He pushes the button on the Baby LeapPad, a little gift from my American friend. To get it started he pushes a button and he continues pushing it off and on and off and on over and over. He may break it so I probably should take it away, but he's having fun. He's entertained.
Each time it says "Goodbye" in English he chirps "voir-voir," "voir-voir" * as if he has to correct it. He already knows both words in his head, amazingly he can interchange them.
I never speak French to him. He isn't in daycare. We don't watch tv.
He's just decided to be French and that's that. It's his préference.
Language never ceases to fascinate me.
*voir-voir=au revoir
11 comments:
My two girls are different in the was the handle being bilingual. Petite Clown speaks both language while swinging back and forth between to two...French for a few months and then English. For a long time French was easier but now at three and a half English seems easier for her.
Petite Clown is more fluent in French but does speak and understand English. She spoke full sentences in French at one and a half but only now in English. Petite Clown only now is really speaking either language comfortably in sentences.
I have to wait to see how Boy Blue handles it.
It is funny that even kids in the same family are different.
I think French sounds are easier than English for children. Just a guess from what I have seen in my own children. He'll speak English too if you keep talking to him only in English. Petite Clown came around finally.
I meant...my two girls are different in the ways they handle being biling :)
I cant type today!
My girls would only speak in french, even though I almost always speak to them in english. My oldest, around the age of 6, finally started answering me in english. And now her sister, who is almost 6, is doing the same thing. But, they have a sacré french accent!
We use the 'no-method' method and that worked too. Leon is prefectly bi-lingual with a French French accent and an English English accent.
And if the roles were reversed -- you being a French mother in the States -- his mother tongue would be English. ;-)
My kids speak English to me (when they were small and tested French on me, I'd say "I can't understand you") French at school, to their dad, and with other bilingual friends. French is their mother tongue. And that's okay.
I guess what I find odd in all of this is that he's with me so much and he only hears French on the weekend when his dad addresses him directly and when we go out to shops a little during the day. Otherwise I'm at home chatting to friends in English, playing English music and speaking to him in English. He only chooses to say French words though! He has never repeated anything in English.
It's really fun to watch a baby learn to speak two languages at once! I'm in awe of the process.
Very cute! I have an American friend who speaks English to her little girl, while her French husband speaks French. Little So seems to be speaking a bit of both at 3yrs old. And when my husband and I go over to visit, she speaks to him in French, and me in English. Kids never cease to amaze me!
Until 2 years ago, my boys only spoke English as we lived first in the UK and then South Africa...now they naturally speak French to me and I have to insist that they switch to English - French is becoming their mother tongue - it's good in a way, but it irritates me a lot.
Once you'll take him too the States for a bit longer than two weeks, he will start to speak english. The most important is that he UNDERSTANDS when you talk to him.
I think it is great, and wonderful. You won't have to worry because he'll certainly have both languages and I'm sure you just speak to him in English and maybe for now he's just rebelling already and only wants to speak French.
The 2 year old I was teaching English too always told me "pas ca" meaning that I shouldn't be speaking in English as he found it weird. We would watch films in English and he always wanted to hear in French instead. What's great is they can be set to learn multiple languages quickly, which I think is the greatest gift ever.
It all comes in time I suppose but I'm sure your little guy knows what you are saying. :)
The first word my daughter said was Maman. I cried.
After that she never uttered a French word to me again.
I don't think they two are related.
My children grew up in an enviorment like you have described...
Though they never falter, English with English, French with French, and Mommy is my name after 16 years!
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