check out the carnival!

Who else is writing about raising their kids with more than one language? In addition to the amazing parents whose blogs are listed in my sidebar, there are these folks in this month's Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism!

About the Carnival: Letizia at Bilingual For Fun founded it last year as a way to create an annotated monthly collection of blog posts about bilingualism (or mulilingualism). Each month a new host sends out a call for submissions, and authors send in one post about language for consideration in the Carnival. Read more about the Carnival here, and subscribe to the mailing list for relevant announcements here.

On June 10, I'll be hosting the Carnival here at Bringing up Baby Bilingual, so please consider posting about raising your kids bilingually and then sending me the link! (Or if you have a post in mind already, pass it on to Cartside at Mummy Do That, who is hosting the May Carnival.)

Griffin greets Spring!

Yes, it has snowed twice in the past three days here in Colorado, but I'm clinging fiercely to the idea that spring has arrived. We've been working in the yard, ordering seeds, taking walks, dressing in in pastel colors. Griffin is now in charge of the local Earthworm Repatriation Program--constantly on the lookout for worms, he delights in picking them up and depositing them in the garden. "Oooo da ver-terre, Maman? I need rose ver-terre!" (He likes the pinkish ones best, for some unknown reason.)

He also made a very funny inadvertent pun: while cleaning out his closet, we happened upon a long-forgotten stuffed peacock. "Paon!" he shrieked, using the correct French word and pronunciation. Then his eyes lit up even brighter, and he sang the first line or two to "Sur le pont d'Avignon"--a traditional song about dancing on a bridge. You see, "paon" and the word for bridge, "pont," are pronounced identically. [Er, make that, "I pronounced them the same"--turns out they are similar but not identical!]

We've been having fun playing inside, too--lots and lots of reading, "cooking" in his little kitchen, attending French playgroup. And as you can see from the photos, our regular playgroup has had some fun outings to the zoo and the firestation and to see some fishies. (Griffin now differentiates them as "playgroup en francais" and "playgroup with firetrucks.") Griffin and Carl still get together once a week as well--that's them coloring together above.

This morning, Griffin and I had the following awww-inspiring exchange:

Maman: Je t'aime! (I love you!)

Griffin: Je t'aime!

Maman: Je t'aime aussi! (I love you too!)

Griffin: Je t'aime aussi too!

We hope your spring is turning out fun and warm and springy and that you have lots of people to love too too.

note to self: don't judge monolingual families!

A visit with an old friend this past weekend got me thinking: is it possible for those of us who are raising bilingual or multilingual families to congratulate ourselves for our efforts yet not judge those families who don't? Particularly families whose parents do speak more than one language already?

Natasha and I have been friends for fifteen years, when we studied abroad in the same city in France. Originally from Russia, she and her parents came to the US as refugees when she was 16. By the time she was in college, she was fluent in English, very good in French, and had also studied some German. Although she hasn't had a reason to use her French since college, she said she felt it coming back as she interacted with Griffin this weekend. (And her accent is still great!)

She has two children, ages three and seven, and she confesses that she doesn't speak Russian with them. Her parents, who moved to be near her family, are so very disappointed that she has not passed her mother tongue on to the kids. But she doesn't beat herself up about it: she had to be realistic, she said. She has worked full-time all along, with her husband doing more of the day-to-day child care, so during the few hours in the evening that they are all together as a family, she has not wanted to shut her non-Russian-speaking husband out. She chose harmony and family time over bilingualism.

She also pointed out that her own Russian language development more or less stopped when she was a teenager. Never having been exposed to the critical baby-related vocabulary in her native language, she couldn't say everything she wanted to when her first child was born, and she had neither the time nor the inclination to research Russian vocabulary with a newborn around. (This is a significant difference from how it worked for me: when I started taking care of my nephew once a week and writing this blog four years ago, I was a newlywed teaching full-time in a foreign language department. I had myriad friends and colleagues to ask vocabulary questions of and who were genuinely interested in hearing about my would-be bilingual nephew. In other words, I had what she didn't: lots and lots of linguistic support and lots and lots of time.)

