Our family is bilingual. Not such a big deal, there are millions of bilingual families on the planet, but sometimes I am asked about bringing children up bilingually.
I am British, my husband is French and our four children are born and raised in France. Here in Normandy we don't have access to bilingual schools so any English input had to happen at home.
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We adopted the rule 'speak to Mummy in English to Papa in French". This worked for us because I was at home with the children and I spoke the 'foreign' language. We used to buy all the childrens' videocassetes
in English, no hardship there, dubbed films just aren't the same.
In the French school system they don't really start reading until 4 to 5 years old, which left me space to teach them to read in English for a year beforehand.
I have always spoken to my children in English, from the delivery room on, I guess before even. And they always speak to me in English. Primary school is the first hurdle because a child who has been all day in a French environment finds it tricky to switch back to English the moment he runs to his Mummy's arms. I remember some sweet conversations:
my son - "Mummy, I fell over in the cour and the maitresse essuied my genou with a mouchoir"
me - "Really?! Shall we try that again ... you fell in the playground and the teacher wiped your knee with a handkerchief? .... well that was kind of her"
Franglais had to be banned, it's too easy to lapse into a mix of languages, using whichever word springs to mind first.
Our dinner table held some surprises for guests. I remember my eldest, then 4 years old, coming to the table with dessert plates and working his way around the room "one for you, and one for you, and une pour toi and .... are you English ou Français?"
Today I can say they are perfectly bilingual, and able to pass themselves off as either English or French. Between them I have noticed that a funny set of codes has developed unnoticed. They generally speak to each other in the language being used around them, when alone together (can I say that?!) the boys use English and the girls mostly use English until they are on horseback then it is only French - go figure.
Being bilingual seems to be an advantage at school and professionally, but in those early years the main motivation was being able to communicate with both sides of the family.
In the anglo saxon world I read that there is less and less enthusiasm for learning foreign languages - this seems a shame to me. It's not only about vocabulary and grammar, it's also about opening up to a different culture, and in today's world we surely need to do that more and more.
Today I can say they are perfectly bilingual, and able to pass themselves off as either English or French. Between them I have noticed that a funny set of codes has developed unnoticed. They generally speak to each other in the language being used around them, when alone together (can I say that?!) the boys use English and the girls mostly use English until they are on horseback then it is only French - go figure.
Being bilingual seems to be an advantage at school and professionally, but in those early years the main motivation was being able to communicate with both sides of the family.
In the anglo saxon world I read that there is less and less enthusiasm for learning foreign languages - this seems a shame to me. It's not only about vocabulary and grammar, it's also about opening up to a different culture, and in today's world we surely need to do that more and more.
What do you think? Do you also live bi- or multi-lingually?
Wishing you a happy and talkative weekend - in whichever language you care to favour.
Thank you for reading me.
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