Babelkid - Raising Multilingual Children

Tataouine-Les-Bains

2012-01-13T09:13:00.002Z

Today is Friday. We are at the breakfast table, chatting away before the school run. BK1 (7 in march) has been showing a particular interest in music lately. She wants to take her flute with her to play "Frère Jacques" at Golden time*.
I have been thinking of enrolling her at a music class, have been holding off as she will start music at school from September. Now I am thinking of finding a music teacher before then. The following conversation takes place, as usual, in a mix of arabic and french.

Me: "Would you like to have music lessons?"
BK1: "Maybe, yes"
Me: "Well, I will try to find a music teacher, somewhere in our village, not in Tataouine-Les-Bains"
BK1, puzzled: "Where?"

I was rolling with laughter. I had to explain that Tataouine-Les-Bains was an imaginary location to signify a small, very remote place.

It has to be said that Tataouine, a city in Tunisia, well and truly exists. It used to be a penal colony during the French protectorate of Tunisia. Star Wars fans will recognise here the name of Luke Skywalker's home planet.

Tataouine-Les-Bains on the other hand is fictional. The appending of Les Bains (baths) is sarcastic as Tataouine is pretty arid and dry.

Equivalent expressions, that may be mistaken for real places in France:

Aux cinq cents diables
Clochemerle
Perpète-la-Galette
Perpète-les-Andouillettes
Perpète-les-Oies
Perpète-les-Olivettes
Pétaouchnoc
Trifouillis-les-Chaussettes
Trifouillis-les-Oies
Trou-en-Cambrousse

* Golden Time in a Primary school is a time for relaxation and fun as a reward for good behaviour during the week. Arrrgh!

German? Nope

2011-12-30T16:13:00.001Z

3 hours after we left Germany, back home, eating.

BK2 (to BK1): hungry comme anaya ("hungry like me")

One short sentence, 3 languages, no German!

Boo hoo hoo!

Wait, I am switching now

2011-12-24T11:03:00.000Z

Full conversation with Oma at the breakfast table, about the forthcoming trip to the zoo. All in German of course. Then BK2 goes: Warte Oma, ich muss was zu BK1 sagen. BK1, kayen Eliott fi pre-school tai yeddi toujours "Dear Zoo". (Wait Grandma, I must tell BK1 something. BK1, there is Eliott in my pre-school who always borrows "Dear Zoo") Mother-in-law just looks bewildered!

Missed opportunity? Hope not

2011-12-07T20:57:00.001Z

Today we had a party to celebrate the end of the year, and the beginning of a new era for our babywearing group, Slinging in the Rain.
Atending the party was a lovely couple, first-time parents to a two-week old baby. The little girl was so sweet.

As it happens, the dad is English and the mum is Chinese. They heard me speak to BK2, and more importantly heard her reply in her usual gibberish of Arabic+French+English. They wondered what languages we were speaking, and seemed pretty impressed with our mix of languages.

They want to raise their daughter bilingual, but they prefer to wait until she is one. They hope that by doing so, their daughter would not have a Chinese accent when speaking English. Really, why? I don't know, because I did not ask. I was afraid of being too intrusive.

So I simply explained OPOL and ML, and left it at that. I hope they will go off and do their own research. I hope they will realise that the best way to prevent their daughter from having a Chinese accent when speaking English, is for the two to speak their respective mother tongues!

Flat Egg

2011-12-03T12:31:00.001Z

This morning, breakfast time.

BK2: what is that? (points at BK1's plate)
BK1: flat egg
BK2: ah

Me, thinking: what?

Turns out she translated the French name "œuf au plat". Obviously.

Sleep Talking

2011-11-27T20:17:00.001Z

Late at night, Babelmum and I are almost asleep. Suddenly we hear a voice from the girls' room.

Babelmum: who was that?
Me: BK2
Babelmum: what language did she speak?
Me: dunno

I love how in our house the second question was not 'what did she say?'

Ball not Bowl

2011-11-07T12:47:00.000Z

I have just brought BK2 (who will be 4 in Febraury) from pre-school. As usual, the following conversation takes place in a mix of Arabic, French and English.

BK2: "S iqoul Bowl pour Ballon en Anglais" (S says Bowl for Ballon in English.)
Me: "Kifach lazem iqoul?" (How should he say it?)
BK2: "Ball" - with a pronounced emphasis on the "a", betraying her Northern-Englishness. Sweet...

