Wolf at the door?

I know I’m not the only parent in families with several languages to obsess over how much exposure our progeny get to each language. When I read other blogs or forums there’s often a sense of the struggle for survival. Parents racing to stay ahead of the majority language, an unstoppable wave. If we hesitate for but a moment, we’ll see the minority language(s) engulfed by it.

Just to update on our situation, Beirut Baby is nearly three, and Paris Baby is now ten months. I speak English to the kids, my husband speaks French (one of his three family languages) to them and together we two speak English and French. We have been living in Spain for a few months. We spend a lot of time with English friends and there aren’t many French living in the area.

I was delighted to realise that French had drawn level with English during the seven months we were in France. Now I hear her English stronger, both vocal and syntax. She has forgotten some words she used to use. A few times recently she was talking to her dad and turned to ask me a word in French to complete her sentence. And a couple of times when she’s upset and we were both present she has switched from French to English as if it were the easier choice in which to air her grievances.

I’m also concerned about little one. My first baby, born in Lebanon, was surrounded by far more French than my second has been here in Spain. We spoke a lot of French to friends and out shopping, especially when I was out of my depth for Arabic. Whereas here there is next to no French influence from outside the family. Her first few words were French, but I’d be very surprised if his were.

But it’s quite hard to boost the minority language without actually speaking it to your children. I want to stick to OPOL with her as I feel if I mix languages soon enough the kids will mix too and then take the path of least resistance (ie English only). And when she goes to school Spanish will overtake English as the majority language and her dad and I will both have our work cut out keeping our respective languages alive.

So here are a few ways I’ve been trying to keep in touch with the minority language. Please do add any suggestions.

  • writing a menu for the dinner as I prepare it. I write out the meal in French for daddy and my daughter suggests what drinks and desserts we might offer him. “A yoghurt? Ok, how would daddy say it? Ok, yaourt, and shall we add melon?
  • writing little notes and messages for daddy: “Veux-tu venir manger…maintenant? dans 10 minutes? jamais?” (Do you want to come and eat…now? in 10 minutes? never?)
  • playing a game and then prepare to play it with her dad.

It’s not much but it helps her not to put French aside all day long, and just as important, it sparks lively vocab-rich conversations with her dad over dinner.

4 Responses to “Wolf at the door?”

  1. nad says:

    I may add something to the list…
    Actually it is an idea I got from one of your blogs few years ago.
    I have recently introduced a daily story time in the minority language.
    In our case, we have two minority languages to juggle.
    So here’s our situation:
    English is the Majority language spoken by me and my wife to him and together. He also goes to an English speaking school.
    French is a minority language. It is the language my wife uses with him sometimes. He also gets it around in the city and from French speaking friends. He also gets one hour of French per day in school.
    Arabic is a second minority language. I try my best to schedule Arabic speaking time every day. Story telling and kids’ songs have been a major helpful tool. He also gets it from extended Arabic speaking family.
    Here are the results:
    He is super fluent in English… at times it feels he is racing to finish his “daily speaking quota”. He just talks and talks and talks… which prompted me to try with him “silence exercises”. Not sure how wise, but I feel that it is also important for him to learn that ‘there is a time to keep silent’
    He understands everything in French. He still tries to avoid speaking it whenever he doesn’t absolutely need to, since most of our friends are bilingual and almost everyone will switch to English after the first sentence or two. A recent sand pit incident in the park however revealed that he is fully capable to express himself in French, very loudly at that!
    He also understands everything in Arabic, but is even more reluctant in expressing himself in Arabic than in French. Having some friends and family over for visits helps a little. Skyping with family also helps. I found that story telling is most engaging as he is focusing on the story itself which makes him use the language to respond to prompting without him noticing. Songs are also useful since he loves singing. It also plays another role to make him acquainted with the cultural aspect of the language.
    Both my wife and I really enjoy reading your blog and it has helped us to work things through in our multi-language family.
    Thank you!

    • Great to have an update on your family situation Nad. Do you read stories in Arabic at all or do you just make up your own? I’ve heard mixed reviews about kids’ books translated into Arabic but I’d like to give them a try. You’re so right about songs – even the ones you wouldn’t think very fun for kids. So glad you enjoy the blog.

      • nad says:

        This is another major problem with Arabic…
        Which Arabic? Literary Arabic (Fos7a) or spoken Arabic (Darija)?
        I had a lot of debate with myself about it and finally decided to go with the spoken language, the language of the heart, rather than the literary language. So it is a mix of translated and made-up stories. I use the pictures of the book, get inspired by the story and make up my own narrative…
        for bed-time stories I am currently using the Arabic version of “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived”. What better way to end the day and set up positive morals right before sleep?
        nad

  2. What a good idea. I wish I could make up stories in Arabic! I was delighted to see the kids’ videos you can stream from jw.org in Lebanese Arabic (not to mention classical Arabic, and over 150 other languages).

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