My Mother’s Tongues

Today, February 21, is the International Mother Language Day. We all know that a “Mother Tongue” isn’t necessarily the same as ” a Mother’s Tongue”. In my case it both is and isn’t. My mom was bilingual, but I only learned one of her languages.

When I was a child, the only language spoken to me was Finnish. It was also the language of the community where I lived and the only one used at my school. It wasn’t, however, my mom’s only mother tongue. Her first language, the one that she used with her mother as my Finnish-speaking grandfather sailed the seas for weeks on end, was Swedish, the other official language in Finland. Growing up I always heard my mom speak Swedish to grandma, during frequent visits and daily phone calls, and still today I remember the distinct feeling of being an outsider in my own family as I didn’t understand what they said.  This continued later as I learned Swedish at school, better and faster than most, but not to the point of being mistaken for a Swedish-speaking Finn, a representative of the 6%  minority who speak Swedish as (one of) their native language(s). Many of my Swedish-speaking relatives didn’t speak (or want to speak) Finnish and I felt uneasy and different at family gatherings as conversations had to be switched into Finnish to include me. Strangely enough, this continued to be the case even after I had become fluent in Swedish. To them I was still “the Finnish-speaking kid”.

These days it seems that parents often feel the need to justify to others why bilingualism is good for their children. Yes, there are thinking-related benefits and increased meta-linguistic awareness. None of these mattered to me, however; I only wanted for our children to learn both French and Finnish so that they could communicate with both sides of their families and to understand what their grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins said. It’s as simple as that and not something anyone should feel like having to justify (no matter the amount of global prestige the languages in question enjoy).

You might wonder why my mom didn’t want me to learn both her languages. I know I’ve often wondered about it and  will never really know as she passed away when I was in my early twenties. I have theories (you can read the whole story here: http://www.be-bilingual.net/Read_an_excerpt.html), but mainly I just regret, whatever the reason, that my children and I missed out on a part of our cultural heritage. 

Multilingualism doesn’t always come easy – but then again nothing worthwhile ever does. I hope my story will help motivate those who are struggling to pass on a mother language. Hang in there, your children will thank you one day (or they may not, but that’s only because speaking your language will be natural to them- and there’s no better thanks than that, right?).

Bilingual Bookswap

For twelve years our family has looked for books (and other materials) in French, our minority language, in every way we’ve thought of. We have checked the public library as well as that of the French cultural institute, and swapped books with other bilingual or expat families we know in our area. The French grandparents have occasionally sent us books, and each time we’ve traveled to see them we’ve reserved one suitcase for all the gems from our favorite used book stores. The girls have been subscribed to book clubs, magazines, you name it. It’s been great, but also quite expensive.

Throughout this all, I’ve been thinking how great it would be to know a family with the same language selection, but living in our minority language country. This family, which in the ideal situation would have children close to ours in age, would have Finnish as their minority language. We, living here, could help them with many things that they’re looking for to reinforce and make this language more fun to their children. We could tell them what websites our children like, what games they play and  would be happy to send them books and magazines that our children have read and that are easy and affordable for us to find here. In exchange, we would love to have French books or other materials that their children no longer read and suggestions about things that interest their peers in the French-speaking countries. I am convinced that this kind of an exchange could work and be beneficial on many levels.

A while back I started a FB group for this purpose. It ‘s stll in the beginning stages – if you think it could be a good idea, do check it out, tell us about yourself and what you would be looking for. Let others know about it, too, and together let’s get something going! You can find us here: www.facebook.com/BilingualBookswap

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

2013 – year of biliteracy

With our children we have seen two very different cases of becoming biliterate. Emma learned to read on her own in Finnish when she was four and, with a little help from our part to motivate her to do so also in her minority language, French, some six months later. The picture above shows Emma  in her natural habitat at the age of five. Still today, she regularly bumps into lamp posts as she reads while she walks, and misses her bus because she has her nose glued to a book. Despite the fact that I’m obviously scared to death that she will walk under a car one day, her extensive reading in both languages has positively influenced many parts of her life.  Her French and Finnish vocabularies are very large and she really seems to have a deep, rich understanding of both her languages and cultures for her age. This makes it very easy for her to talk about many topics with family and friends in both countries and to go to a bilingual school.

