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English

June 7, 2010

This is a post for all the times I didn’t post about this subject. I let it fall away. It was hateful. It was silly. It was so not me. However, I will post it now. Why do so many English people in Switzerland (and outside Switzerland) carry on as if Americans do not speak [...]

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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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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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Perils of the French R

November 8, 2007

I was explaining to a woman that has a child in Sweet Bear’s school which I had promised to give the Ultimate Brownie recipe to that I hadn’t forgotten to do it. It was taking me a couple days because I had to translate it from English into French. I didn’t mention all the other [...]

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English is tough stuff

September 14, 2007

Everyone says English is easy to learn compared to other languages. I think perhaps it may be true in speaking small sentences. However, there are many words that must be pronounced a certain way and it isn’t always easy to figure out which way that is. So, I think someone that is not completely bilingual [...]

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