How much time does my child need to be exposed to his minority language?

If you are looking for an answer to that title, let me tell you straight away, this article is not going to tell you. Recently, however, there has been an (alarming) number of articles and posts on the internet, aimed at parents raising mutlilingual children, claiming that a child needed to be exposed to, on average, a minimum of 30% of their awake time to the minority language in order for him/her to be able to use that language.

Silent Sunday

Bisous? 1, 2, 3, 4? French greetings: how many kisses?

Greeting a French person is always a tricky business. French people love kisses. They greet each other with kisses everywhere, on all occasions (or almost). Even men kiss each other when they meet. Now, having lived abroad for most of my adult life, I am not so used to it any more and get caught 'forgetting' and would rather shake hands than have a sweaty man's face touching mine!! 

5 tips for the grandparents of your multilingual child

reading with 'Mamie'

Being the grandparent of a multilingual child must be tough at times. As parents, most of us chose to speak more than one language to our child (partly) because that would enable our children to communicate more easily with their grandparents. This is especially important if the grandparents are monolinguals. Yet, things don't always turn out the way we want. 

Silent Sunday

Playgrounds in Karlsruhe

In a world of health and safety gone mad, minimising any risk for our children, providing a clean and safe environment, and not letting them touch anything, German playgrounds are a breath of fresh air. Coming from Britain (where health and safety is getting beyond ridiculous), we instantly loved the playgrounds here. 

our local playground

Multilingualism in my family: Adam's story

In our monthly instalment of Multilingualism in my family, we meet Adam and his family in Japan.
Adam and his wife are raising their two children to be bilingual: Japanese and English. You may already be familiar with Adam's blog which is full of very helpful resources and tips for parents of multilingual children. Adam tells us how reading is at the heart of his family's language strategy. I admire his dedication (making videos of yourself speaking the minority language - woah!!!).

Triligual road sign in Japan - via Flickr

Silent Sunday

A day at the Portuguese consulate (part 2): a medal for bad service

In a previous post, I wrote about how our wedding was an administrative minefield for our respective countries' representatives. To be fair though, so far, the medal for worse consulate services has to be awarded to the Portuguese consulate in Manchester, UK. Admittedly, I am writing this despite me being a portuguese citizen. But being married to one, I have had to deal with them and my husband agrees with this anyway.

I won't tell you the story about them taking over 3 weeks to reply to emails. I won't write about how they make you retake any photo you bring them, no matter how much you think they comply with all the standards in the world. I won't tell you about the original document they refused to give back to a friend despite having no right in keeping it and how they sent that document to be archived in Lisbon and our friend having to pay a lawyer to get it back.

Le Vaisseau, Strasbourg: "science while having fun" for 3 to 15 year olds

Any place whose mission statement is: "science while having fun" sounds like a great place to go on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Le Vaisseau (literally meaning the ship) is not a science museum. It is not an indoor playground. It is a bit of both. And you want to know the best thing about it, it is a proper multilingual place!

From linguist to mum: looking back

There is a saying in French that goes : il n'y a que les imbéciles qui ne changent pas d'avis, meaning only idiots don't change their mind. Judging by this saying, I am no idiot because I do change my mind (very) often. When it comes to language acquisition and raising my daughter multilingually, my views, opinions and decisions have changed quite a bit since she was born. This is due to two things. Firstly, as any mother or parent, you imagine how life is going to be with your first born, you dream of things (good or bad) but reality is often far from that image you had. Secondly, before I had my daughter, I was a researcher in language acquisition. As such, I had a good knowledge of what the theories behind the development of multilingual kids were. I had, however, very little hands on experience.

A day at the Portuguese consulate (part 1): where is Europe when you need it?

As expats, we have had our fair share of dealing with our respective country's embassies for a whole range of administrative formalities: from a simple registration to registering a birth. Most of the visits are simple and get us what we wanted (or even sometimes more than we bargained for) if a little time-consuming.

Why we like living in Germany: our top 9 best reasons

I think I may have been a little negative lately about Germany and German habits. You see, I have criticised the Germans clothing habits and their rudeness. As most expats will tell you, living in a new country has ups and downs and adjusting to a new way of life takes time. I think our family was/is experiencing what some call a culture shock. Yes, it is possible to have culture shock within Europe.

