, sometimes they go through a phase of lots of French, no idea what the triggers are!), I do at least feel that both are now getting almost all the French they need from school. I am still talking French with Pan-Pan, though it's mainly English with Schmoo these days and it's great to finally be able to get on top of her English grammar and correct some of those 'ouch' mistakes! Even so, I do try not to underestimate the amount of French required in a non-French speaking country to raise my bilingual babes! So even with all the French input at school, I still try to bring as much French as I can into our home as well - so piano & violin lessons are in French, all TV and stories with mum remain in French, etc!

MULTICULTURAL PRODUCTS: Brown Barbies

2011-01-29T15:56:00.001-08:00

Trichelle & Janessa (little sister) Barbie dolls

Being part of a family where we each have a unique skin tone and hair type has made me really think about the images my children are bombarded with every day, through adverts, toys, games, clothing, etc. Although it is clear there is a widespread and concerted effort to represent all different looks these days, when you actually start to pay attention, you soon realise we have a long way to go. Nearly every t-shirt, backpack, lunchbox or greetings card that features a child features a white child. Where non-whites are represented, they are often the token nod to non-prejudice, a friend or relative of the main character, shown only in a supporting role.

Grace Barbie doll & Darren (Ken-type doll)

I think it is extremely important that non-white children see images of children who look similar to themselves, so they are not left wondering why non-white children are sidelined or ignored. Are non-white children not as important? is a question they may well ask themselves. I find all of this especially important when it comes to images held up as an ideal of beauty, as in the case of Barbie or Sindy dolls.

Trichelle Barbie doll (gorgeous curls!)

It is now fairly easy to find so-called ethnic baby-type dolls in all complexions and we've had a brown-skinned baby doll, as well as a gorgeous brown-hued rag-doll, since Schmoo was small. However, one type of doll is harder to track down - the fairy or mermaid doll. For some reason, when it comes to fantasy, people lack imagination! Nearly every fairy or mermaid doll (or picture of a fairy/mermaid) is white. Luckily, Disney has come to the rescue and Iridessa, one of the fairies from the new cartoon, 'Tinkerbell & the Great Fairy Rescue', is black, which means lots of great tie-in black fairy merchandise!

Kara Barbie doll

Schmoo actually received a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie doll for her 4th birthday, but luckily she took no interest and I quickly snuck it out of the house! She's now 6 and, today, to my horror, she received a replacement, as a take-home gift from a party. This time it was love at first sight and she has spent the evening playing with it before taking it to bed with her. I mentioned that I had been about to buy her such a doll (true, but Princess Tiana rather than the Aryan doll she was lovingly clutching!) and tentatively suggested that perhaps we could make an exchange when her new doll arrived?! This suggestion did not of course go down too well - she said she would prefer the doll I bought her (bless her) but that she wanted to keep both dolls.

Trichelle & Chandra Barbie dolls (Trichelle with afro)

When she went to bed, I rushed online to see what the possibilities were - and found to my delight that there is now a whole range of brown-skinned Barbies available - I went a bit bonkers and bought 10 dolls! I partly bought so many because I wanted to have the whole range of different skin tones and hair types (I even found one on eBay with an afro - a very rare thing in Barbie-world!), though each has beautiful brown skin and gorgeous dark eyes. Most have 'African' features too, rather than the 'white doll painted brown' look of the first black Barbies. I think Schmoo's 10 new brown-skinned dolls (which include a ridiculously cute 'little sister' dol, a boy doll to represent her brother and a Disney Princess Tiana doll) will be enough to balance out her white Barbie, so I will be happy for her keep it after all!

Princess-style Barbie doll (for a bit of glamour)

Note: All the Barbie dolls (and one Disney Princess Tiana doll) in the pics are the ones I bought!

Disney Princess Tiana doll

Useful sites:
www.kidslikeme.co.uk - for multicultural toys, books and other products (love the way they describe their products as 'inclusive')
www.willesdenbookshop.co.uk - for multicultural books (including a wonderful round-the-world Cinderella page!)
http://www.positive-identity.com - especially good for dolls
http://www.eduzone.co.uk/acatalog/index.html - a huge selection of multicultural products

NEW WORDS: Multicultural vocab

2011-01-29T15:46:00.001-08:00

Bringing up children with more than one language goes hand in hand with learning about other cultures. For example, in French there is a festival called 'La Galette des Rois', which involves eating a yummy cake and discovering a 'feve' within (a bit like the coin in the Christmas pud), so its a celebration that brings lots of new vocabulary. In Twi, there is an expression, 'fem fem', which describes the sensation of nails scraping down a blackboard, something this culture wanted to give a name to!

NEW WORDS: Ella or Ella?

2010-11-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

I recently asked Schmoo if she wanted a playdate with her friend Ella, forgetting she has 2 friends of that name, one English, one French. She asked me if we would see Ella's brother, Jonnie and I said, 'No, not that Ella, the one you go to school with.' Her response was, 'But that's not Ella [English accent], mum, that's Ella [French accent]!' To me, I can barely hear the difference between the two sounds, but to her, it's clearly a completely different name!

PROGRESS UPDATE: To talk French or not to talk French?

2010-11-09T03:48:00.000-08:00

I have recently been thinking about how long I can carry on talking to my children in a language that is not my mother tongue. There are many, many occasions when it is difficult and I'm sure I lose my cool with the kids more often because of the constant pressure I put on myself to stick to French, even when it would be a hundred times easier to think what to say in English! Because of this, and also because as my children are growing up their language is getting quickly more challenging, I am reaching a point where I need to switch to English some of the time. It may be to try and explain something complex (usually scientific!) that my six-year-old daughter has asked me, something I would struggle to find the words for even in English, or it may be to let my three-year-old son know why his behaviour is inappropriate without resorting to shouting! What's difficult is that I sometimes forget to switch, because the habit of talking in French is so ingrained, especially when my daughter begins the conversation in French.

Although I studied French for around 15 years, including a BA and an MA, my daughter, at 6, has already outstripped my French! Of course I know many more 'grown-up' words, but in terms of holding a natural conversation, she has completely overtaken me. She has a near-native accent and intonation, prefers to write in French, and can switch between the ml and ML without batting an eyelash. Whereas I have a clear English accent and struggle to put my French hat on after a day of English. So I'm finding that it works better these days to talk mainly in English with Schmoo. With Pan-Pan, though, things are different. I feel he still needs extra French input at home, because unlike Schmoo at the same age, he is showing a strong dominance for English. His passive understanding of French is 100% and he will generally switch to French if asked, but begins nearly all his conversations in English. He doesn't have that emotional attachment to the language that Schmoo seems to have, probably because there was already more English at home due to his sister when he came along. So I try to speak mainly French with him and also ask Schmoo to speak mainly French with him - it's no longer straighforward OPOL (One Person, One Language) for us!

Because we are so lucky to have the French immersion school, I am not too worried about 'fading out' to English at home as they get a little older and I expect to be talking solely English at home by the time Pan-Pan is 6. Saying that, I will still always read to them in French (where all the hard work of the vocabulary and correct grammar is done for me!), show French films, and bring any other French input to the home that I can (piano lessons in French, playdates with their monolingual French friends, etc).

It is a tricky issue, and I have gone back and forth as to what to do! Giving up talking French with my children has not been an easy choice (there is the emotional attachment to the language, the habit of talking it, my love of the language, whether it will devalue French for the children, etc etc), but it does seem to make sense for our family at this time.

NEW WORDS: How do you say 'à la ferme'?

2010-11-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

My six-year-old daughter has just been teaching my three-year-old son the correct pronunciation of 'ferme' (farm). 'But mum, he says 'feme', he needs to say the r' and then she demonstrates with that long rolling French r that I struggle to say! Poor Pan-Pan was drilled for about 10 minutes before he said something satisfactory!

RESOURCES: French stuff for non-native parents

2010-07-02T00:11:00.001-07:00

So your kids have a ton of target-language DVDs, books, websites and toys to fast-track their bilingualism, but what about you the parent? If the target language isn't your native one, you'll be wanting to maintain and improve it any chance you get, but as we all know, being a parent doesn't give you the luxury of long stretches of free time for language-learning! The best way to keep up your language skills is to work it into your day-to-day life. You can't beat simply talking to friends, colleagues or tutors in the target language, but when that is an impossibility, or just not enough exposure for you, you'll need to turn to other methods!
As a new iPhone user, I'm loving some of the French apps on there. 'French Word A Day' can't compete with the unconnected and very wonderful website of the same name (http://french-word-a-day.typepad.com/motdujour), but it is useful for those 'bus-stop' moments to grab a new or even a familiar word on the run, with a phrase to put it in context. Learning the odd extra bit of vocab like this can connect you to the moment you learnt it, as it's so specific - 'Oh yeah, I remember that word, I discovered it en route to my aunt's house' for example!
Another great app is the French gender one - it gives you all the major gender rules for nouns and then sets you quizzes. Again, quick and simple, you can learn on the run (as I usually am!).
Then there's 'TuneIn Radio' that brings you radio stations in almost any language you can think of! There're many French talk station, so it's great for listening to in the gym, or as you get ready for the shower, etc.
Of course you don't need an iPhone either, as any smartphone will give you access to some great language-learning tools.
And if you don't have a smartphone?! There's lots to rely on elsewhere, starting with that old-fashioned technology: books!
If I'm reading a book in a non-native language it has to be a real page-turner, which is why I was so chuffed to discover Guillaume Musso (http://www.guillaumemusso.com) - the French equivalent of John Grisham. He uses very simple vocab, so there's less time running to the dictionary, and his stories hook you straight in, so you're prepared to put up with a little extra effort to find out what happens next. I found his first book while on holiday in France, and I'm now on my third, which I bought yesterday from one of the three French bookshops in South Kensington. When I read in French I always keep a pen handy to underline all the unfamiliar words, then look them up en masse later on.
If French is your target language, you are going to be spoilt for good films, with all the gems of French cinema to discover. And it's not just art house - the new romcom 'Heartbreaker' is being called the most accessible French film yet! Great for filling in gaps in your vocab and keeping up-to-date with current 'argot'.
I love surfing the net, but haven't yet found a French website to fall in love with, either for chatting or grammar refreshers.