Sorting Fluency degrees

2011-11-01T15:39:00.003Z

At the dinner table.
BK1:"I know French better than Arabic. I know German better than French" Pause "I know English better than all!"
Me:"What do you mean? Written, read or spoken languages?"
BK1:"I can speak, read and write English better than all the other languages. I can speak German better than French. My written German is the same as French. Did you know "v"in German is written "w" as in Wickie? I cannot write Arabic. Actually I can write "aa", "baa", "taa", hm "maa" (writing the arabic letters in the air)"
Me:"What do you think of this?"
BK1:"Nothing."
Me:"I think you speak Arabic better than you think you do."
BK1:"Maybe".

This is actually a close assessment of BK1's degrees of fluency. Why did she feel the urge to classify her languages? I felt a slight disappointment in my heart that she realised Arabic was her weakest language. However, I think this is not the whole picture. She is at an age where reading and writing are very important. She assesses her fluency based on her literacy skills in the different languages. This encourages me to carry on introducing her softly to written Arabic.

You are Arab

2011-10-30T06:53:00.000Z

This half term week has gone quickly. We were in the garden a lot of the time, making the most of the nicest end of October in many people's living memory. It has certainly been the warmest and sunniest autumn since we moved to the North of England almost eight years ago.
So, BK1 (6 and 1/2) and BK2 (3 and 3/4) are playing in their secret den (a rhododendron bush that's gone mad). Conversation between the two is flowing, in English of course. This is usually the case when they are playing.

The following conversation between BK1 and me took place mostly in Arabic, interspersed with French words. But for the sake of clarity and brevity, I'm relating it in English.
Me: "Why are you talking in English?"
BK1: "Because we are English"
Me:"Hm, really?"
BK1:"Yes, BK2 and I are English, daddy is German and you are Arab"
- pause -
Me, softly:"I am not Arab, I am, hmmm Algerian..."

How could I explain to my daughter, who is already exposed to four different languages and cultures, that I am Berber from the Atlas mountains, and proud of my lineage, even though I never speak a word of Berber at home?
I used to be very vocal of my Berber heritage back home. This part of my personality has fallen into the background since the arrival of the girls. I do not speak Berber fluently, though the girls are passively exposed to it when we are at my parents.
Now thinking about it, I should have trusted my daughter's intelligence and gone ahead and said "I am not Arab, I am Berber". I think I will next time.

English, English, English

2011-10-25T07:32:00.000+01:00

There is currently no need to ake a new family language diagram because BK3 is only just starting to make recognisable sounds. She seems to say her oldest sister's name, "mama" and "papa", and yesterday I thought she repeated "Katze" ("cat") after me, but I'm not sure.

BK2 is now using English words everywhere. No matter what language she is currently speaking, 20% up to 90% of the words are English. That makes for some very funny phrases, of course. The Babelmum was glad the other day when she noticed BK2 does it with German as well, whereas I have gotten so used to it I didn't even notice anymore.

Mind you BK2 still expects me to say it back in proper German. When I don't, she looks at me like something important is missing.

BK1 is reading a lot, preferrably in English, but she can read French and German. She is also interested in learning the Arabic alphabet and she is writting letters on the whiteboard and even putting them together to form words. She also writes a lot, again in English. Her latest thing is to write a diary, parts of which she will then type up on a web site that allows pupils to post (like a forum).

There is a lot of English flying around in our house currently.

But our last trip to Algeria was a couple of months ago and the last visit from someone German even longer. I guess it's totally normal that without further input, all kids lean towards the language we're immersed in. Our trip to Germany around Christmas is likely to bring a lot of German back.

Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism - September 2011

2011-09-29T10:36:00.000+01:00

We are starting the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism this month in the land of the rising sun:

Jenn at Perogies & Gyoza goes to the library and has a big surprise in A Bittersweet Milestone.

Some time later, the sun rises in Singapore:

Cordelia at Multilingual Mama hears her daughter speak Singlish and muses about dialects in “Por Favor LAH” : Singlish, Ebonics, and the role of different dialects.

While people in the Far East go about their day, the first Europeans get out of their cosy, warm beds:

From I can't even think of a title comes a start of a language learning diary in Mbukka-mbukka? (Can I have a piece of that cubumber please?)

Sabina over at Bilingua per Gioco tries to boost the minority language by sending her son to a school in Berlin in Organising a study period abroad, primary school.

Roxana at SpanglishBaby shares three strategies that should help your kids become bilingual in Bilingual Babies: The Sooner, The Better.

Giovanna at Italo Bimbi assures us that bilinguals are not more likely to forget their languages when they grow old in Languages can be forgotten.

Jen at Trilingual Trio is amazed by having the politest baby in the world in Polite baby!

Annabelle at Lingula clears up a few things about babbling in When daddy really means Daddy: Babbles are not words.