And she didn't state this, but of course it would probably be especially difficult to raise Russian-speaking children in the medium-sized town in the northwest where they live--no Russian playgroups, no Russian nannies, stares from strangers at the grocery store and the doctor's office, skepticism from the preschool and elementary teachers, the expense of buying books from halfway across the world.

That all makes sense to me, but I wish for her children's sake that she had been able to raise them bilingually. Of course, it's none of my business, and seeing these words in print makes me feel terrible, like I'm judging her, when the last thing any parent needs is the disapproval of a friend or the judgment of someone who's not in her shoes!

Still, it seems like her kids are much better off than those whose families haven't given them a second language. (Look, there I go, being judgmental again, this time against people like my very own parents!) One of my too-many projects that I'm doing for/about Griffin is making a storytime DVD. Ever since he was born, I have videotaped family and friends reading to him, singing songs, reciting rhymes, so I asked Natasha if I could film her. She read him a book in English and then, after some gentle prodding, told him a nursery rhyme in Russian, then another, then another. Griffin ate it up, telling her "More! More!" so that she had to repeat them over and over. At one point, she looked down and said, "More? Yeah, this is Sasha's favorite too." So even though she doesn't use Russian with the kids, she surely sings to them and recites these rhymes. She still shares her language and her culture with them. And I think her parents do speak Russian around them too.

As Clarisse, a Brazilian in Namibia, mentioned in her recent profile, an inextricable part of raising children with more than one language is the idea that we are exposing them to other cultures as well, showing them that an entire world exists around them, a world where other people's appearances, beliefs, homes, and languages can be quite different from ours. So Natasha's kids are definitely benefitting from that. They are growing up bicultural, if not bilingual, which is just as important, and perhaps even more useful. This also presents a significant contrast with me and Griffin: he may be bilingual, but I have not shown him much about French or francophone culture so far. (Uh-oh. Judge away!)

All this simply reinforces my belief that we parents are doing what we can, giving what we can, the best we can, most of the time (I honestly can't say "All of the time," at least in regards to myself), and that's plenty good for our kids, and that we shouldn't pass judgments based on what everyone else does. Bravo and kudos to us bilingual families--and to the monolingual ones as well.

Griffin's first television appearance!

Well, he appears briefly at the very end of this news segment featuring the tutors of the library's Homework Center, where I've volunteered for five years. We won an "Everyday Heroes" award from a Denver television station (The Denver Channel), and Griffin and I were there when the anchorman and the cameras showed up. This clip provides a really clear overview of what we offer (for free!) at the Homework Center.

Profile: Clarisse's multilingual family in Namibia

Meet Clarisse Cunha Linke, author of the blog Bicicleta-Bicycle-Ombasikela, who is raising her toddler Julia with four languages in Namibia! (That's them along the Zambezi River in the above photo.) Thank you very much for answering my questions and letting me profile your family on my blog.

What languages are you exposing your child to, and how?

Portuguese (mother's mother tongue), English (father's mother tongue, official language of Namibia, the preschool's language), Oshwambo (the nanny's language, one of the tribal languages of Namibia, lots of people around us speak it), and Afrikaans (slowly starting to show up in the picture, used to be the country's official language during apartheid and is still the most common language around. Some children at the preschool speak it, and so do teachers etc., but not officially).

Why?

First and foremost it would be awkward if she couldn't speak our own languages...so basically we never thought of not raising her with Portuguese and English. We did think a lot about Oshwambo--was it worth it, etc. We decided that it would be great for her to be exposed to a language which is neither Anglo-Saxon nor Latin-based and which is mostly oral, even though we don't know how long we will stay here. But that doesn't matter. She doesn't need to be fluent in Oshwambo; we just want her to really be able to recognise that there are different ways of thinking/structuring and expressing toughts...and honestly, provided that she enjoys the process...it is so cool that she might be able to speak and African tribal language!

How well does your child understand and speak the different languages? How does she feel about them?

Julia is 28 months old, and since December she has been able to really put sentences together in both English and Portuguese, follow conversations, and start to swap languages between mum and dad. English is the predominant language, but she does extremely well in Portuguese. She has a good vocabulary, probably because I am very aware of Portuguese being the minority language, therefore I talk a lot with her, read, sing, explain every little thing in complete sentences and avoid baby talk. We know she says a few words in Oshwambo, but as far as we can tell, she mostly understands it.

