Cleo - a few more French questions...

[Nan in Mass]

My sister has been sick and so I've had my nephew more than usual lately. His French is improving and mine is stretching GRIN. He now says "encore" when he wants more or for me to do something again, and will say "chantes" when he wants me to sing for him, and he understood we were going swimming at the Y when I explained, even with no English at all! I had no idea that so few hours a week would actually work even this much! So now I'm wondering about a few other words.

 

What do you say when you walk a toddler up and down the stairs? In English, we say, "Up, up, up, up, up,..." making the voice go up with each step, and "Down, down, down,..." Is it, "En haut, en haut, ..., en bas, en bas"?

 

And what about "all gone" as in the scary dinosaur isn't there any more? I assume you say, "Finis" for "All gone" as in you've eaten all your cheerios and I'm not going to give you any more.

 

And "I put the scary dinosaur in the upper bunk bed. Yes, he bites, but he can't bit you any more."

 

And "Mummy went to buckle your car seat into the car. She'll be right back and take you home."

 

And two other important baby words in our family that save tons of frustration - "stuck" and "broken". Coince? Casse?

 

Thank you!

-Nan

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

What do you say when you walk a toddler up and down the stairs? In English, we say, "Up, up, up, up, up,..." making the voice go up with each step, and "Down, down, down,..." Is it, "En haut, en haut, ..., en bas, en bas"?

 

Actually, people I know will count steps instead. Un deux trois quatre etc...

Otherwise "monte, monte, monte" et "descend descend descend" is used.

 

And what about "all gone" as in the scary dinosaur isn't there any more?

 

Parti!

 

I assume you say, "Finis" for "All gone" as in you've eaten all your cheerios and I'm not going to give you any more.

 

Exact, "fini" is used here. Although 'parti' would be tolerated in a toddler and a young child. It's not technically correct, but most children will use it that way for a short while.

 

And "I put the scary dinosaur in the upper bunk bed. Yes, he bites, but he can't bit you any more."

 

J'ai mis le dinosaure sur le lit d'en haut. Oui, il mord, mais il ne peut plus te mordre.

 

And "Mummy went to buckle your car seat into the car. She'll be right back and take you home."

 

Maman est partie installer ton siège d'auto. Elle va revenir tout de suite et t'amener à la maison.

 

And two other important baby words in our family that save tons of frustration - "stuck" and "broken". Coince? Casse?

 

Cassé and Coincé (with accented letter :p) are fine.

 

Thank you!

-Nan

[Guest Amy in MS]

You may be interested in babybilingual.blogspot.com

 

My friend has been speaking solely in French to her nephew, whom she babysits 2 times a week since his birth. She keeps a blog of families raising bilingual children, keep up on the research and resources. She was also a French lecturer at a state university.

 

She's just had her first baby (last week) and she's going to be blogging about raising him in her second language (French).

 

YOu may get a lot from the archives.

 

I too have children (4) and I've spoken French to them since birth, but I've broken down my resolve a bit. They do well enough, but now, with my oldest, I've actually gone to an actual French curriculum -- Il etais une petite grenouille from continentalbook.com (a great resource for foreign language curricula).

Amy

[Nan in Mass]

Thank you! Sorry about the lack of accents.

[Nan in Mass]

I thought I was totally crazy when I first thought up the idea of teaching my children French by just plain speaking it with them, but then I ran across the bilingual family board and realized I wasn't, although I doubt anyone else is crazy enough to do it with such poor French or such old children. It is fun to meet other people who are trying to do this. My biggest challenge at the moment is trying to speak French to my 17yo. What I need to tell him is so complicated it is beyond my French. I don't need to tell him the simple things anymore. Even with my 13yo, I've sort of stopped speaking French. I got him to the point where he could read French and now I'm just having him read books to himself. I'm using my nephew to try to help us go back to it, at least a bit, especially since the 17yo wants to try again to learn before he goes off to college. Both of mine are more willing to speak French to the baby than to me.

 

I think I might have emailed with your friend when my nephew was first born. At that point, I thought the amount of time I spent with him would definately not be enough for him to pick up any French, but happily, I've discovered I was totally wrong about that. Tell your friend for me that it is actually working!!! So now his mother and I are suddenly motivated to try to up his input and I have to get some tapes of French songs and books for her to play to him every day. I don't want him picking up my horrible accent.

 

Are you on the bilingual family emailing list?

 

-Nan

[Lucy in Australia]

Nan, this is a bit off topic, but I just wanted to thank you for all the time you take to post so encouragingly and to share your experience with us. You probably won't even remember this, but years ago I posted with a question on how to best teach a foreign language to your children and you explained how you started French with your boys. That information alone was more valuable than any book or programme that I got. It's working so well (and even better when I'm consistent:o) and my boys actually remind me to do it - it seems they enjoy it, who knew!

 

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate hearing from someone who's "been there, done that" as my boys are a few years behind yours. Blessings to you!:)

[Nan in Mass]

That's great! I'm currently working on finding a college student to speak French with my youngest while we wait for my older one to do his community college classes. He's well beyond my French now. He's been reading children's fantasy at about the Harry Potter level in French, but his oral French is quite a lot behind that. He understands spoken French well, as we discovered when we spent a weekend in Quebec. I'm amazed we've gotten so far! Now we're trying to figure out how to add Arabic. He's doing the Pimsleur tapes this year, but then I think I'm going to have to find a real live person, someone with teaching experience preferably, or a class, to take him further. And in another year, he'll be through his Latin text and will switch to just reading Latin. So the plan for high school is to just read literature in Latin, French, and English, TWEM-style (which we're already doing in English and I know works well), and have Arabic as a foreign language. I think that will keep us from getting crunched time-wise with too many language courses. We'll see how it works out. He's 13 now.

 

Thanks for letting me know how it is going. I always wonder. Giving advice is rather scary.

-Nan

[C_l_e_0..Q_c]

Are you on the bilingual family emailing list?

 

 

What list?

I'm raising bilingual kids too, after all ;)

[Nan in Mass]

biling-fam@nethelp.no

 

It is something you subscribe to, so I'm not sure this is the right address for subscribing. If you can't figure it out, let me know and I'll look in my records and figure out how I subscribed.

 

-Nan