PROGRESS UPDATE: Schools

2010-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy time for us, organising Schmoo's place at the French lycee (lots of paperwork!) and sorting out Pan-Pan's place at his French primary school in September. It will be good once he's getting some French at school, so he starts to realise this is not just some kooky family language Maman dreamed up, but something that exists and has purpose in the outside world as well!
The 'English catastrophe' of my last post was rather persistent, but after 2 weeks of asking Pan-Pan to repeat everything he said to me in French and reverting to only speaking to the children in French, he's gone back to French, thankfully! I still talk a fair bit of English with Schmoo when Pan-Pan's not around, especially if I need to explain something to her, but both languages are coming along nicely, and she's getting a lot of English input from Papa (who teaches her maths in English every night), so I'm not as concerned about this as I was. I am still looking ahead to the day I can leave most of the French teaching to the schools though! It will probably be at least another year, as Pan-Pan is going into the bilingual section of his school first and so won't be in immersion French until 2011.
We are getting a new piano on Monday and I'm going to try and find a piano teacher who can also teach the children to play in French :-)

PROGRESS UPDATE: English catastrophe!

2010-03-02T09:51:00.001-08:00

Since I've taken the decision to talk in English with Schmoo, there's been an unforeseen consequence for Pan-Pan, who has also decided he only wants to talk to me in English! Aaaargh! I thought I would be able to keep things in French during the day while Schmoo's at school and switch to English when she gets home, but I underestimated the dominance of English for Pan-Pan. Today almost everything he said to me has been in English, and I've asked him to repeat it in French before I respond. He's happy enough to do this, but it's very tedious and time-consuming! And I thought after a few goes, he'd get the idea and switch back to talking to me in French, but he's being very persistent! I've decided to go back to French with Schmoo for now, at least until Pan-Pan is in school and getting some French input there. I think it's worthwhile, as it's only a few months.
The other problem trend is that Schmoo and Pan-Pan are talking more and more English together - around 80% of the time. This week I've introduced a reward chart for talking in French together, which has edged the French up to around 50% of their chat..! What I've come to realise is that language is such a fluid emotive thing, it doesn't really respond to set rules and targets, and sometimes you do just have to go with the flow.
On the plus side, I've noticed Schmoo has started to correct Pan-Pan's French lately! 'Pas "une" biberon, c'est "un" biberon!' ('Not "a (f.)" baby's bottle, "a (m.)" baby's bottle!') she'll tell him, or 'Je veux "de" l'eau, pas Je veux l'eau!' ('I want "some" water, not I want water!').

NEW WORDS: Ce n'est pas vrai

2010-03-02T09:42:00.001-08:00

We were in the car a couple of days ago with the kids and their cousin in the back, when Schmoo started whinging 'Ce n'est pas vrai!'. Her non-French speaking cousin asked her to tell her what that meant and Schmoo translated 'It's not fair'. I was expecting her to give the literal translation of 'It's not true' but in the context she was absolutely correct and that was the correct translation :-)

PROGRESS UPDATE: Lots of new French, no more Twi...

2010-02-15T03:43:00.000-08:00

I realise through a quick scan of old posts that while the French is going great guns (both kids active bilinguals), sadly the Twi has pretty much fallen by the wayside. Their papa has never been that enthusiastic about speaking with the children in Twi, mainly because he found it almost impossible to communicate effectively with them - his Twi, while fluent, is nowhere near as rich as his English vocabulary and the kind of things he can say in the language are useful if you are working on a farm in Ghana but not much use chatting with your kids in urban London. We both wanted to prioritise the English, it being such a dominant world language and given that we do live in the English-speaking part! And as he was the children's main source of English, he was struggling to teach them both languages. To make things more difficult, we started very late with the Twi, so it was always going to be a struggle to convince Schmoo to talk this new language with Papa. The upshot of it is that the Twi has slowly pretty much disappeared from our daily conversations. Papa will say the odd thing in Twi and the children do understand, but it's clearly not going to be their third language anytime soon. However, saying that, I think having a good passive base has stood them in good stead for picking it up quickly later on, as we will probably spend many holidays in Ghana when they are a bit older, and where they will meet their Twi-talking cousins!

NEW WORDS: blaguer

2010-02-15T02:04:00.000-08:00

Words my daughter has taught me no.4: blaguer - to joke
OK, I guessed the meaning of this one (!) but not a word I'd come across before. It's slang, so she's obviously picked it up at school, which is great, as the one thing she's at risk of lacking is a bit of familiar French!

NEW WORDS: couettes (bunches)

2010-02-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Along with 'otarie' (sea-lion) and 'citronade' (lemonade), Schmoo's taught me another new word today! She said that her friend's hair is in 'couettes', which I had to look up (bunches!). Now that we are trying to speak more English at home, I'm going to miss learning all this vocabulary from her!

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Pretty little witch

2010-02-08T05:29:00.000-08:00

Today was Schmoo's school play and she had to go in dressed up as a witch. As we were leaving I said to her, 'Quelle belle petite sorcière!' ('What a pretty little witch!'), but I obviously pronounced it wrong, because she immediately corrected me, 'Pas sorcier, maman, sorcière! C'est sorcier pour les garcons et sorcière pour les filles!' ('Not wizard, mum, witch! It's wizard for boys and witch for girls!'). I love that she's starting to correct me now, though it's probably another sign that it's time to switch the home language to English, something I've been planning for a while. Schmoo's getting all the French input she needs from the mother tongue teachers at her immersion French school, so it seems redundant to keep exposing her to my franglais (though I'm learning quite a lot!).

PROGRESS UPDATE: Immersion French

2010-01-25T23:27:00.001-08:00

Savez-vous qui a 5 ans, mes amis, mes amis?
Savez-vous qui a 5 ans, dans la classe aujourd'hui?
C'est Schmoo qui a 5 ans, mes amis, mes amis!
C'est Schmoo qui a 5 ans, dans la classe aujourd'hui!*
(To the tune of Savez-vous planter les choux )

Since September, Schmoo has finally finally finally entered the immersion French class at school :-) It feels like we've been waiting several aeons for this, with the carrot dangling tantalisingly the whole time (in a French school, but stuck in the English section!). And wow! What a difference it has made! Her accent is suddenly pitch perfect, her French vocabulary has just exploded. Her intonation still needs some work, after 5 years of listening to my Franglais, but for very short phrases it's spot on, in fact she often sounds like a surly French teenager ("Maman, c'est trop cool!" etc).
The good thing about having spent 2 years in the English section is that she can now read in English. Her recent school report from the French section said that she models her French reading on English, so we're working on that now - she reads me one book in English and one in French each night. She's getting used to the differences and the way words like 'part' are pronounced differently depending on the language.

Pan-Pan will go directly into the French section in September and I'm hoping his French will take off in the same way. He's talking well in both languages now and quickly figures out who speaks French and who speaks English (although he doesn't call them that yet!). Some of his French corrupted words are so cute, eg: 'Conne ça' for 'Comme ça'.

The kids speak a mish-mash of French and English together. I try to reinforce the French with the odd reminder that we must help Pan-Pan learn French!

*Do you know who's 5 years' old, my friends, my friends?
Do you know who's 5 years' old, in the class today?
It's Schmoo who's 5 years' old, my friends, my friends!
It's Schmoo who's 5 years' old, in the class today!

RESOURCES: Changing the lingo

2009-06-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

This is a tricky thing to manage, but often a necessary change for bilingual families.
Suppose you're raising your children with Japanese in an English-speaking country but then move to Japan. Logically, you'd now want to start using English with the children, but that's easier said than done, as talking a particular language with someone is a very hard habbit to break. The language you speak with someone gives that language a certain value, as well as forming part of the identity of that person and the relationship you have with them.
Sometimes it's the parents who want to switch languages.
Suppose (once again) you're raising your children with Japanese in an English-speaking country, but this time your children's school teacher tells you their English is not as strong as it should be. To introduce more English into their environment, you may wish to start talking in English with your partner, or even encourage grandparents to do so.
In our case, where the Twi is so weak (due to lack of time with their father and our late start, making it difficult to use Twi all the time), I have decided to start using Twi with Papa whenever possible (not too often, given my current Twi abilities!). I am hoping this will also improve my own Twi. It's challenging, but with the natural dominance of the Majority Language (English in our case), there's no harm in switching to a bit of Twi. Also, hearing their parents use Twi together will hopefully raise the value of the language for the children.
They already both have pitch-perfect Twi accents and sing happily along to Twi songs in the car, plus good passive knowledge, so the basis is there. My hope is that the next time we take them to Ghana (should be 2010), they will switch from passive to active knowledge in their play with local children :-)

PROGRESS UPDATE: Questions kids ask...

