An increasing generation of trans-national couples, often residing in a third host culture, is faced with their kids growing up multilingual. This blog aims at monitoring the language development of kids from parents of different nationalities and understand their cultural/emotional affiliation.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Will be back soon....
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Dear Clo,
I really found your blog very interesting as I was researching online for multilinguism and toddlers.
My daughter Farah will turn two in October and she already understands Arabic and English.
Just to give you an idea about the culture mix she is facing:
We live in Egypt. Her father is 100% Syrian but who has been living in Egypt all of his life. I am half Egyptian, half Polish.
My husband and I, we both graduated from French schools in Cairo and then we completed our undergraduate degree in English at the American University in Cairo. We also lived in the US for a good bit so we interchange Arabic and English when we speak and this how Farah is ending up talking mixing the two languages.
We would love for Farah to go to a French school as we love the language and the French schools in Egypt offer quality education. It is also an asset to have another language beside English.
My dilemna now is how to introduce French to my daughter given all of the above. We use some French words here and there with her but I have not been so systematic. Is it too late to introduce French or should I wait till she goes to school?
Adding to the mix, my mom sometimes speaks to her in Polish and her parental grandma speaks to her in Syrian Arabic (dialect of Arabic).
I just wish we are not confusing our little girl with too many languages.
Miranda, Votre fille apprendra le français comme vous-même l'avez fait, à l'école, non? Le fait d'avoir une voire deux langues supplémentaires à la maison n'est pas un handicap, au contraire. Cela dit, ce serait mieux de commencer dès 3 ans plutôt qu'à 5 ou 6 ans pour qu'elle connaisse déjà bien la langue quand elle apprendra à écrire.
I am still alive...but barely!! JUggling the two MTKs is a bit more fatiguing than I hoped, I collapse at night and find no energy to get online...too bad, cause I had already so much material for some fantastic posts...thank you all for your continued interest in the blog! I Hope to be able to come back soon to a more regular posting!!
Miranda, thanks for sharing your amazing case, I will email you directly with my humble view on it ...it might take some time, I hope you underswtand!
Just surfed to your blog and wow - what an interesting time I have arrived with your new arrival making his mark in your heart and home. Many warm congratulations.
My husband is French and speaks Spanish, and I am from Singapore (where we are all billingual and so it isn't really a big deal to speak English and another Asian language) and now we live with our 5 month old daughter Sophie in Turin, Italy.
So I guess I can just tell you:
Congratulations, Félicitations, Felicidades, gong xi and Auguri!
ai Clo, dis is Maicol, from Rom, Itali. ai laikd veri mac dis sait, iven if ai didnt anderstand all de uords: ai min, sam ar isi, ader ar difficult, bat ai laic de saund, den ai don chear if ai dont anderstand at all. uell, nau I grit iu, cos ai'm veri taird tu vrait so mac. meni gritings, and si iu at a neikd conferens! mix
7 comments:
Dear Clo,
I really found your blog very interesting as I was researching online for multilinguism and toddlers.
My daughter Farah will turn two in October and she already understands Arabic and English.
Just to give you an idea about the culture mix she is facing:
We live in Egypt. Her father is 100% Syrian but who has been living in Egypt all of his life. I am half Egyptian, half Polish.
My husband and I, we both graduated from French schools in Cairo and then we completed our undergraduate degree in English at the American University in Cairo. We also lived in the US for a good bit so we interchange Arabic and English when we speak and this how Farah is ending up talking mixing the two languages.
We would love for Farah to go to a French school as we love the language and the French schools in Egypt offer quality education. It is also an asset to have another language beside English.
My dilemna now is how to introduce French to my daughter given all of the above. We use some French words here and there with her but I have not been so systematic. Is it too late to introduce French or should I wait till she goes to school?
Adding to the mix, my mom sometimes speaks to her in Polish and her parental grandma speaks to her in Syrian Arabic (dialect of Arabic).
I just wish we are not confusing our little girl with too many languages.
Congratulations on your second baby.
Regards,
Miranda Beshara
what's going on? are you busy or something? just joshing! you take some time but not too much. we need you!!!
Clo, ma che fine hai fatto?
Miranda,
Votre fille apprendra le français comme vous-même l'avez fait, à l'école, non? Le fait d'avoir une voire deux langues supplémentaires à la maison n'est pas un handicap, au contraire. Cela dit, ce serait mieux de commencer dès 3 ans plutôt qu'à 5 ou 6 ans pour qu'elle connaisse déjà bien la langue quand elle apprendra à écrire.
I am still alive...but barely!! JUggling the two MTKs is a bit more fatiguing than I hoped, I collapse at night and find no energy to get online...too bad, cause I had already so much material for some fantastic posts...thank you all for your continued interest in the blog! I Hope to be able to come back soon to a more regular posting!!
Miranda, thanks for sharing your amazing case, I will email you directly with my humble view on it ...it might take some time, I hope you underswtand!
Big hugs to all!
Ciao Clo!
Che bello il tuo blog, vi si respira un'aria dolce, serena, pacificata col mondo. E quanta gente lo segue con interesse!
Brava. Però torna a scrivere presto, ok?
Hi Clo!
Just surfed to your blog and wow - what an interesting time I have arrived with your new arrival making his mark in your heart and home. Many warm congratulations.
My husband is French and speaks Spanish, and I am from Singapore (where we are all billingual and so it isn't really a big deal to speak English and another Asian language) and now we live with our 5 month old daughter Sophie in Turin, Italy.
So I guess I can just tell you:
Congratulations, Félicitations, Felicidades, gong xi and Auguri!
ai Clo, dis is Maicol, from Rom, Itali. ai laikd veri mac dis sait, iven if ai didnt anderstand all de uords: ai min, sam ar isi, ader ar difficult, bat ai laic de saund, den ai don chear if ai dont anderstand at all.
uell, nau I grit iu, cos ai'm veri taird tu vrait so mac. meni gritings, and si iu at a neikd conferens!
mix
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