Maman, en français, c'est La Reine des Neiges

“Maman, en français c'est la reine des neiges” [Mama, in French its the snow queen i.e. the name of the Frozen movie in French] proclaimed Poppette yesterday afternoon as she sat around a table with her young English friends singing 'Do you want to build a snowman' and generally getting giddy about the Disney Frozen movie.

Just a few words but so very telling.

Being totally honest and laying my cards on the table, I am at a stage where I am extremely grateful for these small reminders that my children can and do speak French this being despite me and my best efforts to sabbotage the whole thing. Seriously. Over the past two years I have been far from consistent. I take full responsibility as little by little more and more English conversations have sneaked into our life. Partly because of being so busy, partly due to tiredness and laziness and perhaps also a lack of conviction. I remember a chat I had a few months ago with Belgian Maman (those of you who have been following our adventure for a while will recall that Belgian Maman is native French speaker who speaks only English with her two little ones) during which she pointed out the problem I was having was that having allowed a little English to creep in now and again, over time this had snowballed and it had become to feel the norm. I should really be more aware of this as I do tend to have an all or nothing personality. Routine and consistency are key for me.

It seems to be fairly widely acknowledged within the bilingual community that bilingual life can be tiring and takes real commitment even when using ones native language. Going the non-native route is likely to be a little trickier now and again because it’s not just the commitment and consistency that you have to battle with, it’s the lack of words at certain times. I think that, because of this, I have perhaps slipped into letting myself off the hook a little. I’ve used it as an excuse to “cut myself some slack” when, in reality all I have been doing is allowing myself to wander further and further away from my goal.

Crazy.

I implore you not to do the same.

It is not too late for us to recover from this. I know this simply because my children have proved that even though I dropped the ball, they picked it up and ran with it for me.

There are millions of little moments that remind me that they can and do speak French and that they are proud to do so. Such as when they comment on a French story I have just read to them, or when they drop obscure French words into conversation that I may have only used with them once or twice previously, or when we are in the car and they play who knows the most French words, or when one of them proclaims, "Mama, I know how to speak French but X doesn't" or when they are watching French TV and repeat whatever they have just heard even though I would have sworn blind that they weren’t listening. There are so many of these little moments that wouldn’t arise had we not had this dream of a bilingual household.

There are other occasions, however, when there is some resistance. Poppette, for example now refuses to join in with her weekly French class at pre-school. This doesn’t worry me as I think that it’s a boredom issue (chatting about colours and animals and foods etc. each week) although I had hoped she would enjoy the group interaction and signing. She has also started to pretend not to understand something when she clearly does. I’m not sure what makes her do this. She asks questions like “What is cinq [five]?”. I don’t give in to it as I know she knows but it’s a reminder to me that I can’t get away with the lack of consistency in my approach to their language acquisition forever.

Already I know that had I been as consistent over the past two years as I had been over the first two years, then our current language environment would be different. That’s part of the reason for me stepping up to the keyboard today. To share the reality of where our non-native adventure is at the moment and also to set my stall out about where that adventure will lead us next.

In this vein, I came across a great book recently called “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. The premise of the book is that you should choose the one thing in life (or in each area of life) that is of most importance to you and that every decision or choice you make is based on whether or not it brings you closer to that goal. All of a sudden you can begin to see how a myriad of small choices you are making daily serve no real purpose and in no way lead you where you want to be heading. It’s all about being more intentional.

In fact, there’s a great short story that Poppette loves right now that really grabbed my attention recently. It begins “Je suis une petite graine plantee dans la terre….” [I’m a little seed planted in the ground...”]. As I acted the story out with her, doing the actions to represent this tiny seed, uncoiling, growing and stretching towards the sun, I realised that this language that I am sharing with my children is like that little seed. If I water and nurture it, it will most likely become la plus belle fleur du monde [the most beautiful flower in the world] and if I neglect it, deprioritise it and use our majority language instead… that poor little grain is likely to wither and die.

What a shame that would be after four and a half years of effort from our little family.

Back on the blogging horse

Wow, has it really been nearly five months since I wrote anything here on my beloved blog. Seriously, I can't believe it. Life has been a total whirlwind with my feet very rarely touching the floor for long enough for me to keep on top of everyday life, let alone indulge in the luxury of writing a blog post.

The last few times I wrote, I was most definitely feeling unsure as to whether I wanted to carry on speaking French with Poppette and Little Man. Knowing we were due a family holiday to France this August, however, I told myself that I would be a fool to stop before then as I ought at the very least give my children the opportunity to explore what they know (and, of course, show me and hopefully nip all my fears in the bud) whilst totally immersed.