2009-04-07T04:16:00.001-07:00

Now that Schmoo has reached the question phase (just after the 'why' phase!), we are getting some crackers, like 'How do cats laugh?' (she was pretending to be a cat) and 'Why are we animals?' when I tried to explain that humans are animals too...

NEW WORDS: Citronnade - Lemonade or Lemon squash (apparently!)

2009-03-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited as Schmoo has just used a word I've never heard in French!! She asked me if she could have some 'citronnade'. Well, I guessed this meant lemonade, but I only know the word 'limonade', so I wondered if she'd made it up. But when I checked wordreference, there it was! I wonder where she picked it up from, probably school, but perhaps one of her French DVDs or books. Luckily her citronnade was homemade, she'd poured a load of lemon juice into a bowl and chucked some smarties in and asked if she could have a bit - well, it's not my idea of a yummy drink, but she was happy ;-)

PROGRESS UPDATE: Plus ça change...

2009-02-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've updated my Bilingual Babes, so there've been some quite dramatic changes. The main one has been in Pan-Pan's speech - he now talks all day long! He usually combines 2 words into little sentences, and it's almost always in French. He does use a couple of Twi words with Papa and seems to know not to use these with me. It's lovely that he and Schmoo speak French together, something that will help them maintain their language once I make the switch to English later on. I can't believe Pan-Pan is due to start school next year, he still seems more of a baby than a little boy, but I know from Schmoo that so much changes happen in a year - in fact, it will be almost two years, as his first term will not be until September.

The other change has been in our Twi - at first our aim was that Schmoo would learn to speak it (ie active bilingualism), but this involved 2 problems, first that Papa is not as militant as me and I found I was spending all my time saying 'Don't forget to repeat that in Twi', which was not conducive to good family relations! and secondly we were concerned about her English, which wasn't getting very much exposure. We feel, of the 3 languages, English has to take priority - we live in an English-speaking country, in a world where English is the main international language, so we really want both our Babes to have English as one, if not their only, mother tongue. At the moment, French is still slightly dominant, so some English exposure from Papa is very important. Our current compromise is that he speaks mainly Twi to them (Schmoo understands, but responds in English) and switches to English for complex discussions or reading. This way, she is building up a good passive knowledge of Twi, without losing a strong English influence. Long-term, I hope our Babes will be able to switch from passive to active Twi by spending time in Ghana, as we are certain to have many trips there once they are a little older, and most of the children they spend time with there will only be able to communicate in Twi. The other hope is that as all conversations with Pan-Pan are still very simple, Papa only speaks Twi with him, so he may well end up talking back in Twi, which would give Schmoo a strong motivation to join in! Only time will tell..!

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Terms of affection

2008-12-18T02:47:00.000-08:00

Since I decided to speak French with my two, I've needed to find a few equivalents for 'sweetie'! These seem to be the most common:

Mon coeur
Ma puce/pupuce
Ma cocotte
Ma belle
Mon ange
Ma poupée

PROGRESS UPDATE: Skipping rope

2008-10-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

Schmoo is getting very precocious and now fills in my vocab gaps for me! Today, looking at one of her books, I was racking my brains for the word 'skipping rope' in French. I said, 'I can't remember what this is called.' She looked at me in surprise and said, 'Corde a sauter'!

Just to update this post a few days on: Schmoo was watching one of her French cartoons with me when an eel swam by. I couldn't remember the word for eel, so I just said, 'Oh, look at the snake!' She said, 'That's not a snake, it's an eel!' I've always longed for the day when she would be able to do this - teach me words and remind me of ones I've forgotten. It's a good incentive to spend a bit more time improving my own French as well, as I can get quite lazy about it!

PROGRESS UPDATE: Talking baby!

2008-09-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

Pan-Pan is just starting to talk now, and his French vocabulary has a clear head-start! I'm sure his Twi and English won't be far behind though...

Words Pan-Pan can say:
French:
Bébé [Baby]
Coin coin [Quack quack]
Non [No]
Caca [Poopoo]
Do-do [Nap time]
Miam-miam [Yummy-yummy, ie Food!]
Boire [Drink]
Ciseaux [Scissors]

Twi:
Gi [Take it]

English:
Bye-bye

I'm not sure yet how much Pan-Pan grasps of the fact that he is surrounded by 3 languages (or 4, including baby signing), but I remember how quickly Schmoo sorted it all out and is still very clear which language she should speak with who. Recently, she was on the phone to her grandma and was switching easily and naturally between French with me standing next to her and English on the phone!

PROGRESS UPDATE: Signing baby!

2008-09-18T01:48:00.000-07:00

Pan-Pan is almost 18 months and his signs go from strength to strength: he now signs frantically for 'up' (as in 'pick me up'!); 'keys' and 'light' (he loves to play with my keyring and the lightswitch); 'eat', 'biscuit', 'milk' and 'more' (he loves his food!); and sweet things like 'home' when we arrive back at the house. Some of his signs are abstract, ie, the object isn't in view when he makes the sign. He can now make around 45 signs, as opposed to around 16 back in May.

Signs Pan-Pan makes (45 signs):
Milk
More
Eat
Hot
Cold
Ball
Book
Baby
Listen
Duck
Pig
Bird
Crocodile
Chicken
Lion
Dog
Cat
Biscuit
Aeroplane
Sleep
Music
Listen
No
All gone
Pick me up
Drink
Water
Rabbit
Keys
Light
Home
Daddy
Telephone
Shoes
Toothbrush
Flower
Ladybird
All gone
Grandma
Open
Bubbles
Helicopter
Lady
Car
Put it on/Take it off (He made this sign up - he taps his chest with both hands!)

Signs Pan-Pan understands:
Change time
Where
Frog
Horse
Elephant
Cow

Some parents are concerned that baby signing may delay speaking, but in my experience, it accelerates it, and this is bourne out by the research, with children who signed as babies having a wider vocabulary than those who didn't (see http://www.babysigners.co.uk/i2.php?mid=3&sid=0&a=page). Just as babies quickly replace crawling with walking once they realise it's advantages, they also replace their signs with words as soon as they are able.

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: The school run

2008-09-18T01:41:00.000-07:00

When I think about personal achievements in my life, I think the thing I'm most proud of is not the 2 degrees or having had a novel published, but just being able to drive my kids to school! The French school Schmoo goes to is a 45 minute drive away, or 3 buses. I did attempt to go the 3 buses route with both kids and assorted school paraphernalia, but it was a total never-to-be-repeated nightmare! Driving there is really the only option and means Schmoo's not too tired when we get there.
Driving is a really big deal for me - I've always found it difficult and scary, although now that I drive for 3 hours a day, it's getting a lot easier! But I'm just so glad I put the effort in and learnt, even though it was very tough and very expensive (I had double lessons every day to break the back of it!), because otherwise my children might not've been able to attend their wonderful bilingual school and their French could've all come to nothing without this support!

RESOURCES: The THREE GOLDEN RULES for late-start language learning

2008-09-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

As we've introduced the Twi language quite late (Schmoo was three and a half), we've had to be quite strict about using it. But 4 months on and it's showing results already - Schmoo understands a lot and can respond with some basic phrases. Here are our 3 golden rules:

1. Daddy only speaks to the children in Twi. If Schmoo doesn't understand, he will repeat the phrase in English and then say it a third and final time in Twi.
2. When Schmoo says something to Daddy in English, he repeats it in Twi, so she has the phrase for next time.
3. And this is the one which really helps, because Schmoo is at her most motivated: All requests (to Daddy) must be made in Twi! So, if she wants her favourite song put on, or another glass of milk, she now knows to ask in the magic language that makes things happen fast!

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Partytime!

2008-09-16T04:13:00.000-07:00

The party was great fun, Schmoo had a whale of a time haring about with 2 of her cousins who are the same age as her (one of them is only 3 days older!) and got to hear lots more Twi too. One man asked her if she wanted to dance in Twi and she replied that she didn't (in English), but he was still astonished that she'd understood him! She has quite a repertoire of little phrases now, it's amazing what she's picked up in just 4 months of Twi exposure.

Pan-Pan also has a few Twi words, in particular Gi [Take it]! We are hoping that once he starts having conversations with hubbie in Twi, this will bring about a massive boost to Schmoo's Twi, as she will certainly want to join in!

This weekend, we also made it to the French library, which is a bit of a journey for us, so we only go every other month or so. Schmoo is a member and can take out 10 books at a time, so I switched out our last lot of very well-thumbed 'Emilie' and 'Petites Bêtes' books. I also picked up a huge pile of second-hand books there for under a tenner - bargain!

Another French blunder anecdote: I asked Schmoo to get me the torch, as she likes to fetch and carry (I'll enjoy it while it lasts!) and she dutifully went off to the kitchen and returned with...a tea towel! It was entirely my mistake, as I realised I'd asked her for a 'torchon' instead of a 'torche'! These are the pitfalls of non-native language teaching :-)

PROGRESS UPDATE: A little more Twi

2008-09-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

Schmoo's Twi is coming on nicely. Her passive knowledge is impressive and she can say a few simple sentences. While she does sometimes get fed up with it (Hubbie: 'Say that in Twi', Schmoo: 'I'm just speaking, Daddy!' and blows a raspberry!), she's usually very keen and often asks how to say things in Twi, or responds with a Twi 'yes' or 'no'.
We were all recently sitting around the breakfast table when I heard Hubbie and Schmoo using a Twi word I didn't recognise, so I asked what it meant, expecting Hubbie to enlighten me. But it was Schmoo who translated first, saying 'Big'!
I'm very keen for her to get some extra Twi exposure to reinforce all she's learnt and we got some last weekend, when we went to visit her Auntie in Horsham. It is a Twi-speaking household and although Schmoo's cousin is only one year old, she will soon be able to talk to Schmoo in Twi! I could see that Schmoo was listening to all the Twi conversation around her and taking it all in.
There is also a local shop where the owners speak Twi and they always ask Schmoo how she is in Twi. She knows how to answer correctly and she usually gets a round of applause when she does, which is obviously very encouraging!
This weekend we are visiting more extended family hubbie's cousin's birthday party, so lots more Twi to soak up!