Maria at Busy as a Bee in Paris explains how their "2 weeks per language" system works in The mechanics of switching between languages.

Bonne Maman over at Our Non-Native Bilingual Adventure sees what she's up against in Is there such a thing as the perfect balance?

Solnushka at Verbosity has to make a choice in On education, education, education and sacrifice.

The day draws to an end for most people on Earth, but the population of the Americas only just wakes up:

Smashedpea at Intrepidly Bilingual tells the tale of her daughter's biliteral progress in Budding Biliteracy.

Elizabeth at La Mother Tongue shares English words with her daughter and makes her laugh in Bedtime Stories of a Language Nerdo's Child.

Lynn at Open Hearts, Open Minds wonders whether her 2-year-old likes Spanish class or not in La Clase de Español.

Salma at Chasing Rainbow wonders whether a language should be judged by its value in What's wrong with Kiswahili?.

Sarah at Bringing up Baby Bilingual tells us how her boy creatively describes words he doesn't know in look who's circumlocuting!.

From Molly comes an article about recent findings at the University of Washington at Bilingual babies' vocabulary linked to early brain differentiation.

By now the world is tired and mostly asleep, ready for the East to rise again soon. The carnival is over and it was so big this month that I decided to start a new tradition: I will not add one of our own articles.

Thanks for reading, and have a good night!

Carnival - please submit!

2011-09-19T09:54:00.000+01:00

Hi Bilingual Bloggers!

We are proud to host the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism in September.

Can I please ask everyone to submit their entries to me ( jan . exner @ gmx . net ) by Monday the 26th?

I am looking forward to your articles!

Thank you! Jan

Entre les deux, mon coeur balance

2011-09-17T08:32:00.000+01:00

Garden in September

Entre les deux, mon coeur balance, Je ne sais pas lequel aimer des deux (my heart sways between the two, does not know which one to love best). That's how the nuresery rhyme goes.
When preparing to leave Algiers, BK1 said she wanted to stay with my parents. But at the same time, she wanted to get back home to her school and friends.
Coming back "home" from "home", was heart-wrenching, as ever. My feelings were ambivalent this time. For the first time we were coming back from Algeria to our own house. We finally bought our first house in May this year. And coming back to our house felt indeed different this time round.
Saying goodbye to my parents, kissing my mother while waiting for the passport check, not knowing when we will next see them, feeling guilty to leave my parents alone and deprive them of their grandchildren for another year. Needless to say, I cried my heart out in the waiting lounge.

Then, I am sat in the armchair at 7:30 am on Saturday. Am looking outside into our garden. It rained last night and this morning; of course we are in the North of England. Sun rays are finally piercing the clouds. All is quiet, children and husband are still asleep upstairs. It will all change in a few minutes, when we will all get ready to drop me off at a Communications Skills workshop with lovely friends.

At this moment, I feel blessed to be healthy, and to have my healthy and happy family. This feeling of serenity does not usually last for long, though. 14 years, 1 job, 1 PhD, 1 marriage and 3 children down the line, I still find it difficult to face the consequences of leaving home. If anything, it is getting harder. In so doing, I irremediably broke my own heart and that of my family, in two.

Lost German

2011-08-17T19:48:00.000+01:00

The other day I when I was on the phone with the Babelmum, BK1 walked past and decided she wanted to speak with me. So BM passed the phone over.

It felt slightly weird after two and a half weeks to speak with my eldest daughter. I had almost forgotten her voice.

But for her, it was apparently even weirder!

For the first couple of minutes she wasn't really able to say anything but "Ja" ("yes"). I think it took about 3 minutes for her to muster all her German and produce a sentence.

Funny. Makes me wonder how it'll be when I see them on Monday.

There will be Arabic

2011-07-19T07:24:00.001+01:00

We are preparing for our traditional summer holidays: Bablemum and the Babelkids are going to Algiers to visit the grandparents while I stay home. I will then join them a month from now.

BK1 and BK2 are currently speaking German a lot, no doubt because my mum and my sisters daughter visited us 10 days ago. They also brought German books which I read although I am starting to think the Babelkids prefer books in English.

Anyway, doesn't matter, because in 3 days they're off to Algeria and they'll be fully immersed in Arabic for almost 6 weeks!

When they come back, they will have switched to speaking Arabic between them mostly. I am even wondering whether they'll use any English at all. They did last year, but not a lot.

So from September to December, English will slowly work its way back into their language and then we're off to Germany for Christmas and it'll all change again.