For Sara, 7, the journey to biliteracy has been, and continues to be, very different. Like her sister, she figured out the straightforward letter to sound correspondence in Finnish on her own a few years ago. However, she showed no interest in pursuing this ability any further. She loved to listen to the stories that we read to her, but preferred to play with her dolls or with her friends when on her own. This has definitely contributed to her very fluent oral skills which (and I’m only comparing to describe the situation to you) surpass those of her older sister in some aspects in both languages. I love the fact that my children are different and I try not to force things that I like on them. Yet, truth be told, I would love for Sara to discover reading. I guess the fact that I’m a teacher who loves reading might have something to do with it. No shoving it down her throat, though, just gentle attempts to make it easy for her to discover the world of literacy (and in our case biliteracy) at a suitable pace.

Therefore, I would like to invite you all to join me in making year 2013 the year of biliteracy! Let’s share our best tips and ideas for helping our children to learn to read – and want to read! – in both (or all) their languages! Feel free to comment ideas here or join us on our FB page: http://www.facebook.com/bebilingual.net

Whatever inspires them to read

Enter to win Be Bilingual – the ebook!

For the past year or so, a lot (if not most) of my free-time has been spent writing and reading about bilingualism. There have been times when I’ve had my doubts about finishing what I started, but I’m happy to say that the e-book is entering the final proofreading next week! 

My aim has been to provide multilingual families with some very practical ideas, and the comments I’ve received from parents who have read the book’s final draft are very encouraging:

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I just want to say that i think it’s brilliant. I have read lots of books and websites about bilingualism and multilingualism and your book really has a unique selling point in that there is nothing out there with such comprehensive and tried and tested practical advise as to how to actually create and maintain a bilingual household. Your book is bursting with ideas and great resource ideas. I also love the personal touch. The fact that either you or someone you know has tried out all of these methods just makes it more appealing (Europe)

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I really love the book and how you cover SO MANY different situations, adoption, trilingualism, etc. I think there is no way you can go wrong with the book !  (USA)

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You really made multilingualism come alive in the everyday routines of a family! Virtually all of what you say matches what we experience(d) in my own family.Your text is truly informative and, again, very engaging to read. I just loved, for example, your ‘pelican’ analogy in Chapter 9. Spot on! (Asia).

***

For those who would like to read an excerpt from the book, head over to our webpage www.be-bilingual.net. By contacting us through the site, or by sending an email to info@be-bilingual.net, you will be informed when the e-book is out – AND enter a draw to win a free copy!

//////Edited December 30 2012: I’m delighted to update this post and let you know that the e-book is now available at Amazon.com and other international Amazon retail outlets:

http://www.amazon.com/Be-Bilingual-Practical-Multilingual-ebook/dp/B00AL8F5EM

The free copy went to Kristen Tuominen, thank you everyone for participating!

Our favorite French resources

A while back InCultureparent magazine asked about French resources on their FB page. I contributed a few off the top of my head, but then realized that I probably know dozens more, given that we’ve been looking for them for close to 12 years now. So I decided to come up with a list of things that our family has found useful, hoping that it can be interesting to others as well. In addition to the online resources, I basically just took a pen and some paper and went around the house writing down all the useful French things that I came across. Most are originally French, but I’ve included a few translations that have worked really well too. Similarly, some of the things are connected with the culture and not just with the language. None of the following links pay me a dime, they’re just there for you to get more information on things that I personally recommend based on our family’s experience.

Songs and Rhymes – We have loved a 4 cd collection called le coffret des crèches et maternelles (which has an amazing selection on four cds), but if you can’t find it, the website http://comptine.free.fr/accueil offers hundreds of songs and rhymes in French.

Les Ogres de Barback has 2 cds called Pitt Ocha I and II. Funny with great vocabulary. You can find them at www.pittocha.com.