Karlsruhe

Our favourite multilingual Ipad apps for toddlers and young children

Finding quality multilingual iPad apps for young children (or any child) is a challenge. There are so many poor quality ones out there but you don't know until you have downloaded them if they are any good for you.

Code-switching: can it affect your child?

Code-switching or language mixing as it is sometimes referred to is the use of more than one language in a word, sentence or discussion. For example, my daughter says things like:

C'est meine Präsens.
J'ai oublié de abspullen.
Maman, elle va préparer le banho.
C'est bonita.

It is often believed that code-switching is a bad thing. Most people think that they do it because their brain is lazy or they can't think of the word in the other language or that they are just not proficient enough in any of the two languages. This may, in some cases, be true, but for linguists, code-switching is actually a very complex and advanced phenomenon with rules and linguistic restrictions. So, if you do code-switch, you are actually performing a very complex task. It requires a very large amount of linguistic competence and is usually a good indicator of the said competence (see this great video of young adults switching between Japanese and English).

Multilingualism in action: language update

I thought it was time for a little language update about our daughter. And I couldn't resist posting this little soundtrack of LJ, now 37 months old, speaking German, English and French while playing (recorded a couple of weeks ago).

Multilingualism in my family: Leanna's story

In our monthly instalment of Multilingualism in my family, we meet Leanna, her two monkeys and her husband. No, Leanna does not have two pet monkeys at home. Monkeys are the terms she uses to refer to her boys on her blog.
She and her hsuband are raising their sons to be bilingual Spanish and English in the USA. I can relate to Leanna's comment about switching the parental language. Great in theory, but difficult in practice when you are used to doing it one way.

Death Valley, USA restrooms sign - Jim Crossley via Flickr

Post aus meiner Küche: childhood memories

The regular readers may remember when I wrote about a food exchange I took part in in December. The lovely ladies from Post aus meiner Küche organise 3 or 4 times a year a food packet exchange. It is a German affair although neighbouring countries are now taking part too.
The premise for this exchange is the following: a theme is set and you are assigned a partner. You must send that person a parcel containing up to 5 delicious items you have cooked. This time round the theme is childhood memories, “Kindheitserinnerungen”.

Teaching our children politically-incorrect nursery rhymes

J'ai du bon tabac dans ma tabatière,

[I have good tobacco in my snuff box,]
J'ai du bon tabac, tu n'en auras pas.

[I have good tobacco and you will get none.]
J'en ai du fin et du bien râpé,

[I have some fine, and some well-shredded,]
Mais ce n'est pas pour ton vilain nez !

[But they are not for your ugly nose.]
J'ai du bon tabac dans ma tabatière,

[I have good tobacco in my snuff box,]
J'ai du bon tabac, tu n'en auras pas.

[I have good tobacco and you will get none.]

This is how the chorus of a popular French nursery rhyme goes. This song is on a recent CD we borrowed from the library. I knew this song from my childhood and still remembered the lyrics. However, I found myself a little shocked and unable to sing it to my daughter. She is 3! She doesn't even really know what a cigarette is, let alone tobacco and snuff boxes. I let her listen to it, but felt I couldn't really teach it to her. So, we moved on to the next one!

Lanzarote with a family: black sand, volcano and no attraction parks

Black or yellow sandy beaches, volcanoes, camels, crabbing and plenty of swimming: this was the program for our fun-filled days in Lanzarote. Going on holiday to a very popular destination doesn't have to mean you have to do the same as everybody else! During our week there, we managed to avoid all themed and often costly attraction parks. While we have nothing against them, water parks and other themed attraction parks are everywhere in the world and we much prefer to show our daughter, 3, the animals, the rocks, the mountains, the fruits, or the sand of the place we are visiting.

Roule Galette: a French version of the Gingerbread Man story

Today, I review the French version of the Gingerbread Man story: Roule galette.

Our secret language

My husband and I speak a secret language. This language is probably not secret to you (since you are reading this blog) but it is secret to our daughter. We speak a language together that our other little family member does not speak (so far) and only understands a few basic words.