kaiser@furilo.DEC (Pete Kaiser, 225-5441, HLO2-1/N10) (08/09/85)
Last fall there was a discussion about bilingualism and raising children
bilingually. As part of that discussion I posted an article embodying obser-
vations of my daughter Mireille, now 3-2/3 years old, whom Luce and I have been
raising in French and English. Here are a few more notes (if there's any sig-
nificant demand, I can repost the old article; or I'll mail it to anyone who
asks [and who provides a usable address!]).
It's clear that French is Mimi's primary language, but this isn't to say that
she has a deficit in her English -- far from it! If anything, I detect it in
how very clearly she enunciates and phrases things in English. And once during
the winter, when she had an ear infection and could hardly sleep or be com-
forted, she told me she was "too tired" to speak English.
But since Mimi gets her French nearly entirely from Luce, and some from me, I've
wondered how her French would stand up in a wider French-speaking environment.
Well, Luce and Mimi are in France for most of the summer, and I just spent my
two weeks of vacation with them. And it's obvious that Mimi speaks excellent
French by any standard applicable to children her age. More than once I over-
heard French adults, unaware that she's bilingual, remark to each other about
the quality of Mimi's French; some of them said it to Luce and me. I'm guessing
that one reason Mimi's French is so good is that she's learned it entirely from
adults who've never spoken baby talk with her. On the other hand, what she has
to say is appropriate for [very intelligent] children her age, even though she
couches it in unusually good speech. The effect, I gather, is charming. I can
hardly claim to be a dispassionate judge of that, though.
She does make some errors now of language mixing, but she also jokes with the
two languages, and sometimes simply chooses to use a word or phrase of English
in with the French, even though she knows perfectly well how to say the same
thing entirely in French.
One unwitting error: "Marie m'a pushe'," [Marie pushed me.] rather than
"Marie m'a pousse'." From English "push", of course.
One deliberate error: "Comme il a un fat belly!" [What a fat belly he
has!] And when I ask her whether "fat belly" is French or American, she
tells me it's American, and that the French is "gros ventre". She just
likes the phrase "fat belly".
And in France, other than the few such kinds of things mentioned above, she
chooses to speak only French, although there are opportunities for her to speak
English if she chooses -- with American visitors, for instance.
I'm glad Mimi has the chance to spend the time in France, even though I miss her
and Luce a lot. Would anyone like to bake me some brownies?
---Pete
Kaiser%BELKER.DEC@decwrl.arpa
{allegra|decvax|ihnp4|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-belker!kaiser
DEC, 77 Reed Road (HLO2-1/N10), Hudson MA 01749 617-568-5441