I was right to wait.

Whoever spoke to Poppette, in what ever environment, be it in the local supermarket or pharmacy, the ticket lady on the merry-go-round, our French friends, our next door neighbours, she understood and spoke back to them. It was a crazy feeling to realise that my daughter (who will be 3 years old in less then two month's time) really speaks French and that, had I not pushed myself through the doubting and spoken to to her in French all this time, we would have arrived on holiday and she would have understood 'rien'! Likewise, for Little Man (now 17 months old) who, although he still only has a few French words in his spoken vocabulary, clearly understands French when it is spoken to him.

The holiday was amazing on many levels - I mean, put me in France and watch me float - just being there makes me happy. But to watch my children just fall into being a part of it all. Wow! Watching them play in French with our friends' two little boys (who are French and also French/ English bilinguals) was just brilliant... The game un, deux, trois soleil for one really seems to have stuck with both Poppette and Little Man who still cover their eyes every time they hear the words. Also, our friends spoke only French with my little ones which was priceless.

One day whilst in France, Poppette came to me and said "Maman, je veux manger" [Mummy, I would like something to eat] - until that point, she had always said "Maman, I want manger" so, in my eyes this was a huuuuge step..... the minority language immersion environment helped push the majority language out.

She's gone right back to saying "Maman, I want manger", now were home, but at least I know now that there are words in her head just waiting for the right opportunity to come back out and that this will be just the same with Little Man.

It's back to that old chestnut of just having faith. Believe it will work and it will. Keep working towards your goal. It's not always easy (far from it, at times, to be honest!!) but.... well, the proof is in the pudding.

No Mummy! Speak French!

I'm still really struggling with my own thoughts around carrying on with our bilingual endeavour. I'm pretty tired with all that's going on at work and at home so it doesn't leave huge amounts of time to sit and think all this through rationally! One thing I have decided though, is that I must keep going unless and until I decide to stop. By that I mean, it doesn't make sense to stop speaking French to my children whilst I grapple with whether or not to continue since, if I do plump for continuing, I will have wasted time and potentially confused my children into the bargain.

That said, I have let myself speak English on a few occasions with both children recently. Apart from the nagging pang of guilt that I am letting them and myself down, it actually feels pretty liberating!

However, Poppette (who is now 31 months old) really doesn't seem to like me speaking English with her.

In fact, she positively resists it.

On the few occasions over recent weeks where, for one reason or another, I have chosen to speak English with her she hasn't accepted it at all.

On one of those occasions, I needed to carefully explain to her why what she had done was wrong (as in why it was not good behaviour) and that she shouldn't do it again. I switched to English because of my own fears of not getting the message across right and not wanting to cock up the lesson for her.

Another time it was because she picked up an English language book at story time and, quite honestly, I just didn't have the energy to translate so I started reading in English.

This morning, it was because she asked me a question in English "What's that Mummy?" she said, pointing at a traffic sign. I had a blank... what on earth is traffic sign in French. eek... "It's a sign, baby", I said.

"Non, Maman! Parle en français" [No, Mummy! Speak French!] she demanded just as she had done on each previous occasion.

Obviously I'm pleased! I mean, even when she chooses to speak in English to me, she still wants and expects me to reply in French. I am rather astounded though.

I remember reading somewhere long ago, when I was first weighing up whether I dare embark on our non-native journey towards bilingualism, that bilingual children tend to identify people by the initial language they speak with them and can feel uncomfortable when that person changes language with them. I guess that in Poppette's mind, mummy equals French.

He Really Does Understand

Please pinch me.

Little Man (13 months) had a big weekend this weekend. He moved into his group 1, forward facing car seat and into his own bedroom all in one day and then he showed me that I should stop panicking about whether he hears enough French and just have some faith.

We were in the laundry room and he picked up a sock and showed it to me. I said "C'est une des chausettes de Papa. Tu lui la donnes?" [It's one of Papa's socks, are you going to give it to him?]... He literally turned on his toes and toddled off to give Papa his sock.

My heart swelled.

My Little Man. He's been listening to me babbling to him in French, absorbing the francophone conversations between his sister and me and watching Dans le Jardin des Rêves, Trotro, Bali, Grabouillon, Sam le Pompier et al and storing it all up.

Well done Little Man.

I'm so proud of you!

