Hello

Quick background before I pose you all a question or two: I am English and I live in France with a Frenchman (who doesn’t speak English) and our 3 young children. We are bring them up to be bilingual.

Are any of you in a similar situation? (whatever the nationalities)

Have you had any funny experiences?

Another question… Do you consider teaching a language to your own child as a ‘credential’? (I mean as a second language)

I’ll be really interested to hear your stories.

Hey, Zoe. Fascinating topic for those of us who experienced it first-hand. Our son and daughter are now young adults. We reared them from birth to be bilingual English/French (in spite of living in south Florida, where Spanish shares almost equal billing with English). Agnes, being French, spoke only French with them, whereas I spoke only English. I tried to encourage them by buying as many high quality French “fun” videos, computer games, books, etc. as I could. (This was also an effort to make up in some very small way for their lack of Francophone playmates.) This seems to have worked well, as both are now fully and naturally conversant in both languages.
Funny memories: We’re in La Rochelle visiting the French grandparents. My daughter, then about 8, listens to my lugubrious attempts to converse with my wife’s parents, and remarks, very matter-of-factly, “Daddy, you have a funny accent.” (All too true, natch, but I was pleased she could hear it so easily ;)

Hmmmm. Not sure exactly how you mean “credential”. Bilingualism definitely helped them academically, at least in all verbal (nonmath) areas. They are also both aware of subtleties and nuances in English that elude most Americans. (I am ill prepared to judge the depth of their mastery of French, since it far exceeds my own.)

I don’t know about eluding most Americans, I think it’s the same for British, Italian and of course any nationality.

@Zoe – My parents (and family) are all Italian. I was born in the UK and went to school not knowing a word of English! Do just speak any language as you can with your child, they can differentiate and will not get the two confused as they grow. Psychologically, the ‘ideal’ age for true bilingualism is pre-8 years old. After that, studies show it takes longer and can become an intentional ‘learning’ situation rather than it just happening.

If you think it’s a credential, Zoe, then it’s a credential! :)

Thanks William and Marco.

I could tell a lot of funny stories of my experiences here in France, but I’d be here all night, so I’ll just share one for now:

When my eldest, Alice was toilet training, she had a bit of a thing for Winnie the Pooh. In French he is just called Winnie.

Alice spent a few days with her French grandmother to give me a bit of a rest as I was expecting my second and needed a bit of time to study for my TEFL diploma. At this time she was in the throws of toilet training.

When they returned home, we went to the supermarket to do a bit of Christmas shopping. In the middle of the supermarket Alice screamed out “I want a poo!” (meaning she wanted to go to the toilet). Her grandmother instantly whipped her off to the toy department and bought her an enormous Winnie.

I still laugh every time I look at him!

As for my question concerning credentials: I know from experience that it is a real challenge bringing up a child in a foreign country, especially when you are the only person of your nationality whom your child sees. It must be very dificult for the child to understad why mummy and daddy don’t talk the same language even though they hear both languages from birth as mine have all done.

Personally, yes I see it as a credential, but also as my duty as a parent. It was also one of the things which inspired me to study and to teach English as a foreign language. (I won’t say as a second language because many of my private students have actually been learning at least one if not two or three other languages at the same time!)

@Marco: Do your parents live in England? Do they speak English?

Has anyone else got a funny story to share….I love funny stories!

Zoe,
I’m William’s wife and I think he’s covered a lot already.
I didn’t find it difficult to rear our children bilingually. I think you have to be flexible and not get discouraged if they seem to prefer the language of their friends. Mine fought me, especially my daughter who is the older one, would refuse to speak French at times. She would insist in talking to me in English. I’d let it pass at times, and at other times, gently ask “How about in French?”. This changed when at about age 8, her friends were at our house and were impressed by our speaking French. Suddenly, she was no longer feeling different from her peers, but rather smug about it LOL!
Also, there are times when things just do not translate. In those cases, I’d explain that I would say the next sentence in English because it suits better. For example, in the US, schools have crossing guards. While I could have made up some sort of equivalent, it seemed pointless, so we just used the English words.