I think she loves that she is now able to communicate and be understood. At the end of 2009 she was throwing a couple of tantrums a day. Once we traveled to both Australia and Brazil for holidays, her language skills got much better. She went from gibberish to complete sentences, dialogues...and all of a sudden the tantrums were gone. She loves translating to mum and dad as well, which somehow tells us that she might be enjoying the exclusive communication she has with each one.

How have you ben able to expose your child to the cultures where the different languages are spoken?

Portuguese--as I said earlier, lots of talking and DVDs, books, CDs, Skype with grandparents and aunties, listening to music and dancing together.

English--we do the same as above, but that's the school language and also the predominant language at home.

Oshwambo--nanny's language, also the language of the two girls who spend almost every second weekend with us. (They are from villages but we brought them to Windhoek to study. They stay during the week in hostel and spend some weekends and holidays with us.) They all do lots of singing and dancing; Julia has Ovambo dresses; and from time to time we go to the villages.

What challenges have occurred as you raise your child with more than one language?

So far, not many challenges. Her potty training process in October last year had one small lapse because of language, but she quickly got over it. :-)

What resources and activities have been most useful? What, on the other hand, has not been useful?

Every resource is welcome in our house! Even counting steps and flowers as we go helps a lot! She does one through ten in Portuguese as well!

As I said--books, CDs, DVDs, Skype. I can't think of anything not useful.

What do you think parents, caretakers, teachers, and/or researchers need to know about teaching a second language to children? What do you wish you had known when you started? What, if anything, woudl you do differently now?

I wish more people were open to the idea, without being conservative. Children can do so much more that we can imagine!!! It's unbelievable and fascinating. Just exposing them to other cultures is the best gift we can give them. It is not to make them little geniuses, but to make them kind and interested in the world around. So many people think we are causing a confusion in her mind, that we are harming her....I'm just happy with the process. I'm sure that will make her someone interested (and hopefully interesting!).

OPOL (one parent, one language) is important if you are everyday in touch with the child, but again, no need to be obsessed. At the beginning I was super strict. I still only speak Portuguese, but if we have friends around, I allow myself a bit of English with her to be more inclusive, for example.

desperately seeking logo

I need a logo. I want a drawing or photo that represents this blog that I can put on the masthead, on my business cards, my Facebook page. And I have no idea how to go about doing it!

I'm looking for something eye-catching, whimsical but not cutesy, maybe something with French and English words incorporated. And I'll pay! If you can recommend a graphic designer who could create a logo for me that would be easy to add to my blog, please leave a comment or email me at babybilingual (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!

Now I miss teaching, darn it!

Fifteen minutes in front of a class of four-year-olds and I'm a goner. I'll admit it here: I miss teaching. (Except the grading papers part and the departmental politics and the too-common apathetic students with enormous feelings of entitlement.)

My (very) short stint as the preschool's resident expert on France was great fun. My "hook" was asking them what they had for breakfast, and then telling them that typically, kids in France don't have eggs and bacon and cereal for breakfast like their American counterparts. I passed around realistic-looking papier mache breads (baguette and croissant) and had them all cup their hands as if they were drinking hot chocolate out of a bowl. They were very impressed that French children can have hot chocolate for breakfast and don't have to drink it out of a mug. (Is this even true these days? It's been a while since I dined with a four-year-old in France.*)

They also seemed to enjoy squeezing the stuffed Eiffel Tower that I passed around the circle, and they were noisily appalled at the idea that cheese can also be made from goat and sheep's milk and that the French put extra mold in some of their cheese. On purpose!

And then when I taught them some very basic dance moves for "Sur le pont d'Avignon," they all willingly hooked elbows with a classmate and danced and bowed and curtsied when I told them to. (This is perhaps the greatest difference between teaching French to preschoolers and teaching French to college students. The most I ever managed was getting my French I students to grudgingly do the Hokey-Pokey when we studied the vocabulary for body parts. No way would they have hooked elbows to swing their partner. Especially since we were outside in the quad.)

Merci beaucoup to everyone who offered suggestions on what I could cover in my presentation!