RESOURCES: Sourcing minority language children's books

2008-09-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

For French books, this is fairly straightforward: after all, it's the tenth most widely spoken language in the world, with around 130 million speakers, which makes for a lot of books! There is a French Amazon, and the Canadian Amazon carries lots of French titles as well. And French eBay is great for second-hand bargains, although the postage can be a killer. In the UK there is the French Institute (in London and Edinburgh) with their well-stocked French libraries. Even local libraries tend to have a small selection of French-English (dual language) children's books.
For Twi, however, a language spoken by only around 7 million people (less than the entire population of Ile-de-France!), it's not quite so easy. I rang up Grant & Cutler, the foreign language bookshop in London, to see if they could help. While they didn't stock such books themselves, they could recommend another shop, the aptly titled The African Book Centre. The man I spoke to was very helpful and sold me 3 dual language (Twi-English) books over the telephone, although you can also buy the books from their website.
Browsing online for Twi children's books was less productive. About 10 dual language (Twi-English) books show up, but they seem to be largely restricted to US sites (Language Lizard) or Candian ones (You Are Special), which either don't deliver to the UK or charge a lot to do so. The UK multilingual books specialists, such as Mantralingua, unfortunately don't seem to cover Twi, although they do cover an impressive number of other languages. Type 'Twi' into UK Amazon and a few second-hand children's books come up, but there are no pictures, so I haven't chanced these yet!

PROGRESS UPDATE: We visit France!!!

2008-08-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

We've just got back from Schmoo's very first trip to France! Here we both are duck-watching on Carcassonne's old bridge with the fairy-tale citadel in the background. Schmoo got to hear lots of French and even had a few chats with locals! I stocked up on French children's books, in fact, I'm not sure there's any left over there now! And also took the opportunity to buy a French LeapPad for the next stage up and lots of LeapPad books that, for some quirky reason, you can no longer order online. We had a blissful 3 weeks.

PROGRESS UPDATE: It's the holidays!

2008-07-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

It's Schmoo's first school summer break and I've suddenly realised French schools have slightly longer off than British schools - 10 weeks in total! I am one of those sad mums who really really misses their kids when they're at school, so this is great news for me, it's just so lovely to have Schmoo around all the time and her French has switched back to being very dominant. I no longer have to remind her to speak French with Pan-Pan, she does it of her own accord! I'm hoping this long French-dominant period will help counteract the powerful English sway she'll experience once she's back at school in October, where, as she still has one more year in the English section, all her peers (in her class) are monolingual English speakers.

I cannot believe how quickly her first school year has gone by, in a whirlwind of parties and fancy dress and school plays! In terms of language-learning, it's been great - from what I've read, most children who are bilingual when they start school switch to being dominant in the majority language as soon as they discover that's the language everyone outside the home speaks! But we've not had to deal with this at all, due to the strong French input (one of her teachers speaks French with her, she goes to French club at the school and most of the children at the school are bilingual). Plus, her main class teacher is just wonderful and, among all her special qualities, really values Schmoo's bilingualism. We now know that she will be with the same lovely lady next year, which makes this a very relaxing break, as we don't have to worry about too great a transition in the autumn!

The Twi is coming along nicely, with Schmoo still responding readily in Twi if she can. This morning I witnessed a whole little Twi conversation:
Papa: How are you?
Schmoo: Fine.
Papa: Can you count?
Schmoo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...
Papa: 6...
Schmoo: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Of course, all this is still very basic, but the important thing is, Schmoo is happy to talk in Twi and is understanding more and more all the time. Another morning quite recently, hubbie asked Schmoo something in Twi that I didn't understand. Without hesitation, she dragged a chair over to the light-switch and turned it on! I was very impressed, as I've been picking up lots of Twi as well, but obviously not as much as Schmoo!

RESOURCES: Article on bilingualism published in Gold Dust!

2008-07-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

If you would like to read my article published by Gold Dust magazine (Word Play, p.42), you can download it absolutely FREE at: http://www.lulu.com/content/3002034. I had fun writing it and taking the photos, plus a good artist friend made a gorgeous sketch of Schmoo to go with the piece.

PROGRESS UPDATE: Beautiful mistakes

2008-07-11T10:45:00.001-07:00

Lately I've noticed Schmoo saying things like 'Je l'ai prendu' instead of the irregular 'Je l'ai pris' [I took it] and attempting the subjunctive with 'Pour qu'il dormisse' as opposed to 'Pour qu'il dorme' [So that he'll sleep]. These kind of errors are very satisfying, because they are typical of the ones monolinguals make, so they reassure me that I am on track with the non-native tutoring!

PROGRESS UPDATE: Nathaniel the tortoise can't speak Twi either!

2008-07-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, Schmoo informed me that Nathaniel the tortoise (not sure if this is an imaginary friend, or a cartoon character she's seen somewhere!) speaks French and English, but not Twi! I was slightly dumbstruck at the time, but am planning to ask her whether Nathaniel would like to learn Twi and explain to her how much fun he could have if he did speak it!
As we were leaving the house yesterday, Schmoo noticed a spider's web in the garden. 'Oh look, Mummy, a spider's web', she said to me, in French. Then she turned to her Dad and said, in Twi, 'Spider'!
This is one of the first times she's spontaneously used Twi, showing that she knows which language we want her to speak (to whom!) and that she's slowly gathering Twi vocab so she can do this. Obviously her French is way ahead, with English a close second, but her efforts to speak Twi are so encouraging.

PROGRESS UPDATE: It works!

2008-07-02T09:16:00.001-07:00

Although my daughter has been attending her bilingual school for over a year now, I've never yet heard her have a proper conversation with a native French speaker...until today! We had a playdate with one of the children from school - a little girl whose parents are both native French speakers and who doesn't like speaking English. Schmoo quickly realised that this was a French-speaking household and was off - chattering away with her little friend (and her mum), singing French songs together, arguing in French..! It was wonderful to hear and a final affirmation to me that it works and it is absolutely possible for a non-native speaker to raise a bilingual child! A very special day in our bilingual adventure :-)

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Rules of language acquisition

2008-07-01T00:34:00.000-07:00

As I've said in previous posts, we try to be quite strict about which language we speak with whom:
Twi with Daddy
French with Mummy & Pan-Pan
English/French/Twi with everyone else

A few days ago, I was reminding Schmoo to speak in French with Pan-Pan and she cleverly retorted, 'But I wasn't talking to Yann, I was talking to the drawer!' I had to let that one go!

RESOURCES: The mathematics of multilingualism

2008-06-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

I worry about the 20% rule - research shows that children need at least 20% exposure to the minority language if they are to become active bilinguals. Hubbie spends about 1 hour with the children in the morning and about 10 minutes with them at night - so that's not quite half the time they need (2 hours, 40 minutes, as they're usually up for 12 hours). However, this is perhaps compensated for at the wonderful weekends, when we are all together 24/7!
This means that, out of 84 hours in a week, they are exposed to 31 hours of Twi - just under double the 17 hours, 20 minutes they need!

In real terms, Schmoo's Twi is going great, far better than we could've hoped for! About 6 weeks ago, we introduced this 3rd language into our multilingual soup. Hubbie still has to say almost everything 3 times: first in Twi (so she gets the idea that we are talking a different langauge now), then in English (so she understands what is being said), and finally in Twi again (to reinforce the 'correct' language and to show that the English bit was just a translation). He is incredably patient, especially as I can't help myself jumping in if he forgets ('And how do you say that in Twi?'). There are, however, several phrases that she understands without translation:
Thank you
No
Stop
Sit down
Hug
Go to bed
Say it in Twi
I want

We are also rather strict about her talking in Twi - if she wants to speak to daddy, she has to say it in Twi, naturally with lots of help. So conversations go like this:
Schmoo (English): I want milk
Daddy (Twi, then English, then Twi): I want milk
Schmoo (Twi): I want milk
Daddy (Twi): OK, I'll go and get you some milk

It sounds extremely laborious, but oddly it doesn't feel like that in practice, just rather fun! It helps that conversations are still fairly basic (Schmoo is 3.5) and that hubbie only repeats things in English where it's obvious or imperative that Schmoo understand.

I firmly believe that Pan-Pan, exposed to Twi as a pre-verbal one-year-old, will become active in the language, and that this will hugely impact on Schmoo, who should, at the very least, gain a strong passive knowledge of it, and hopefully learn to speak it too!

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: False friends...

2008-06-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

'Stand on the pinafore!'
This is typical of the kind of mistake I sometimes make when talking to my kids in non-native French, sometimes causing laughter, other times just confusion! To my non-native ear, Tablier (Pinafore) sounds like Tabouret (Stool) and I often mix them up. Another 'pair' that always gets me is Biberon (Bottle) and Bavoir (Bib), maybe because they're both baby-related! Luckily, Schmoo is now old enough to let me know loud and clear when this happens!

PROFILE: J and T (French in Canada)

2008-06-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

General background

Which country do you live in and what is the community language?
We live in English-speaking Canada. Canada is a multi-cultural country, however, with many ml languages spoken in our region of 400,000 people.