All Aboard the Language Rollercoaster

Raising bilingual children can be a real rollercoaster. I've heard countless stories of children refusing to speak their minority language for a whole host of reasons, not least because they just 'prefer' the majority language.

Sometimes things seem to be going so well that I feel like I'm flying...On the days where my language skills feel on point, when Little Man (11 months) shows me that he understands what I'm saying when I speak to him in French and when Poppette (28.5 months) chatters away with me in French, singing impromptu French nursery rhymes and repeating lines from her favourite French cartoons.

On other days, that same rollercoaster has me down in the doldrums... self critiquing my every spoken word and my accent and questioning the very reason we pursue this bilingual goal for our family.

Now that Poppette expresses her own opinions and desires more and more, this creates another language rollercoaster.....the big dip last week came one evening when she point blank refused to let me read to her in French - "Pas français, Maman. Anglais! Non! Anglais!".... I capitulated and then spent the next few days panicking that this was the beginning of some slippery slope which would culminate, somewhere down the line, in Poppette refusing to speak French.

Looking back with a more objective mind, perhaps it was just another case of her expressing her individuality and right to make a choice just like she does everyday when she refuses to eat whatever was her favoutire food the day before or to wear what was, until that point, her favourite t-shirt.

Who knows!

Since then we've been on an extraordinary up ! So much so that I've been having to pinch myself every now and again.

Poppette has been really upping her French with me to the point of about 95% of all our communications. She even comes bounding in from English speaking nursery and switches immediately into speaking to me in French.

The morning after her insistence upon an English story, Poppette was watching Jake et les Pirates du Pays Imaginaire (Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and exclaimed "Oh Oh Maman, Crochet a piqué le coquillage d'Issey" [Oh oh Mummy, Captain Hook has pinched Issey's shell"].... I breathed a sigh of relief that it may not all be over just yet and gave her a big old hug.

I was really quite amazed this weekend when Poppette, who was really quite ill with a sickness bug, still maintained her French with me. I would have expected her to perhaps slip into English.... possibly because that's what I wanted to do in the first instance. In fact, when she first became ill, I actually spoke to her for a few moments in English, just to satisfy myself that I knew what was going on and that she was ok. I don't think I need have bothered. She is quite capable of telling me (and often in full sentences these days) what's going on.

Another indication that Poppette really does understand the fact that she is surrounded by two languages came this weekend when I was reading Mireille l'Abeille (Thanks for the recommendation Tallulah) to her. She pointed at the words on the page, looked up at Papa and said (in English) "It's French look! Papa can't read it" :D





I have resolved to try and be less reactive to these ups and downs and to remember that everything is a phase and that just as it's not helpful to let the downs dent my confidence nor is it a great idea to let the highs make me complacent because as sure as eggs is eggs there will be more tests around the corner!

Do bilingual children ever think in their minority language?

Recently I find myself often wondering what language Poppette (who is 26.5 months old) thinks in. I imagine it's mostly, if not entirely, in her majority language but I could be totally wrong and have no way of actually finding out.

Her language ability in both her languages is impressive and she often translates for the other parent if she's had a conversation with one of us and wants or needs to talk about the same thing with the other. She is also expressing an understanding of the fact that Papa speaks English and Mummy speaks French and usually, when faced with an object she hasn't come across before, she will ask us both what it is and will be both wanting and expecting to hear two different words.

I know that, when I am speaking French, I'm not translating from English in my head but I also know that, when I'm sat ruminating,  I do it in English. I think that's pretty standard for someone who learnt their languages consecutively rather than simultaneously. But....If you learn both languages at the same time which one do you think in? A bit of both perhaps?

I'd really like to hear from anyone out there with experience or knowledge on this topic and, if you have bilingual children, perhaps you could ask them and let me know what they say :D

Non-Native Thought for the Day #4

As I heard Poppette (25.5 months) "reading" out loud to herself in French recently, it struck me that there are ways in which her use of her minority language can be optimised. As you can imagine, this brought quite a smile to my face :D

When I say "reading", I mean that Poppette was telling herself the story from memory as she looked at the pages in her book. Toddler's memories are like sponges and Poppette has memorised loads of her favourite stories.

Some of Poppette and Little Man's books are in both languages, others are in just one. Where Poppette has only heard a story in French, naturally, when she "reads" it to herself, she does so in French.... and when I think about it, it's obviously the same for experiences that she has only experienced in French too such as un tour de manège [a ride on the merry go round] which she excitedly chatters about all the time at the moment.

