From the category archives:

Bilingual

Oxford First French Words book – Giveaway

November 21, 2008

Oxford First French Words (author Neil Morris) is a beautifully illustrated word book full of wonderful bird’s eye views taken from a typical day out of a child’s life. It is available in German and Spanish as well. Book description taken from the website of Oxford University Press (US): The Oxford First Words books give [...]

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Naturally Bilingual

June 25, 2008

I stopped this morning to talk to two older neighbors who started a conversation with me about the weather. It wasn’t long before one of the men took the opportunity to tell me that I should speak French with my children and not English. His reasoning is that because my children are French I should [...]

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My husband, the French

April 18, 2008

…was not happy that the French will sing a mostly English song in the next Eurovision. It is the first time that France will sing a song in another language other than French since the Eurovision began over fifty years ago. Read about it here on BBC NEWS. My French husband did what would have [...]

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Quoiat?

April 2, 2008

Sweet Bear looked up at me with her big blue eyes. She had her eyebrows all squished together in concentration trying to figure out what I had just told her. She had been tuning me out up until she heard ice cream. “Quoiat?”, she implored with urgency. Luckily, I have become an expert in Franglais [...]

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American culture that warms my expat heart

March 13, 2008

I am not going mad. It is 1:30 p.m. in the French speaking part of Switzerland. My children are watching Cartoon Network France. Tom and Jerry to be exact. In English. Just like my brother and I did as little kids. It must be some sort of conspiracy to teach little French speaking kids English. [...]

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Wait a second…I am still in Switzerland, right?

March 7, 2008

I just turned on Cartoon Network for the kids. I heard, “You jerk!”, coming from a characters mouth. Immediately, I had a sense that something wasn’t right. It took me a couple seconds to realize it was because the cartoon was in English and not translated into French. It is the first time after living [...]

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Counting with your fingers in English vs. in French

February 27, 2008

In English, you start counting on your fingers with your index finger while in French you start with your thumb. I taught my bilingual children to count in English and French starting with the correct finger depending on the language. When they count in each language they switch their starting finger without thinking about it. [...]

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Language learning with Mama

November 5, 2007

Back in August I made a post about my bilingual children and language learning. I wanted to make the follow up post sooner but kept putting it off due to lack of time due to laziness. Now, I am making myself sit down and do it. While in college, during one of my social psychology [...]

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Language learning with bilingual children

August 30, 2007

I was thinking the other day about how our children are completely bilingual. I am not including Angel in this post because she isn’t near to being bilingual. She knows some French words but hasn’t had enough time in a French speaking environment to become fluent. The girls are able to effortlessly switch between French [...]

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Boy Blue talks…in English

January 20, 2007

“I ove yu” when he is giving me baby love. “Hi!” in greeting to all. “Tank yu” as he hands me his plate after eating.E “Uh-oh” each time he or anyone else drops something. “Yeah” instead of “yes”. Hey, he is American after all. :) His only words have been in english so far whereas Sweet [...]

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Family day with a Franco-American family

November 30, 2006

We had a nice day walking in Clifton Gorge with the kids. It is not an easy walk with three children in tow. However, it is well worth the effort. We had to beware of slippery rocks and dangerously high clifts (hense. the name. Clifton Gorge or as those that know, Clifty Gorge). I had [...]

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It’s a Sweet Bear’s Life

April 15, 2006

I have started a blog for Sweet Bear. She has been calling my blog her site. When I asked her if she wanted her very own blog she smiled big, big, big (as she would say) and said, “YES”! She wrote her very first post with the help of Mama. You can read it on [...]

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Progress Report for Sweet Bear

March 10, 2006

Sweet Bear brought home her first progress report from the maternelle last week. I have scanned the front and back of her progress report and have uploaded both sides onto Flickr. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to see her progress report. If you would like to see a larger version of her [...]

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Poor baby trees

February 1, 2006

We were in Strasbourg last week and on these streets near the U.S. Consulate, the workers were cutting the limbs on the trees. I still think the trees look strange cut so that they form balls on the ends of the branches. Last year, Sweet Bear would say over and over, “Poor baby tees…tey hurt.” [...]

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French tongue twister

January 27, 2006

Tu ne me l’a pas demande. (You did not ask me.) Now, say that five times really, really fast. If you are able to do it…I am soooo jealous.

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