Mademoiselle Prout I and II. We especially love CD number II, but the first one has good songs too. The genre could be called funny “pop songs” for children 4-5 years and up. Look for them at www.musicme.com.

Radio for children:

 www.ouistiti.ch. Our definite favorite, which continues to work for our preteen too.

http://www.radiojunior.com/

www.tunein.com. Choose children as genre and scroll down to find stations in French.

Books and stories online:

www.iletaitunehistoire.com. This is my personal favorite with beautiful illustrations.

 http://www.lirecreer.org/ Stories for children between 4-14  years of age.

www.bookbox.com – change the language and listen and watch 13 stories with audio and subtitles in French.

http://www.petit-prince.at/links.htm. An online version of the little prince in French, along with many other languages. I also love the version that can be found on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrzN7JV7Tx4&feature=related.

Books in French:

Just like with magazines, you can subscribe to books at http://www.ecoledesmax.com/. Our girls have done this through the French school, but families can do it directly too, choosing the right age-level for their children.

Here are some of our favorite books:

Story books:

Le Trésor de l’enfance by Gallimard Jeunesse. Our version of the book is falling apart, especially since both girls have wanted to hear over and over the stories of Le monstre poilu and La belle lisse poire du prince de motordu. The book has short versions of many classics and is, as the name suggests, a real treasure.

Series books: whenever the kids have liked a book, we’ve tried to see if there are more in the same series. These ones have worked very well, even if many have been translated into French from other languages:

Le Petit Nicolas : The (very funny) adventures of a young boy in France in the 50′s. I read many of the books in Finnish as a child and they haven’t lost their charm. I’m so happy my children can read them in the original language, French. There is an animated series with the same name, but what our children really liked was the film that came out a few years ago.

Cabane magique – children time-travelling and solving mysteries in different points in time.

C’est la vie Lulu – series. Works well for girls 6/8 and up.

Club des cinq – the famous five, an oldie but goldie that still works – in multiple languages!

Géronimo Stilton and Téa Stilton – series.

Miscellaneous:

Le monde génial de mes 7 ans http://www.amazon.fr/Le-monde-g%C3%A9nial-mes-ans/dp/2215046317. Different books for boys and girls between 3 and 8 years of age with stories and all things interesting for their age. A similar one, but with emphasis on motivating kids write, is the collection Mon cahier à moi: http://www.fleuruseditions.com/j-ai-7-ans-l6257

Le Girl’s Book, a version for boys exists also. http://www.amazon.fr/Le-Girls-Book-quelles-adorent/dp/2035841119

Le Dico des Filles. Important girly information for tweens and teens. A new version comes out every year (not that you need to buy a new one every year, most of the information stays the same…)

Comic books. The BDs (bande dessinées) are a big thing in France. To buy them, try http://www.bdnet.com/ or check http://www.momes.net/BD/bandes-dessinees-bd.html to find out what’s available. Here are some that our children like:

 Ducobu – a very inventive dunce who gets himself into all kinds of situations when trying to avoid studying. Two movies have been made recently and they’ve been great hits with our 6-11 year olds (even we parents like them…)

TinTin - This belgian reporter with his dog Milou and adventures around every corner doesn’t probably need any introduction , especially after the movie by Spielberg…

Astérix – No introduction needed here, either. Alongside the comic books, you can find Astéric cartoons and also recent films with Gérard Dépardieu as Obélix. 

Titeuf – a 9-year-old boy discovering the world – and girls! http://www.zeporama.com/

Lucky Luke - the (originally) French-speaking cowboy! There are also Lucky Luke cartoons, and even a film that came out a few years ago with the academy award winner Jean Dujardin as Lucky Luke himself.

Marsupilami – many people know this strange creature, but might not know that it was originally written in French, accompanied by an animated series and, again, a recent movie.

Magazine subscriptions:

www.uni-presse.com. Subscribe to magazines in French (for adults or children), delivery anywhere. Both girls have received Popi for their first birthday, which they’ve read and reread (with us parents) until there’s been nothing left. Since then our absolute favorites have been:

J’aime lire (and before that mes premiers j’aime lire with the story also on a cd) 

Dlire and Je bouquine are the current favorites of Emma (11). 