Which languages do you speak with your child?
We speak ml (non-native) French and native English.

What language system are you using (OPOL/ML@H/etc)?
We are using OPOL, with Mum speaking non-native French, and Dad speaking native English.

What are the names and ages of your children?
My children are ages 5 & 8.

What languages do you speak and to what level (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced/Fluent)?
I speak advanced non-native French and fluent native English; basic understanding (I call them 'travelling versions', as it is the level of the language that I have needed to travel successfully in a non-English-speaking country ) of Spanish and German. I also have smatterings of a German dialect, Pennsylvania Dutch (songs, stories, phrases, etc.).

Why have you chosen to raise your child with more than one language?
My late mother was raised in Pennsylvania Dutch, and loved languages. Having lived in France, and French-speaking Canada, I developed a love for the French language. When I moved to English-speaking Canada (where I grew up), I really missed living and working in French. So, I decided to try speaking to my children in French.

How are you passing on the different languages and/or culture?
Luckily for me, I have a number of French-first-language friends and neighbours (even though we live in English-speaking Canada), and they - together with my experience of having lived in France & French-speaking Canada - have helped to fill out the cultural part of the language experience. We enrolled our children in a French-first-language school, which means that they attend school with other francophone children, and their teachers - and fellow students - are from 'la francophonie' - French-speaking areas from around the world.

Non-native issues

Do you seek to improve your own non-native language and, if so, how?
I have improved my non-native language skills by reading ml children's books with my children! Also, through connections with the ml school, I have been able to speak to native ml speakers on a regular basis (who I ask to correct my mistakes). When we come across a word in a book that I don't know, or that my children don't know (I'll ask them first!), we look up the word in an ml dictionary, or a ML/ml dictionary, which is always close at hand. I try to listen to ml music and radio programs whenever possible, and to read fiction and non-fiction books from the ml children's section of our library (both to my children, and also on my own). As for any new subject I'm leaning about, I find that 'teen level' books are great for expanding my vocabulary, explaining things clearly, while not being overwhelming.

Do you get support for teaching your child from native speakers?
Native ml French speakers that I have met have polar opposit opinions: either they are 100% supportive of a non-native speaker raising their child in the ml (sometimes they admit to feeling guilty for not raising their own children in their native language), or they say 'why would you bother?', noting that they easily switch back and forth from ml to ML, and that their children will 'pick it up' as they grow up. Or, native ml speakers will argue that speaking an ml language 'out of context' (eg. an area where ml isn't widely spoken) is a waste of time. I've also had a comment from a native ml language professor (we live close to 2 major Canadian universities) that they prefer that non-native ml speakers 'leave the teaching to the native ml professors'.

Does your child ever teach or correct you?
Both of my children correct me, and I'm happy that they can! Sometimes it's a slip of the tongue (using the wrong word - for example, in English this would be telling a child to 'put on your bat', instead of 'put on your hat'), and this is hilarious to children, so you can play up the humour. I will ask my sons' native ml-speaking friends about grammar or vocabulary questions (which they love to help with). Children love to help adults, and are much more willing to correct mistakes that non-native speakers make.

In terms of your emotional relationship with your child, do you feel speaking in a non-native language adds something, takes something away, or both?
The non-native ml language has been 'our' language for so long that it feels natural, however, it took me about 2 weeks for this to feel natural. After those initial 2 weeks, however, it felt strange to speak to ML children in the ML (at the playground, etc.). If there is something I want to say in my native ML, I will switch to say that particular thing, and then return to the ml. Having lived in an ml-speaking country/region, I am comfortable enough in the ml, that I am able to say 99% of what I want to say in the ml. I'm also lucky that I worked with children in the ml-speaking country where I first learned to speak the language.

Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to speaking a non-native language with your child?
In Canada, the advantage to not speaking the ML is that you have an immediate connection to New Canadians who are speaking an ml language themselves! New Canadians are mostly supportive of ml-speaking, and we often have conversations of how they are trying to keep up their child's Turkish/Farsi/Portugese in an English-speaking culture. Of course, speaking an ml at the playground has made us 'different' from the ML-speaking families at the playground, but this hasn't posed any problems yet. As my children get older, I suspect they will be embarassed to speak an ml language in public, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

How have your family and friends - and strangers - reacted to your decision?
Family and friends were 80% supportive and 20% sceptical of our decision to raise our children in an ml language. Luckily for us, our ml is French, and in Canada French is a well-known language, with government services, etc. available in both of our official languages (English & French), so most Canadian-raised adults have taken some French courses in school, and have a basic understanding of the language. People who were sceptical were worried that the children wouldn't learn the ML (which is impossible, I belive), or that they wouldn't learn to read in the ML (both children read well in the ML), or that being raised in two languages would be 'confusing'. Having lived in places where two - or more - languages were being spoken made me confident that one could be raised in two languages at once.

Has it ever proved difficult or challenging? And, conversely, what has been the most rewarding aspect?
As my children get older, the most challenging aspect is to keep up with their language acquisition! Their science classes are getting increasingly more complex (and mathmatical terms are confusing for me as well), but the teachers at my childrens' native ml school can answer these questions for me. The most rewarding aspect of raising my children in my non-native ml is that I get a chance to practice my ml on a constant basis! I think that I am more careful about how I phrase things in the ml, which makes me calmer, and less likely to say things that I don't mean (because I'm angry/frustrated/tired).

And finally, do you always plan to speak the non-native language with your child?
I hope to always be able to speak the non-native ml with my children, but I'm willing to be flexible! The key to having them maintain their ml is to have them spend some time in a native ml-speaking country, or an ml-speaking part of Canada. This was a crucial part of 'hard-wiring' the language into my brain, and I think it is a very important part of language acquisition.

PROGRESS UPDATE: 2 weeks on...Twi progress

2008-05-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

After 2 weeks, Schmoo is still loving her new 'Twi game'! She knows an entire Twi song by heart, just because we play it in the car and she happens to love it, and she hasn't once asked Ed to speak to her in English!

These are some of the phrases she's learnt:

Me pE - I want [no surprises there!]
Aboa - animal [name of her favourite Twi song]
Debi - No
Aye - Yes
Atuu - Hug
Pan-Pan ada - Pan-Pan's sleeping (she says this spontaneously and in context, rather than when asked!)
Gyae! - Stop! [I find myself using this one with the kids too!]
Bra - Come
EyE - I'm fine

I find that I am learning loads of Twi right alongside the kids, which is a real bonus, as I've tried to pick it up before from books with not much joy. Immersion really is the best method! I've also been amazed at how much French Papa now understands too, I'd say he gets about 80% of what I say to the kids, which ain't bad, considering his only previous exposure is a bit of schoolboy French.

PROGRESS UPDATE: First words in Twi!

2008-05-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday marked a week since we introduced Twi into our multilingual soup, and also the first time Schmoo spontaneously used Twi herself! We'd been playing a Twi CD in the car and to she asked 'AponkyerEni', which means 'Frog', the name of the Twi song she wanted to hear again. It's a great pay-off, as the first week is the toughest, having to remember to talk a different language, and unable to communicate easily as usual.

Schmoo also now loves to count in Twi and Ed has just taught her the alphabet. He was never taught to read and write in Twi, but he can just about follow a story and is going to learn so he can teach it back to her. There are a few unusual letters, but it is basically the same alphabet as English. I am chuffed to bits with all this, and it's just so wonderful to hear Twi in the house!

PROFILE: Maja (English in Poland)

2008-05-22T04:25:00.000-07:00

General background

Which country do you live in and what is the community language?
Poland, Polish.

Which languages do you speak with your child?
My wife speaks Polish, while I use non-native English.

What language system are you using (OPOL/ML@H/etc)?
OPOL.

What are the names and ages of your children?
Maja (4 years), Tony (6 months).

What languages do you speak and to what level Basic/Intermediate/Advanced/Fluent)?
English - advanced, Polish - native.

Why have you chosen to raise your child with more than one language?
Now, that is a long story... When I was 13 I met this boy, Guillaume, also at the age of 13, who spoke three languages: English, French and Punjab. I was really amazed, and I never got rid of that amazement. When my wife got pregnant we knew, that bilingual way is the only right way to bring up our little one.

How are you passing on the different languages and/or culture?
Using English as a regular language when addressing my children, playing audio books, reading fairy-tales, playing cartoons, music.
Maja takes part in weekend English language school. Children also have an opportunity to hear some native English, as we often speak on the internet to their grandfather, my father, and his wife, who live in NY, USA, and their grandma who lives in UK.

Non-native issues

Do you seek to improve your own non-native language and, if so, how?
Oh, Yes I do. I read a lot, mostly on bilingualism, baby's process of learning, etc. In October I'm starting English Philology studies at our local university.

Do you get support for teaching your child from native speakers?
Maja has contact with native speakers at the weekend school of English language in our town. Both children have a constant contact with their grandparents from both UK and USA, on the internet.

Does your child ever teach or correct you?
Well, Maja does correct me, when I use Polish with Tony: 'Daddy, WHY do you speak Polish? Use English!'

In terms of your emotional relationship with your child, do you feel speaking in a non-native language adds something, takes something away, or both?
Hm... That's a tough one... I reckon it has no influence on the emotional relationship at the moment, as Maja is still too young, but things may change when she gets to understand more and more of the things around her. Right now, she really is a "daddy's little daughter", and it seems that it does not bother that daddy uses English.

Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to speaking a non-native language with your child?
Now that is a question. Many articles, books, etc. have been written on that subject. Let me just enumerate some advantages that come to my mind right off the bat: - bilingual children are more efficient communicators - they develop a greater vocabulary size over age, in both ml and ML - they have a better ear for listening and sharper memories - they have a keener awareness, and are better able to deal with distractions. (This one really applies to Maja, in comparison to my friend's children in same/similar age)
Disadvantages: - I have to learn more and more words every day :)

How have your family and friends – and strangers - reacted to your decision?
My family supports us all the time. Since, my parents live abroad (mum in GB, dad in US), and my wife's sister, too (Germany), our families are used to foreign languages. Most our friends think that it is a great advantage for Maja to be exposed to English as a second language, though a few of them disagree on the way we do it, claiming it's too early. as for the strangers, other parents met in the park, on the playground, etc. - well, it does raise eyebrows when I speak to Maja in English, and after that use Polish when addressing my wife.

Has it ever proved difficult or challenging? And, conversely, what has been the most rewarding aspect?
It was, is and will be challenging. Difficult? Yes, in many aspects. Took me some time, and nerves, to get used to switching from English to Polish and back, when talking to Maja and other people at the same time. (It was more than once that I answered a phone call in English when it rung in the moment of me talking to Maja).

And finally, do you always plan to speak the non-native language with your child?
That's the plan, but, there is also a plan 'B' that assumes the possibility of Maja not being too keen on speaking English to me when she grows up.

REVIEWS: French CDs

2008-05-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

We have a long drive to school and I am always on the lookout for CDs to entertain the kids with in the car! And what a great opportunity to teach them a bit of French at the same time!

French Playground: aaaaa
This is a truly wonderful collection of songs, nice and jazzy, the kind you will enjoy as much as your children! It's from a series of CDs, so you can also find Caribbean/African/Latin/World/etc Playground.

Baby's First Steps in French: aaaaa
This collection is designed to introduce your child to the sounds of the French language before those crucial linguistic windows close. I played it a lot to Schmoo when she was a baby, so hopefully it will mean she has a better French accent than me! There is also a lot of what is termed 'parentese' included alongside the songs, little phrases that a mum or dad might naturally say to their baby, so it's especially helpful for the non-native parent.

Fabulettes - Anne Sylvestre: aaa
I bought this one at random from the internet and, although my daughter loves it, the slightly dull and repetitive melodies quickly drive me crazy! However, there are a few fun tracks, such as 'Douze Petits Cochons' ['Twelve Little Pigs'] and it's certainly good for Schmoo's French - she knows 'Mon Velo Est Blanc' ['My Bike is White'] by heart.

Cache-Cache - Henri Des: aaa
This was a present from Schmoo's first French tutor - apparently Henri Des is quite a big deal in the children's nursery rhyme world in France! It's not bad, but neither Schmoo nor I really got into any of the songs.

L'Anniversaire de Coco: aaaa
I liked the look of this on Amazon and it didn't disappoint. It comes with a sweetly illustrated board book and cleverly combines music and language, so there is a version of the story with music and words, followed by a version just with the music. The idea is to learn to tell the story yourself with the music as a prompt. Schmoo loves it so much, she listens to both versions over and over. My only complaint for our purposes is that it is far too short, we can listen to it several times on our journey to school!

I also have 'Le Livre de la Jungle' ('The Jungle Book') and 'Charlie et la Chocolaterie' ('Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'), which have been good diversions. We'd love to teach the children Twi this way, too, but I haven't found any Twi storytapes so far.

PROGRESS UPDATE: Introducing a third language

2008-05-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

My husband has just started speaking Twi with the children as of last weekend, so we are now officially a trilingual household!

It has taken us a long time to decide to introduce a third language. The opportunity has always been there, because my husband is fluent in Twi, a Ghanaian language that he grew up with. But we've had plenty of reservations, mainly these:

The French was already such an enormous challange, being non-native. This has eased, now that our eldest is in a French immersion school.
Due to my French being non-native, we were worried that, if the only home languages were French & Twi, our children would end up with poor French & English and fluent Twi, not the best combination in the UK. Now that we have seen how easily Schmoo has picked up English outside the home, this is no longer a worry.
Twi is not a major world language, so it is very difficult to find any resources to supplement what the children learn at home. Going by families we know who've tried to raise their children to speak Twi, this can be a big problem. However, we'll make do. There are a few Twi books available online and we actually have a Ghanaian community centre at the end of our road!
Nearly everyone who speaks Twi can also converse very well in English. But they often prefer to speak Twi, and some can only speak Twi. If they speak this language, the children will be much closer to their father's side of the family and manage a lot better if they ever travel in Ghana.
It will now be a big emotional shift for our 3-year-old to suddenly get used to her father talking to her in Twi. I was particularly worried about this, but, perhaps because Schmoo is already used to living in a multilingual situation, she's really taken the new language in her stride.
It is going to be a big challenge to give Schmoo an active knowledge of Twi - is it worth all the trouble for a passive knowledge only? We've decided not to underestimate the value of a passive understanding of Twi, which we hope is achievable from this late starting point. My husband didn't start with Twi until he was 5, although admittedly that was an immersion situation!

Twi is part of our children's cultural heritage and family, and I feel it is important that we put some effort into passing this on to them. Although it's early days, our third language is going amazingly well. Schmoo seems very excited by this new game, and is repeating every single thing my husband says in Twi! She can already count to five and has not yet asked him to revert to English!

RESOURCES: Should I speak a non-native language with my child?

2008-05-13T05:54:00.001-07:00

The million-dollar question! Obviously, I have made my choice and, so far, thankfully, it's been a wonderful success, but I have agonised over it, and it wasn't always easy in the beginning. Having discussed this issue with other parents, I've found it is not a choice made lightly.

It may be there are no other options to create bilingualism (ie local immersion school, native-speaking spouse, finances to pay for native-speaking nanny, etc), or that you wish to create total immersion of the language in the home, or simply that you wish to have more opportunity to speak this language. Speaking a non-native language with your child is often the only way for your child to reap all of the advantages of bilingualism.

A major factor is likely to be your own level of language ability - if it's basic or intermediate, you're going to have to work overtime to keep up with your child.

The 'pro' arguments are fairly clear and compelling, and pretty much the same arguments as for speaking a native minority language to your child:

Access to another culture and, therefore, a heightened tolerance of difference.
Increased self-confidence (I still remember the first time someone being impressed that I spoke Welsh!).
Vocationally advantageous.
Easier to learn another second language.
A special bond with your child via your special language.

However, parents have also spoken of the particular 'cons' of speaking a non-native language with their child:

Concerns about poor grammer/vocabulary/accent.

This is not neccessarily a great problem - after all, surely it is better to speak another language poorly, with an unusual accent, than not at all.

Unable to express linguistic subtleties, including strong emotion, humour and precision of phrase, particulary for safety messages.

This is one of the cases where I think it's okay to cheat! If you need to repeat what you are saying in the majority language from time to time to be sure the message is understood, it shouldn't inhibit the minority language acquisition.

A missing emotional link - do the words 'I love you' carry the same emotional weight in a second language?

Again, okay to cheat here! I often say 'I love you' in both languages, which is doubly meaningful :-)

It is an enormous and ongoing effort - even more so than for native speakers of the language - not only do you have all the usual challenges of raising a bilingual child, but also the ongoing learning of the language yourself.

You certainly reap what you sow in this case - it's wonderful to see all that energy turned into such a positive gift for your child.

When your child makes linguistic errors, you are never sure whether this is typical for a bilingual child of the same age range, or peculiar to your non-native situation.

This is one reason it's so great to hook up with other parents raising multilingual children :-)

Initial strangeness of speaking a non-native language with your child.

This seems to be a temporary phenomenon, so perseverence is key.

Negative reactions from family/friends/strangers.

Just explain how important this is for your child - that's a hard argument to counter!

My own feelings are that it does take something away, but it gives something incredible back - and there is nothing quite like hearing your child chatting away like a native in a language that you struggled for years to learn!

REVIEWS: Teletubbies & T'choupi - Discovering French stuff for kids!

2008-05-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

Since I started on this bilingual adventure, I've come across some wonderful francophone stories & toys that I never would've discovered otherwise! This access to a second culture is one of the main reasons I've been so keen to pass on the language, so it's been great to have that reinforced by so many fabulous products.

DVDs
One of the very first French DVDs I ordered from Amazon.fr was T'choupi. I'd previously ordered something more familiar - the Teletubbies in French and that was a big disappointment! Although the writing on the cover was in French, the DVD was set up to play in English and you had to wade through several very s-l-o-w menus to get it to play in French. And then, of course, the Teletubbies don't actually say all that much, so I wasn't too convinced of it's usefulness as a language aid! I picked the character T'choupi because I could tell by his name that this was definitely a totally francophone DVD! It turned out to be several little stories about T'choupi (a 3-year-old penguin) lasting about 10mins each - perfect for Schmoo's concentration levels. She loved it and we ended up buying 4 other T'choupi books, which she loves as well. I took another gamble on another French cartoon character - Tro-Tro, who had good reviews on Amazon.fr. This was even more successful, the stories are even shorter and Tro-Tro is a bit more mischievous than T'choupi, so Schmoo is fascinated!