Brilliant, innit? ;-)

Torn

2011-07-15T10:19:00.000+01:00

I have just had a little cry. I read Babeldad's latest entry on InCulture Parent. You might think that I would have read this piece before he submitted it, but I did not.
I am touched, because he understands me. But where we differ is in the conclusion, He is ever the optimist. I am constantly torn.
We will soon see my parents. But I am already dreading leaving them. And this dread is almost taking over the joy at the prospect of seeing them...

No Dads here?

2011-07-07T00:44:00.000+01:00

While Natasha is exaggerating slightly, she still has a point: there are not a lot of dads of bilingual children out there who are blogging. I think I might actually be the only one!

Hey, Dads, we'd like to hear from you, too!

Really.

Bilingual Carnival June Edition

2011-07-07T00:41:00.000+01:00

It's Bilingual Carnival time again!

So head over to Bilingual Russian for this month's fun and remarkable blog articles on raising children in multi lingual environments.

Multilingual goes Mad!

2011-06-16T20:55:00.000+01:00

8.15 PM, the Babel Residence, childrens' room. BK1 & BK2 are drawing.

I interrupt them and ask BK2 where her pyjama bottoms are. BK1 remembers they should be in the bath room. BK2 then exclaims:

"Ich habe gemagict die away!" (I made them disappear using magic)

If you are German (and I suspect only then) you will notice that she took a perfectly normal German phrase ("Ich habe die weggezaubert") and translated the verb, leaving the grammar pretty much intact (well, in her way).

This is the first time I really noticed her doing it that way round.

Interesting...

Bilingual Carnival May Edition

2011-06-02T10:02:00.000+01:00

It's Bilingual Carnival time again!

So head over to Mummy do that! for this month's fun and remarkable blog articles on raising children in multi lingual environments.

Sunny spells

2011-05-20T08:16:00.001+01:00

We moved house last weekend. The new house is chaos. But this is a post for another day.
BK2 (aged 3) has been speaking a lot of English at home. This is most apparent when BK2 and BK1 are playing, BK1 being more than happy to oblige to her younger sister's English love story.
This morning, I am upstairs. BK2 and BK1 are donwstairs in the dining room, having breakfast.
BK2: L., wach raki tdiri?
BK1: Rani raiha nakoul.
BK2: Ana thani nhab nakoul.

Chances are (90%) you have not, dear reader, understood anything in this conversation, and that is because you are not Algerian. A whole 3 sentences 100% Algerian Arabic, music to my ears!

Bilingual Carnival April Edition

2011-05-03T19:55:00.002+01:00

It's Bilingual Carnival time again!

Head over to Multilingual Mama for this month's fun and remarkable blog articles on raising children in multi lingual environments.

Elementaire, mon cher Watson

2011-04-24T10:29:00.002+01:00

BK1 (6 last month) and BK2 are playing playdough in the garden. Conversation is flowing... in English.
Me, slightly annoyed: "lebnett? waaĺah rakoum tahadrou en Anglais?" (Girls, why are you speaking in English?)
BK1: "Parceque both BK2 ou anaya kounna born in England" (Because both BK2 and me were born in England).
Doh.

In the Park

2011-04-23T10:22:00.001+01:00

BK2 again.
We are in the park, gorgeous weather as anyone in England can tell you. We have been basking in perfect summer time for the last week.
My friend F is here with her three girls, along with her friend A with her two boys. The BK's don't know the boys. But as children do, they seem to have known each other all their lives after 15 minutes.
One of the boys, D aged 8, is playing with BK2. I come over, ask BK2 to stay with the older kids, away from the water. I start moving away.
D: "Do you speak French?"
BK2 ( a surprised look on her face): "No, I speak English" - implying, what? can you not tell?
I can tell you D has an even more surprised look on his face.

Grandads speak different languages

2011-04-22T10:22:00.001+01:00

BK2, who turned 3 in Februray -
The following conversation occurred at Gymnastics class. A little girl C is accompanied to the class by her granddad.
BK2: "Maman, c'est le papa de C?" (Mum, is this C's dad?)
Me: "Non, c'est son papy" (No, it's her granddad)
Later, we are in the car park about to leave. BK2 spots C's granddad van.
BK2: "Le papy de C parle en Anglais." (C's granddad speaks English)
Me: "Oui ..." (Yes...)
Me after 1/2 a sec pause: "Kifach yehdar papy taa'ek?" (How does your papy speak?)
BK2: "En Francais. Parfois aussi Anglais." (French and Arabic, sometimes English)
Me: "Ah bon? wach iqoul en Anglais?" (Really? What does he say in English?)
BK2: "Hello."
Conclusion: Papy's speak different languages.