Joyeux Jour de Saint Valentin!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone who loves Griffin and whom Griffin loves in return--family, friends, his playgroup buddies and their mommies, the fantastic teachers at Take-a-Break, the library ladies, and maybe even a few folks out there in cyberspace!

I want to go to this museum--but it hasn't been built yet!

Did you know that plans are underway for an interactive National Museum of Language, an entire building dedicated to, among other topics, language heritage in the US, second language acquisition, languages around the world, and how the brain processes language? They'd also have a writer-in-residence, guest speakers lecturing on how they use language in their jobs, and much more. I may be a word nerd, but this sounds like a fabulous idea to me! Those of you who are raising your children with more than one language might be able to take your kids there by the time they're teenagers. I can't wait! Click here to see an interview with Amelia Murdoch, one of its founders, and here to visit its website.

gratuitous French food picture

Okay, so it's not related to second language acquisition--but ain't it beautiful? It's my first buche de Noel, the traditional French yule log cake.

bilingual kids on prime time television

I caught the series premiere of a show on NBC called Kidnapped tonight simply because it sounded intriguing. Imagine my surprise when the character played by Dana Delaney starts speaking to her young daughter in French, who responds with good French; then she speaks French to her 15-year-old son, who also replies in kind! What struck me was the matter-of-fact way the show portrayed this, like it was perfectly natural for an American mom to converse with her American kids in a foreign language. Their use of French was never addressed in the episode, either (although subtitles were provided for the viewers). And interestingly enough, French rap music was playing as background music in another scene. Now I'm trying to think of other TV shows or movies that have unexpectedly bilingual kids (or bilingual kids at all, for that matter), but we watch so little TV around here that I'm at a loss. Any ideas?