Books
We started with ones I knew, such as Barbar. Then I joined the French library and came across Petit Ours Brun (Little Brown Bear), a big favourite in France. However, perhaps the ones I tried were too old for Schmoo at the time, but she didn't get into him at all. Instead, quite by chance in a foreign langauges bookshop, we came across some French books called Picoti, which turned out to be magazines you buy on subscription. We bought all the ones they had in the shop, which was lucky, as Schmoo devoured them! We now have a subscription to Picoti and one arrives each month, but she is showing less interest these days, so I think we are ready to move on to Toupie, for age 3+.

I took a gamble on a Fleurus series of books that feature characters modelled out of clay - they are really gorgeous to look at, and great for vocabulary building, as there is one on nearly any topic you can think of. The ones for older children feature cartoon drawings and I don't find them so appealing, but they are nice and simple. Schmoo loved some of these more than others - she was crazy about the numbers one for a while, and then the Attention, Bobos! (Watch out, Ouch!) became a firm favourite.

She is currently loving the Droles de Petites Betes (Funny Little Bugs) series, especially Patouche La Mouche (Patouche the Fly), which I came across at her school. She also 'reads' Tintin avidly, along with the Emilie series (such gorgeous drawings!). Another book she is really into is 'Ursule L'Ourson' (Teddy Bear), as we call her French/English picture dictionary featuring the character. I picked this up for about 50p in a charity shop and it is extremely well thumbed, so definitely one of my better purchases.

Toys
We never actually owned one, but apparently no self-respecting baby in France is without their Sophie la Girafe! This is a rubber giraffe that can be used as a teething ring. A friend of mine was going to get me one from France, but didn't manage it in the end, so we are still Sophie-less!

I bought a French LeapPad quite early on and for a while, Schmoo wouldn't be without it! She had it in her room every night and listened to it for hours on end. Then suddenly I realised she'd stopped playing with it and I wondered if she was bored with the same 2 books I had. So I went on to Amazon.fr to get some new ones, only to find they've stopped posting LeapPad books outside France! That will be one thing I plan to stock up on this summer when we visit France!

Pan-Pan recently received a bilingual guitar for his first birthday, although Schmoo's kind of hijacked that! I also have a wooden abacus with the French alphabet on, but as Schmoo can't read yet, it's not a big help. She likes taking it to bits though!

PROFILE: Max (French in the US)

2008-05-10T23:35:00.000-07:00

General background

Which country do you live in and what is the community language?
US, English.

Which languages do you speak with your child?
French (and husband English).

What language system are you using (OPOL/ML@H/etc)?
OPOL.

What are the names and ages of your child?
Max – 4 (born 12/31/03).

What languages do you speak and to what level (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced/Fluent)?
English – native
French – fluent
Spanish – fluent
Portuguese – Intermediate
Italian - Advanced

Why have you chosen to raise your child with more than one language?
Because I enjoy speaking French and will have someone to do it with if he’s bilingual, and I wanted to save him the trouble of having to learn it in school and have the chance at being bilingual.

How are you passing on the different languages and/or culture?
I have spoken to him since birth in French. Culture he’s only getting when we have contact with French people, and we’ll be taking a trip to France in Sept of 2008.

Non-native issues

Do you seek to improve your own non-native language and, if so, how?
I look up words when I need them and try to learn words from his story books, and I spend time with native speakers whenever possible (although there are a lot fewer here than in Brisbane, Australia where we started this).

Do you get support for teaching your child from native speakers?
Not really support, other than an occasional word and my child getting to overhear me speaking French with them. I used to have a French playgroup, but not anymore.

Does your child ever teach or correct you?
No, quite the opposite. He doesn’t know anything that I haven’t taught him.

In terms of your emotional relationship with your child, do you feel speaking in a non-native language adds something, takes something away, or both?
It may take something away since I can’t be myself completely or express myself as eloquently as I do in my native language.

Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to speaking a non-native language with your child?
Advantages: he becomes bilingual, I get to speak French every day, I’ve gotten to meet and socialize with a lot of Francophone people as a result of this and my French has improved, in public we have a language that no one else understands so I can say whatever I want.
Disadvantages: My husband doesn’t understand it so dinner conversation is a bit stunted, he’s not getting perfect grammar, accent, or vocabulary usage from me.

How have your family and friends – and strangers - reacted to your decision?
They are all very impressed by it and supportive.

Has it ever proved difficult or challenging? And, conversely, what has been the most rewarding aspect?
I think the most challenging moments are when I’m angry and I really want to express myself clearly to him and I find the words lacking or imprecise. The most rewarding has been seeing and hearing him become a native speaker of a language of which I’m not a native speaker.

And finally, do you always plan to speak the non-native language with your child?
I’m not sure. I certainly plan to continue into the foreseeable future, or until he speaks complete, fluent, grammatically correct French, which is still a long way off.

PROFILE: Johannes & Anne (German in the US)

2008-05-10T22:56:00.000-07:00

General background

Which country do you live in and what is the community language?

We live in the US surrounded by English.

Which languages do you speak with your child?
I speak German with my child, though English outside of the home and when we're with English speakers. (we changed from strict ml to that when he was 3.5, because he seemed traumatized by English. Now, of course, we've gone the other way, but, well, there you go.).

What language system are you using (OPOL/ML@H/etc)?
We use ml@home.

What are the names and ages of your children?
Johannes,6; Anne 1.5 (I’ll speak about my son primarily, since Anneke isn’t saying much yet.

What languages do you speak and to what level (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced/Fluent)?
English, fluent; German, Advanced/Fluent (I would say advanced, my husband describes me as fluent).

Why have you chosen to raise your child with more than one language?
It seemed a shame not to! And I so regret not starting languages earlier.

How are you passing on the different languages and/or culture?
At the beginning, we spoke only German in the home, now our son speaks mostly English, and we respond in German. He belonged to a German-speaking playgroup from age 3-age 6, and we are now sending him to a German Saturday school.

Non-native issues

Do you seek to improve your own non-native language and, if so, how?
I continue to read, I am currently working on a translation certificate.

Do you get support for teaching your child from native speakers?
My husband is bilingual, though English is his stronger language. I received great encouragement from the families in our playgroup.

Does your child ever teach or correct you?
Very occasionally.

In terms of your emotional relationship with your child, do you feel speaking in a non-native language adds something, takes something away, or both?
Both. We have developed a relationship in German from the outset, but sometimes I miss being able to not think about how to say something before I say it. It adds a layer of objectivity, though that can come in handy at times, if I am annoyed about something – sort of an enforced counting to ten.

Are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to speaking a non-native language with your child?
It’s nice to have a code language at times so that I can remind him to do something without embarrassing him, but when we started and were doing it all the time, it could be isolating on the playground.

How have your family and friends – and strangers - reacted to your decision?
In general supportive. Some native Germans think I’m crazy, and an occasional person has suggested that it might have contributed to certain language delays he had.

Has it ever proved difficult or challenging?
When he started preschool he had a very hard time adjusting to English, and we had to remove him from the first school and start with a smaller one, where they gave him more support. In addition, his grammar suffers a bit in both languages.

And, conversely, what has been the most rewarding aspect?
It’s an amazing thing to watch him be able to switch back and forth, and great to know that we can travel and not worry about him understanding. He reads in both languages as well.

And finally, do you always plan to speak the non-native language with your child?
I hope to, though I notice that it is getting more challenging, not only because he is getting older and getting better, but also because he really wants to speak ML more often.

PROGRESS UPDATE: Pan-Pan signs :-)

2008-05-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

As with Schmoo, we started signing with Pan-Pan early on, from around 8 months. Although we started even earlier with Schmoo (around 4 months), Pan-Pan signed back about the same time, at 11 months. Now he is just over a year and signing all the time! Unlike Schmoo, whose first sign (more) was very clear, for a long time Pan-Pan's signs were subtle and we weren't sure if he was signing or not. Eventually though, it became very clear that he was making the 'duck' and 'milk' signs, swiftly followed by the 'more' and 'eat' signs!
'Pig' was another early sign, but his all-time favourite at the moment is 'hot', where he puts his hand to his mouth and blows, he does it at the slightest provocation, when we are drinking tea, at a picture of the sun, when his dinner is warm, when he touches the oven..! This morning he signed 'book' for the first time, which is lovely, as I fondly remember a pre-verbal Schmoo signing 'book' when she wanted a story.
He can probably make about 15 signs, but he understands many more, such as 'Change time!' and 'Music'. As with Schmoo, I'm hoping that all this signing will act as a bridge between his 2 languages, since Papa signs to him while saying the word in English and I sign while repeating it in French.

Signs Pan-Pan makes (16 signs):
Milk
More
Eat
Hot
Cold
Ball
Book
Baby
Listen
Duck
Pig
Bird
Crocodile
Chicken
Lion
Dog

Signs Pan-Pan understands:
Biscuit
Aeroplane (as in food aeroplane!)
Sleep
Change time
Music
Listen
No
All gone
Come up
Where
Drink
Water
Frog
Rabbit
Horse
Elephant

Words Pan-Pan can say:
Coin coin - Quack quack
Schmoo
Na-na - this means 'Nummy nummy', which is what I say to him when I make the 'Eat' sign!

Schmoo got really into signing, and eventually started combining signs to make little sentences, such as 'More milk' and 'Where's Rabbit?'. We also learnt more precise signs together, such as different types of food, rather than just using the 'Eat' sign all the time. We also learnt all the colours, which were very useful, and the alphabet, more for fun at that stage! I remember her asking me if we could go to the farm one day, purely by signing. She knew we were going out, as she was in her pushchair, so she made the 'Pig' sign, as we always used to go and look at the pigs! From then on, we would always talk about where we were going, by siging 'Pig' for the farm, 'Swim' for the swimming pool, 'Shopping' for the supermarket and so on. There were many times when I really wondered how we would've managed without the magic signs to help us communicate!
Schmoo was very keen to start talking, but didn't drop all her signs straight away. She used them if we didn't understand what she was saying, and often also to really emphasise a word, like 'More! MORE!', frantically signing as well as screaming!
I'm hoping Pan-Pan will find the signs just as fun and helpful as his big sister did.