So....my new non-native resolution is to try and step up the new experiences and language learning opportunities that we have and help Poppette to learn about these things in French first. I'm really hoping that this will help to keep the language as alive as possible, give Poppette a very good reason to continue to speak French and, hopefully, help to prevent the English immersion experience at nursery from overpowering our bilingual endeavour.

Le soleil se cache derrière les nuages...The sun is hiding behind the clouds

Two weeks after her 2nd birthday, Poppette spoke her first gramatically correct four word sentence. She was happily drinking her milk first thing in the morning when Little Man started to grumble to let us know that he was also rather hungry....Poppette looked over to him and announced "Bébé boit milk too" i.e. Baby drinks milk too.

I was really pleased on two levels...obviously from a language perspective this is fab...she may have mixed up her languages but she did so perfectly!! and I was also chuffed to bits at the obvious care and concern Poppette has for her younger brother.

Poppette is now almost 25 months old and her language is coming on in leaps and bounds. Papa has actually said recently that Poppette now often says things in French that he cannot understand. This is not a problem for him as he feels it is a small price to pay in exchange for his children getting the gift of bilingualism. It does, however, indicate that Poppette is beggining to use more complex vocabulary.

Yesterday we were in the car when she exclaimed "soleil cache derrière nuages" i.e. le soleil se cache derrière les nuages [the sun is hiding behind the clouds]. To be honest, she couldn't have timed it better as I have been a little despondent about this whole bilingual endeavour over the past few weeks. It can be quite exhausting always trying to think around ways to chat about things that you may never have thought about before in your second language. It can feel like trying to cram for a test.....every day. Add to that the fact that research suggests that the more the majority language exposure increases at the expense of the minority language the more of an upward struggle you will have to maintain your child's bilingualism.....and, well, it can feel like you're onto a losing battle. Both Poppette and Little Man will be in nursery 5 days a week from January :(

Rather than wallow in the why it might not work blues.... I am writing this post as a reminder to myself of just how far we have come in the two short years since my daughter's birth.

Poppette can count to ten in both English and French and does so all the time. I'd love to peak inside her head to see what influences her decision to pick one language over the other when she is playing alone.

We are still working on colours in both languages.  She definitley knows rouge/red in both languages  - as for the other colours, some days she gets them right and other days she doesn't so sometimes I am unsure whether she may just have guessed really well :D. Her knowledge of colours is definitley stronger in English right now.

We have been having regular playdates with a really lovely little French girl (5 months Poppette's senior) over the past few months. They play so well together, running around holding hands and giggling. It's such a pleasure to watch their friendship blossom. I have been really happy to note that when this young girl's mum chats away in French with Poppette, she understands perfectly. A good friendship has blossomed between us mamans too. Unfortunately, a move back to France in on the cards for them next month so our get togethers will have to come to an end.

Poppette's favourite mot du jour since this weekend is d'accord [ok]. She just came out with it whilst we were chatting and has not stopped saying it since.... much better than her other favourite word "noooooooo"!!!

At the moment she vascilates between speaking loads of French with me (about 80/20) to speaking about 50/50. That said, she only seems to speak French to other people if she doesn't know a word in English or perhaps favours the French word. Her language with Papa in the main is English although, although she peppers her converstaions with him with French words and phrases...some of which Papa understands and others that he doesn't.

I am trying to lift my game as far as Little Man is concerned and try to speak to him exclusively in French now. It still feels a little alien at times but I know it felt just the same when Poppette was tiny too.

Non-Native Thought for the Day #2

As sure as eggs is eggs, if you are your child's sole input in the minority language, they will absorb and repeat any pronunciation errors you make.

What a depressing thought.

I have noticed recently that, sometimes, Poppette exaggerates her French 'R'. Particularly when saying words like 'Trou' [hole], 'Trotteur' [Baby Walker], 'Mer' [sea] and 'Par Terre' [on the floor].

Guess what.... I feel really bad about this.

It's bizarre really, because when I hear Poppette mispronounce a word in English, I don't bat an eyelid... I just accept that that's the way things start out when little ones are learning to speak. I  get much more caught up on the French side of things is because she has a much smaller sphere of input i.e. mainly me.

A simple answer to the problem came from another non-native Maman friend of mine when I asked for her advice on the issue. She simply said, 'Practice, practice and, then, practice some more'. So... practicing I am.

Two things spring to mind.