One other thing you’ll run into: some people find it offending and rude to be speaking a language they do not understand in their presence. My sister-in-law were quite offended. So, you might want to explain to the offended adult that using your language is important. or, you can decide to use French and preface by explaining to the children that, because you’re in the presence of french people, you will use French so everyone can understand.

Love your little story! My kids were used to being able to talk about anything, in French, while in American stores. While visiting my parents, I took them shopping in a French department store. My daughter’s loud demands for a specific activity involving the restroom had to be hushed in a hurry LOL!

Bilinguism French-English is pretty much the norm in Montréal, Canada. It is a very unique city because of that. I causes tensions sometimes betweeen the 2 groups, but it makes the city so interesting. Have any of you visited it?

Hello to Agnes. Great to meet you. My partner’s family are used to me speaking to my monsters in English and all understand why, so up until now, it’s never been a problem. But having said that, I do make an effort when we are with people outside of the family.

My daughter is making fantastic progress at the moment, she is only five and a half. She is interested now and I am thrilled, I love teaching her. As for the boys, one is nearly three and not really speaking yet (another William), he says words in both languages, but as his sister did, tends to veer more towards French, especially when papa is home. The other is only 16 months, so it’s way too early to tell yet!

It is with thanks to my children that I decided to teach English and I really enjoy it, I am hoping to make a full-time career out of teaching English as a foreign language once they are all in school…..only another 2 years to go….

Et bonsoir Pierre. Merci de ta reponse aussi. My travel experience isn’t that great unfortunately…..30 years in England, 2 weeks in Malta and 10 years in France…..plus a few day trips to Spain and Andora. Nothing to shout about really, but I fell in love with this country and it’s people a long time ago and have visited many areas.

Still not that good at speaking the language though, seriously considering taking lessons.

@ Pierre-Alex: I attended a conference in Montreal many years ago, and walked as much of the city as possible, especially the more historic area. At that time, I MAY have spoken 100 words of French, all very badly pronounced. As I’m strolling by, some Americans roll down the window on their car, obviously assuming I’m a local. They ask me in AWFUL American “high school French” how to get to such-and-such. Having just been there, I told them, in equally grotesque French! (I knew full well they were Anglophones ;)
I’m sure the locals passing us on the sidewalk were choking with laughter! lol

Hi Zoe! If your children are young then they are like sponges. Especially when they are between the ages of 0 to 3, they learn almost effortlessly. My daughter is 2 1/2 years old, and I spoke English, French, and Kreyol to her. We recently moved to South Florida, where the main language is Spanish, and you’d be surprised with how much she picked up. Im a bit jealous! If only I could learn a language quick like that!m The other day, I heard her counting in Spanish quietly to herself. My jaw nearly dropped. It’s amazing how much children can grasp. My advice to you-expose your child to as many lanugages as you can! You’d be surprised!

Valerie is right on! Even if you know that they probably won’t use (and therefore forget) some of the languages, it still helps shape their mouths and throats, and it will come back to them faster. I remember reading that infants’ babbling varies with the languages they hear around them. Also, that someone who learns a language before three will have the ability to make the sounds particular to that language, therefore will speak it without an accent. Those researches and newer ones are probably on the net nowadays.

Is Kreyol the same as Creole? How cool, Valerie!

Agnes and Valerie are right, and it goes even further for birth thru c. 1 year: Rearchers have found that merely hearing a language spoken around them causes an imprint in brain circuitry, almost instantly! (No need for long, continuous exposure, etc.) This prompted me to play children’s audio tapes in Japanese, Russian, German, and Spanish as background sounds during Nat and Daniel’s first years, in case they ever studied any of them when older. Not sure it was what made the difference, but as a mid-teen Daniel first showed an incredible ability to mimic accents and voice tones. His “Professor Snape” (harry Potter is downright creepy! LOL

Yes….Kreyol is the same as Haitian Creole. It’s a mixture of African dialect, French, English and Spanish!

@Valerie: that is so cool!

Thanks :)