*I'm not sure that I ever actually had a meal with a young child in France, actually. I'll have to remedy that next time I travel! Let me know if I can borrow your kid for lunch.

moi, the expert on France?

A friend has asked me to make a presentation about France to a class.

Her daughter's class.

Her daughter's preschool class.

Because I know more about the country than any of the parents in the class. (That makes me the local expert.)

So now on Friday morning I'm going to go try to get four-year-olds excited about France. I have 15 minutes, max. Any ideas?

I'm torn--I'd like to do something besides presenting the tired stereotypes of the Eiffel Tower, berets, baguettes, snails, and accordion music. (But I still want to pass around my stuffed Eiffel Tower and play songs for them.) And I don't want to spend a lot of time preparing this talk. (In other words, I won't be making crepes or individual French flags or mix CDs for each child.)

So here's what I'm planning so far:

--Teach bonjour/bonsoir/au revoir by walking in and out of the classroom and turning the lights off and on.
--Ask the kids what language that is and where it is spoken. Show them on a map of the world.
--Show them photos from calendars about sights in France, emphasizing that it's a small(ish) country that has Roman ruins, medieval villages, and high-tech modern architecture; cities and farms; ocean and mountains; and so on. Maybe show pictures of typical foods and see if the kids can identify them.
--Show a picture of a bridge again, and then play the folk song "Sur le pont d'Avignon," telling them what it's about, and then have them get up and link arms and dance in a circle while I play it again. (Here's a cute, short video of kids dancing to the song.)
--Review bonjour/bonsoir/au revoir, and then leave as they tell me "au revoir"!

I'll have Griffin with me, so it'll be interesting to see his reaction to this presentation! Maybe I should practice on Carl when I babysit him tomorrow, since he's four years old? Except that I am determined never to speak English to him! Let me know if you have any suggestions. Fifteen minutes just isn't long enough! This is why, some day, I would like to teach French classes for toddlers and preschoolers.

turns out that two years old isn't too young for the Smithsonian!

Griffin and I recently spent six days in the Washington, DC, area, where he got to do all sorts of exciting things like see dinosaur skeletons, have a great-aunt give him presents, ride trains, read books with his uncle, and hang out with a greyhound. I now know that it is exhausting to travel by myself with a toddler (especially when a snowstorm causes flight cancellations and you arrive at 9:30 pm without a suitcase!) and that I really, really don't care for dog hair on my underwear and that a house shared by five bachelors equals a bathtub that makes said toddler exclaim "yucky!"

(Fortunately, Griffin doesn't care about that sort of thing. Read him books--as his Tonton Matt is doing above--and he's happy. Here he's enjoying his favorite new book, Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny.)

Or give him things to climb on; he loves that too. Here he is atop a very interesting rock in Falls Church, VA.

Or take him to the Potomac River in Alexandria, let him watch the boats bobbing up and down, give him bread to feed the ducks, and then refuse to let him go swimming despite his howls!

On the other hand, I also now realize that you're never too young for the Smithsonian museums, and since they don't charge admission, you don't feel like you have to drag a kid around with you for hours to get your money's worth. I took Griffin to three museums, and he found things to stare at in wonder in all three of them.

His favorite was probably the Museum of Natural History--he shrieked and exclaimed "dinosaure squelette!" (skeleton) when we entered the prehistory exhibit--but he also really enjoyed the Museum of African Art, which was full of colors and textures and sculptures and paintings. They even had one room where kids were encouraged to touch the art!

(And where their moms are allowed to wear it!)

The whole trip was also a good vocabulary boost for both of us. Griffin learned lots of new words in French and I was able to spend hours at a time talking about something other than food, diapers, or discipline! And especially in the African Art Museum, he could see that the world is a lot bigger than our little city in Colorado.

So, in conclusion, take your little kids to Washington. Just don't stay at my brother's house.

bilingual blogging parents unite!

It's Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism time--the monthly round-up of blog posts about raising kids with more than one language. Founded by Letizia at Bilingual For Fun, this month's Carnival entry with a summary of relevant posts is at Clo's Multi Tongue Kids. Come visit!

I'll be hosting the Carnival later this year, and I hope you'll all send me posts I can include when the time comes!