The first is a real conundrum - When I speak French to adults, I don't seem to have this pronunciation problem. It only seems to exist in my 'child friendly voice'....(you know, that slower, more deliberate and higher pitched voice that seems to come out when you address a baby or toddler no matter what language you are speaking). It crossed my mind to try to chat to Poppette and Little man as though I were chatting to an adult friend... but it just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure what the answer is....

The second thought is a lot more positive - Just over a week ago Poppette suddenly started to say 'peinture' [paint], 'ceinture' [belt] and 'voiture' [car]' correctly, whereas she had previously always  pronounced the 'ure' at the end of such words as  'choos' e.g. peintchoos.  I was beaming...and still am. This makes me feel that all will be well in the world. Provided Poppette is exposed to correctly pronounced words, she will self correct over time. So, if I can either iron out my own foibles or increase Poppette's exposure to other Francophones or, ideally both, then we are on to a winner.

Whilst on the topic of increased exposure to the minority language, I have to say that, although I have always been dubious as to whether DVDs could provide valuable language input, I am starting to believe that they can. Poppette only watches cartoons in French and her and Little Man listen to French nursery rhyme Cd's and francophone children's radio stations. Just recently, Poppette has started to show that she knows words to rhymes she has heard and from cartoons she has watched. So, I can stop flogging myself to death for letting my children watch cartoons and pat myself on the back for giving them a minority language fix! Fabulous!

UPDATE 4th October 2012

I'm feeling quite buoyed after a chat with Belgian Maman (who you can read a little more about here and here), earlier this week, about Poppette's current over emphasis of the French R.... It turns out that her son went through a phase of doing exactly the same thing (making the R sound gutteral and almost Germanic).

Bearing in mind that Belgian Maman's little boy is being raised by two native French speakers (albeit that Belgian Maman only speaks her non-native English with him) in the French speaking part of Belgium, it leads me to wonder whether this is an altogether more common occurrence during early French language acquisition and not necessarily linked to our non-native situation.....

Non-native Bilingualism - My Top Five Tips

Recently, I was asked to share my top tips for those considering non-native bilingualism by the author of an upcoming ebook relating to multilingualism.

This got me thinking what a great blog post that could make and what a wonderful way for me to give a few tips to others whilst thanking those that have done the same for me.

When I first even considered the prospect of speaking French with my children, I did a lot of research (for those of you that know me... this will come as no surprise....oooh how I love research).

I would definitely credit a couple of really kind and helpful people for giving me the courage to get started. Papa of Papa et Piaf, Sarah of Bringing up Baby Bilingual, Corey Heller of Multilingual Living fame..... each of these people, despite never having met me, took the time and effort to respond to my queries, writing helpful encouraging personal emails to me and that is something I will be forever grateful for.

Once I got started, I came accross more and more people out there with shared goals and visions, people who had already begun wandering the same or a similar path, that were only too happy to provide advice, encouragement and personal stories. One person in particular - (Tamara... it's time for you to stand up and be counted - and I do apologise for making you blush since you are, indeed, hosting this month's carnival for which I am penning this very post) - got me through the extreme wobbles that epitomised the first 6 months or so of our journey.

Since then, I have "met" many many more wonderful, inspiring people.

So, onto my tips. I would say that for me, the following things have been invaluable:-

1 Build a support circle of like minded people.

My blog has helped hugely here. Through it I have connected with so many people I otherwise wouldn't had the fortune to connect with.

Also, I have found that utilising resources such as the forum on the Mulitilingual Living website has really helped to find like minded people.

I have also made real efforts to grow my circle of friends to include more french speakers or people interested in language.

2 Avoid people and situations that stunt your language use - at least when you first start out.

If there are situations or certain people that zap your confidence to speak your second language, then my advice is stay clear of them until you no longer feel that way. Seriously, I just always remind myself of the bigger picture and our ultimate goal of having bilingual children and think why should I let naysayers (or my reaction to them) jeopordise that?

Also, I remember just how self conscious I used to be speaking French to my English daughter in England in public. Don't let that stop you. Don't let your own insecurities deprive you and derail you. It is a fair assumption that the very people you think might be laughing at your language ability are actually rather impressed or at least intruiged - and the majority probably don' speak your second language fluently enough to hear any mistakes you might be making anyway.

3 Build your resources.

There are so many great resources out there - things to suit everyones taste and language learning/ language consumption preferences.

There's lots of free stuff online plus of course there are millions of books, DVDs, CDs and bilingual toys etc.

As a non-native, my experience has been that I am often learning niche language alongside my children or just ahead of them and so resources that they enjoy using have often first been devoured by me.