The “girlie magazines” Manon (for 6-9 year-olds) and Julie (for preteens) magazines have been big hits and have helped our girls stay up-to date with the cultural references of their French peers.

Cahiers de vacances. Exercice books that come out at the end of the school year so that children can revise what they’ve learned over the summer holidays. You can find them online, by grade level, here are a few fun ones that we’ve liked:

 L’énigme des vacances by Nathan. A series of story books with questions and problems you need to solve before continuing the story. http://www.amazon.fr/voleur-invisible-Du-CP-CE1/dp/2091873802/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352314341&sr=1-2

Petits énigmes trop malignes by Hachette. http://www.amazon.fr/PETITES-ENIGMES-TROP-MALIGNES-CM1/dp/2011603366/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352314524&sr=1-3

Petits exos trop rigolos by Hachette. http://www.amazon.fr/PETITS-EXOS-TROP-RIGOLOS-CE1/dp/201160110X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1352314656&sr=1-1

TV

www.captvty.fr – French catch-up TV from anywhere in the world, two weeks after it has aired in France. Our kids especially love the channel Gulli.

DVDs

For smaller children:

T’Choupi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vZw50FTSTg

Babar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67B1vCjQlcc&feature=relmfu

SamSam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2nLA23jS-g

OuiOui http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdtoACmhMz4

Dora l’exploratrice has also worked very well with both our girls.

Older Children:

Animations or films based on comic books  (Petit Nicolas, Lucky Luke, Astérix, Tintin, Titeuf).

C’est pas sorcier / Quelle aventure. Educational as well as entertaining, these dvds are a great way to review in French the topics that Emma has studied at school in Finnish. Last summer, before visiting Versailles, we watched the episodes about how the castle was built and what the daily life was like under the reign of the sun king.

Games:

Board games and card games:

Jeu de l’oie. You can find countless versions (with images or words) of this game online through Google.

Je joue à construire mes premières phrases by Megableu http://www.amazon.fr/Megableu-678005-%C3%A9ducatif-Premieres-Phrases/dp/B000S2WECM. A great game for the little ones to learn to make sentences in French.

Vocabulon des petits http://www.amazon.fr/Megableu-096003-%C3%A9ducatif-Vocabulon-Petits/dp/B000S2WCLK/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys&ie=UTF8&qid=1351864837&sr=1-1. A vocabulary game that you can play in many different ways depending on the children’s age.

Il était une fois by Atlas Games. A fantastic card game where children get to tell a fairy tale in a group with the help of  different story elements represented by the cards. http://www4.fnac.com/mp2708947/Il-Etait-une-Fois/w-4

Monopoly in French – they even have an edition called “France” and others for different cities and regions. Check: http://www.monopolypedia.fr/editions/france/france/edfrance.php.

Scrabble. Emma has perfected her French spelling by playing with her grandma and great grandma (who at 92 continues to be unbeatable).

For learning to read: Mon atelier lecture by Ravensburg. http://www.amazon.fr/Ravensburger-%C3%A9ducatif-Apprendre-atelier-Lecture/dp/B0012ZMSAW. What I like about this game is that it is suitable for children in different stages of learning to read. You can start with letters, then syllables, then words – all in a light, fun way.

Online games and websites for children:

http://www.maxetom.com/

http://www.momes.net/

http://www.lesdebrouillards.qc.ca/

http://www.vinzetlou.net

Food

www.mondizen.com Order your favorite French food, the selection is quite impressive.

Other fun stuff

http://www.lesincollables.com. Great educational products. We’ve used many many products over the years, our most recent favorites are the riddle CD for the car and the word of the day calendar: 365 mots drôlement illustrés.