BILINGUAL MOMENTS: Siblings talking together

2008-05-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

Now that Schmoo is talking lots, I've noticed that, although she always speaks in French to me, she often speaks to her baby brother in English. I'm worried this will inhibit his progress in French (and don't think it's great for hers either), so I really want to sort it out before he starts talking too. She's just so used to having to switch to English with her monolingual peers at school. When I was at school, we were sometimes categorically told to speak in Welsh and I don't remember being bothered by it - it was just another funny adult rule like 'Sit up straight!' or 'Don't talk in class!'. So I am happy to encourage Schmoo to speak in French with Pan-Pan, just quietly reminding her that he understands French better than English when I notice the majority language creeping in...

INTRODUCTION: Bonjour Bonjour!

2008-05-05T00:28:00.001-07:00

Hi there, and welcome to my blog! I am bringing up my children, Schmoo and Pan-Pan, to speak 2 languages: English and non-native French. I studied French to MA level, which included living in France for about a year, so I felt it would be a wonderful gift to pass on to my children.

We use the OPOL method (One Person One Language), so I speak to them in French and their dad speaks to them in English. Schmoo is now 3 and a balanced bilingual. Pan-Pan, now 1, is just starting to speak and has a few words in both languages.

Some background:
My mother tongue is English and I live in the UK, but have always been fascinated by languages and studied French and German at university. However, when we had Schmoo, I hadn't spoken either language since finishing my studies (about five years previously), so I was getting quite rusty! My partner speaks a couple of African languages as well as mother-tongue English, but we decided it would be best if he spoke English with our children, as there would be little support for these lesser-spoken languages later on.

I decided pretty much straight away to speak French with her (I've always been slightly more fluent in French than German, because I learnt it from an earlier age). A second language is a wonderful gateway to another culture and way of thinking, and therefore aids in broadening the mind, giving a child more information to think about the world in manifest ways. Looking further down the line, it is a great addition to a CV. And, peculiar to our situation as Londoners raising a French-speaking child, the French schools are among the best in London, but at a fraction of the price of the British fee-paying schools!

Getting started:
I began by just reading French books to her, because I was afraid of her picking up my errors, but as my vocabulary refreshed itself and grew, so did my confidence and, realising that a few stories wouldn't do the trick, I began speaking to her in French for about half the day. The reason for only talking French half the time was that I noticed that sometimes I couldn't express myself adequately in French or make quick little jokes as I would in English, and I felt that it was blocking my communication with her. However, I then read that it is better for one parent to speak the minority language all the time, so I started to do this and hoped that my French would continue to improve alongside my daughter's.

One thing that really helped is that I also taught her baby sign language (for hearing babies) from four months old. The signs, which she started making at eleven months, acted as a lovely bridge between the two oral languages, because she understood the signs better than the spoken words at that point. So for 'shoe' and 'chaussure' I made the same sign, and she seemed to make the link between the different words and the sign.

We make progress:
It was a very quickly very rewarding. By the age of one and a half, Schmoo could understand simple instructions in French, English and sign language. Her most used word was 'encore', which means 'more' (!) and she also had a few 'corrupted' words, such as 'appa' ('chapeau' - 'hat') and 'ba' ('boisson' - 'drink'). At 2, her mother tongue was clearly French, although she understood English to a good level. She had a wide vocabulary in both languages and also still made frequent use of signs. She soon began to put words together to make simple sentences and understood that Daddy spoke English, while Mummy spoke French. Her clarity on this amazed me, as did her ability to rapidly translate. For example, aged 2 in a café one day, my husband said (in English) that he was going to cut up her food for her and went off to the counter. She turned to me and said, in French, ‘Daddy’s gone to get a knife’. Interpretation and translation, which showed a true grasp of both languages! At two and a half, French was still her clear dominant language, unsurprising given that I am her primary carer and speak only French with her.

She was very resourceful in getting what she wanted - she generally tried to speak French to people first, then if they didn't appear to understand, would try out English. She always spoke French when playing by herself. She didn't seem to object when I spoke English with her father, although she was starting to notice that I understand the language and tried out a few words with me (I always responded in French). Now she only speaks to me in French; in fact, she insists on it!

Language acquisition:
Early on, I read as much as I could about language acquisition and discovered that children need interactive language exposure in order to learn a language. This means that sitting your child in front of the television to watch minority language (ml) programs alone will not teach them that language. Your child needs to be highly motivated to actually use the language in order to learn it, which is only possible if they are brought into contact with people who speak it and who they want or need to communicate with. Therefore, while ml television, music, toys etc are all helpful aids to raising a bilingual child, they are not very useful in isolation.

Active ml options are:
Playgoups
Childcare
Tutors
Schooling
Visits to ml country

Passive ml options are:
Songs/Radio/Storytapes
TV/DVDs
Books
Interactive toys
Websites

Resources:
As a non-native speaker, I tried to include lots of interactive resources, supplemented by plenty of passive ones. My particular challengers were poor accent, grammatical errors and vocabulary gaps & errors. To help Schmoo's pronounciation, I showed her French DVDs, which I get second-hand from French eBay or French Amazon, and I played her lots of French music, such as the fabulous 'Baby's First Steps in...French', which she loved and 'French Playground', which is very jazzy and gets played a lot en route to school. I've recently been informed by her French Club teacher that her accent is excellent, so it must all be helping!

I found many bilingual French/English books at my local library, which surprised and delighted me! The best interactive toy we found was a French LeapPad, as Schmoo loved this and the French is clear and in context. I also paid a French student to play in French with her for one 2-hour session each week, which I think was the icing on the cake, because Schmoo could see that I am not the only person to speak this language! To improve my own French, I actively study with textbooks, and also read in French, watch French movies etc.

When Schmoo was about 2, I helped set up a French playgroup via an ad at the French Institute, where I could meet up and speak French with other mums, while my daughter benefited from being surrounded by French conversation. We kept up with the playgroup and our French tutor for about 6 months, until we moved from Edinburgh back to London so she could attend a French school. Ah yes, the joys of applying to a French school when you are not French and/or didn't put your child's name down from birth!

Schooling:
After applying to every French primary school in London, and receiving one heartbreaking rejection after another, in spring 2007 we finally got that precious acceptance letter from L’Ecole des Petits, a wonderful bilingual school in Fulham, which feeds directly into the Lycee. This was the only school that actually met Schmoo, which I’m sure was instrumental in her acceptance. I was over the moon, as we were trying so hard to get her into a French school (including an extremely long-shot application for French nationality!), which felt like the only realistic way for us to continue with her ml as non-native speakers. We were particularly excited about it being a lycee feeder too, as this is renowned as an excellent school, despite it’s overwhelming size (about 3,000 pupils currently, although there are plans to open another lycee that could ease the numbers).

In September 2007, Schmoo started in the English section at the nursery class of L’Ecole des Petits, with a wonderful bilingual teacher who speaks to the children in English, alongside her French assistant who speaks to them in French. From January 2008, she went full-time, in order to benefit from the immersion French in the afternoons.

When she’s five, after 2 years in the English section, she’ll enter the French section for her final year at the school, before progressing to the Lycee. At the moment, I am still undecided as to whether or not to continue speaking French to her until she enters the French section. I don’t want her to be behind with her French compared with the other children (who will most likely all be from Francophone families), but on the other hand, I wonder if my French is up to communicating intensively with a 5 year old! At the moment, I’m playing it by ear, trying to keep up with her expanding vocabulary and thirst for linguistic knowledge. If it feels too difficult, I may have to switch to English, at least for complex concepts, but I definitely plan to continue to read and sing to her in French, and will keep all DVDs, CDs, storytapes, etc in the ml as well.

Out and about:
In the beginning I often felt quite self-conscious speaking French in public, with my English accent and errors. But I was pleasantly surprised by people's reactions - English people often try and say a few ml words to the children, such as 'Bonjour' and 'Au revoir', while French people are always interested in and supportive of my decision to speak non-native French. I was often asked ‘Is your husband French?’, but I simply explained that while neither of us was French, we wished to give our child the gift of speaking the language. And an unforeseen benefit is that I feel less exposed when it comes to disciplining Schmoo in public!

Where we are now:
My French improves on an almost daily basis and Schmoo even teaches me new words now - a few days ago she kept referring to her pot of bubble mixture as a 'flacon', a word I don't know and hadn't taught her. In fact, I wondered why she kept referring to it as a 'flocon', or 'flake (of snow)'! Then I came across the word in a book and realised what she meant. She also uses phrases she picks up at school, especially from immersion French club, such as 'mon coeur' and 'ma belle'.

At 3 years’ old, I can proudly say that my daughter is a balanced bilingual, and that it now feels very natural to speak to her in French (and a little strange to speak to her in English!). Pan-Pan is showing all the signs of going the same way (one of his favourite words is 'coin-coin' for duck!). He is also signing a lot, which was so helpful with Schmoo's language acquisition. Of course, there are many challenges ahead, but we are on the right path and having a lot of fun along the way. Even if the children choose not to continue with their French into adulthood, I believe they will have learnt and gained so much from having spoken two languages through their childhood.