Bilingual Game Plan

Before we even got married we knew we wanted our children to be bilingual. We'd do them a huge disservice by not exposing them to the French language and culture. When I got pregnant our bilingual plans were pushed forward. Yeah we had talked about it, but we hadn't figured out how to go about raising a bilingual kid. I immediately immersed myself in bilingual child-rearing books from the library. Many of them said the same thing: choose a method of language introduction and incorporation and do not deviate from that method. There were several types presented but the method that seemed to work the best with our family is called the "one parent, one language" method. Essentially, I only speak English to Z and Robin only speaks French. That's what we've been doing from the day she was born. Now, there are occasions when I do speak French to her, like when we are singing or reading, but it's pretty rare for her to hear me speak French. We didn't want her to develop a weird American-French accent. The books said as long as the child is exposed to the second language at least 15 percent of the time, he or she would become fluent.

Luckily we've got great resources to utilize when we have questions about bilingual child-rearing. Z's pediatrician (who was mine too, actually) is married to a Frenchman and has three adult children, all of whom are bilingual. I had no idea about the doctor's French background when I was a patient of hers. When she came to the hospital after Z was born, she asked about my new last name, and when I said my husband is French, she started spewing out French sentences. I was shocked! Robin was too, because it's rare to hear someone speak French fluently in the States. We've been able to ask Z's pediatrician about questions as they come up and she's a great resource. Actually, all of Z's checkups are conducted in a mix of French and English. In addition to the pediatrician, our Parents as Teachers woman has also researched bilingualism for us and we talk about the process and how it's going at our monthly meetings.

Z's teachers are really into the idea of having a bilingual kid in their classroom. They always ask Robin about French words and have started to incorporate them into their classroom activities. They've been playing a French music cd Robin took in for Culture Day last week. The new classroom mottos are "Je t'aime" and "Au revoir."

I don't want to wish Z's life away and time is already going way too fast, but I cannot wait to see how Z speaks! I'm so excited to know how her transitions between the two languages will be, and whether she will prefer one over the other. I wonder if she will speak French at school around her friends? Will she keep her bilingualism quiet because it makes her different? How are we going to tackle reading and writing in French? How do you even do that in English? At times it's overwhelming to think about, but I think the end result is going to be pretty amazing.

Scarlett the French Bulldog

So, I have encountered many French animals over the past few days. The most important though is Scarlett, my future sister-in-law's French bulldog who is named for Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind. Naturally because of Scarlett's name she is a diva, much like her fictional Hollywood counterpart. Scarlett the dog smells horrible. One can ignore that fact, however, when looking at her cute little face. Her tongue is always poking out of her mouth, and she appears to be smiling. To me, she looks as if she is part pig/part cow rather than bulldog. Her excessive snorting furthers my suspicion that she is part pig, or was at least raised among them. She might just have allergies though.

Since she is so adorable, I naturally love petting her and seeing if she can do tricks. This is where I noted something unusual. When I tell her to do something, she just looks at me with those wistful eyes (ie: see picture). I'm not used to this! At home, our dogs Jackie and Helen know many tricks and are glad to perform (for treats, of course). They know a number of commands, including sit, stay, speak, shake, etc. etc. Scarlett just looked at me and snorted the other day when I told her to sit. I asked Robin if she could do anything cool, and he quickly started spewing French words at her. And guess what? She listened and began sitting and shaking paws. Then I realized: she doesn't know English! That's why she always looks confused when I talk to her--she doesn't understand what I'm saying!

After solving the mystery of Scarlett, I remembered Hannah and I had the same thing happen last year in Paris. Near our hotel was an apartment and every time we passed it, there was a cat in the window. We would talk to it and try to pet it, and it always ignored us! It took us quite some time to realize it wasn't bilingual and had no way of knowing what we were saying.

Bottom line: when in a foreign country, approach the animals as you do the people. Simply saying "Hello little dog" will not cut it. You must talk to the animal in the vernacular in order to be understood! Next time I see Scarlett, I'll be sure to say "Bonjour Scarlett, ca va?" She'll most likely snort and roll over so I can pet her stomach.