Treasure Hunts (jeu de piste or chasse au trésor in French).  Buy a ready-made one from Fleurus:http://www.fleuruseditions.com/mes-inoubliables-chasses-tresor-c68/ or design you own at one of the many sites online. We recently did one with a Halloween theme at http://chasse-au-tresor.info/

Fun table mats with riddles and jokes: http://www.amazon.fr/Les-sets-pour-sennuyer-table/dp/2809645434. These are great for when children start to read and write. We use them at snacktimes (or when the children are hungry and dinner’s not quite ready…). You can make them yourself too, drawing on a A3 size paper or even by photocopying pages of a book.

Timetables for school and many other things to print out at: http://www.hugolescargot.com/papeterie.htm

Cahiers de texte for school. These notebooks are perfect to write down (and keep track of) homework  for each day of the week. You can also choose them with cartoon figures, Emma has Ducobu this year: http://www.papeterie-blitz.com/Cahier-de-texte-Leleve-Ducobu

A family calendar with riddles, recipes, activities:  http://www.fleuruseditions.com/grand-calendrier-2012-2013-l6491

Riddles that I like to write on a piece of paper on the bathroom wall. http://www.charades.fr/.

And to end on a sweet note, a great resource (in small doses) to learn to read are the Carambar- candies! We have made a deal with Sara who isn’t very interested in learning to read in French: read the riddle – eat the candy! .

 I’m sure that many of you have lots of things you could add to this list. I would love to hear from you, either here or on our FB page: www.facebook.com/bebilingual.net.

Halloween Treasure Hunt in French

The first enigma is to find the grammar mistakes in the invitation. The clue is that there are two of them (both intentional, of course ).

We’ve been meaning to do a children’s treasure hunt for ages, but finally got around to it this year. It all started by me finding a ready-made treasure hunt for 6-7 years olds that was perfect for Sara and her friends (http://www.fleuruseditions.com/cavaliere-mysterieuse-l5991). They didn’t have anything for tweens, but luckily you can find anything on the Internet. Gilles found a French site specialized in scavenger hunts ( http://chasse-au-tresor.info/) and from there, well, we got excited and things got a little crazy.

As the whole treasure hunt was going to be in French, the girls invited their bilingual school friends. Some of the other materials were in English, but we felt that it wasn’t a problem if they learned some English in the process, too!  I discovered the world of free printables online, which is a fascinating place where you can spend way too much time. Here are a few treasures that I found on my own hunt:

Scary bottle labels: http://c2marcano.blogspot.fi/2011/10/halloween-soda-labels-free-download.html

Candy bar wrappers: http://www.livinglocurto.com/2011/10/halloween-candy-bar/

and some more: http://www.chickabug.com/blog/2012/10/free-halloween-printables-round-up.html

We felt that we were well prepared, but, as so often, things didn’t go quite as expected. The night before it snowed a little and the temperature was freezing. This meant that the morning of the hunt we first needed to rake the last leaves with the neighbours, lest there be more snow, before putting together the treasures, hiding the clues, preparing the snacks, finishing the little mermaid costume (don’t ask…), and so on. At some point, things got a bit tense (does this happen at anyone else’s house before a party or is it just us?), but when the children arrived, all 18 of them, we were  ready to take them on the hunt! Here are a few of the things we had prepared for them:

The treasure for the little ones who had “panier” (basket) as their last clue. I bought the printable bags at etsy.com for two euros.

The tweens had 12 enigmas to solve before finding the treasure on our back yard. They did a great job and everyone seemed to have a good time. In the heat of the action we didn’t have time to take many pictures, but here are a few:

The little ones have figured out the enigma and found “la plante” where the next envelope is hidden.

Looks like the boys have figured out “corde à linge”…

…but the girls still beat them to the treasure.

After a hunt, there’s nothing like a scary snack, right? Only one picture survived, but  think mommy dogs (inspired by: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/10/easy-halloween-party-food/) and drinks called zombie virus and devil’s delight!

Long story short, it was great. I did hear my husband utter the words “never again”, but after a good night’s sleep (with a bonus hour thanks to daylight saving time), he was already planning the next one!  Please join us on our FB page www.facebook.com/bebilingual.net to share your best ideas!