4 Practice practice practice.

At first my language use felt a little artificial. Now, due to having spoken french everyday for upwards of the past 17 months, it has become second nature and I would go as far as saying it feels artificial if I have to speak english with my daughter as I am not used to doing so.

Also, take any opportunity you have to listen to or speak your second language wth others.

5 Remember that language is only one part of your relationship with your children.

It is very easy to get caught up in the whole bilingual enterprise to a degree that you no longer see the wood for the trees. It's good to sit back and take stock now and again. A fun and loving relationship has to come first. If you are lucky enough to be able to throw an extra language into that then great.

If you are interested in looking a little deeper into how things work in our home from a bilingual perspective, you can pop over to Gato et Canard (gatoandcanard.blogspot.co.uk) and read a recent interview I did with its host Annabelle - "Multilingualism in my family (Nichola's Story)".

Word Count

At 19 months old, Poppette has a spoken vocabulary of 67 words (this doesn't include the words she says when copying others - of which there are many). Of these 67 words, 25 are French and 42 English. Here's the list for anyone who is interested.

Interestingly, so far she seems to have mostly chosen only one word per object and I cannot work out how she makes the choice of which language to take these words from. It doesn't seem to relate the difficulty of pronunciation, as she says things like chaussures rather than shoes. Likewise, it doesn't seem to be based on groups of sounds as she says bateau rather than boat but cake rather than gâteau....

As Papa rightly says, it makes no difference to Poppette which word she chooses - at least not when she is at home, as she will be understood either way and to her there is no diffrence as she doesn't yet realise she speaks two separate languages. I would be interested to know whether if, when she fails to be understood at nursery using a French word, she switches to the English equivalent or not.

I have heard many parents who are raising bilingual children say that when they speak the minority langage to their child, the child responds in the majority language. I can understand why this happens and this, for the time being at least, is exactly what is happening in our house. Whenever I ask Poppette a question, although I will have spoken to her in French, she will either reply 'Yes' in English, or simply shake her head. I am eager to know whether this will change over the next few months as she will be spending more time with me and thus, more time surrounded by the French langauge.

I recently read a fellow blogger's post about not taking your children's bilingualism too personally. I have to say... for me this is not easy. I feel I have so much invested in this. I have to keep reminding myself that this is just one aspect of our life, our family and who we are and that realistically it is just a small part of who my children are. Surely, it's much easier not to take it too personally once you know you have suceeded in your goal.....We are certainly on the right track and I am proud of us for making this choice and sticking to it.

Minority Language Playdates

Minority language playdates are the things that dreams are made of. Unfortunately, for Poppette and I, they are also rather rare at the moment.

Some French friends of ours have a little boy who is one month younger than Poppette and is being raised bilingual French/ English using the Mother Language at Home technique. These friends used to live close by but unfortunately, due to work commitments, moved to another city recently :(

Anyhow, just over a week ago they came to visit for the day... a fabulous day where only French was spoken.

The great thing to come out of this for Poppette is that she had lots of fun.

The great thing to come out of it for me was that I got to see first hand that my daughter truly does understand French even when spoken by someone other than her maman.

Si je dis des bêtises, il faut me pardonner....Forgive me if i'm talking nonesense...

They say that, in order to help a child learn to speak, you should talk to them and then talk, talk and talk some more. Surely it then follows that, if you want to help a child to speak a minority language (i.e. French) in a majority language community (i.e. England), you need to speak to them in the minority language even more.

This is the reason for my constant (often inane) blathering.

It dawned on me today that, if anyone were to overhear the incessant monologue I direct towards my darling daughter, they would more than likely mistake me for a crazy person :-)

I mean, in reality, there are only a certain amount of things you can usefully say to a baby... "Come on darling, let's go change your nappy." etc so I took the decision not only to narrate to Poppette what I or we are doing but to try and play games which can be verbalised such as today's game of hide and seek with Madame La Grenouille (Mrs Frog)... "Allez Poppette, tu veux jouer à cache-cache? C'est moi qui compte... un, deux, trois" (Hey Poppette, do you want to play hide and seek? I'll count... one, two, three"). The amount of words you can get into a game like this is unbelieveable... "Où est-ce qu'elle se cache la Poppette? Est-ce qu'elle est dans le frigo...non. Est-ce qu'elle est sous son lit?... non"... (Where is Poppette hiding? Is she in the fridge... no. Is she under her bed?...no.) You get the idea.

Sometimes I catch her looking at me with the most bemused look on her face. She clearly knows I'm talking rubbish!!!