Multi Tongue Kids: euro kids in France!

Welcome Multi Tongue Kids

Is your Child a Third Culture Kid as it it defined in Wikipedia: Third Culture Kid?

Don't forget to add your blog address in your profile > personal and to locate yourself on the user map

Take care,

Julien

Hi Julien,

I don't think he fulfills the definition yet, as he was born in Paris and so far we have not moved anywhere else yet! But he is surrounded daily by 4 languages, and now that he begins talking, it's real fun to see how he reacts and develps multilinguistically!

I did explore the topic of TCK at the folloing post in the blog:
http://multitonguekids.blogspot.com/200 … -kids.html

I'm sure there are lots of TCKs among the Expat.comgers, I would love to hear from them!

Hi MTK,

I grew up in a bilingual environment (english & afrikaans) and we moved to germany when I was just about 9 years old, making me trilingual. A couple of years later, as I started learning french in school, we realized, that I found it a lot easier to learn new languages than my german buddies. So growing up like that may, at times, have a slightly negative impact on your all-over grammar, but it definitely makes you learn languages a lot faster.
Last year, I started learning mandarin, and if I had enough time to finish the course, I guess I'd be well on my way to speak a 5th language. I will continue learning in some time though. Definitely, when we move to Beijing (in about 2 years' time), I won't have much of a choice then, eh?

How can you son be surrounded by 4 languages? How do you manage that?

I am asking you because my girlfriend and I are both French, but if we've got a child one day we'll try to teach him/her several languages.  My girlfriend teaches spanish/french and I am living in the UK, so we speak 3 languages. (and I would love to learn a new one )

Julien,

I speak Italian to my son and his father speaks to him Dutch (he's Flemish). The environmanet is French, and luckily the nanny speaks French all day long to our son. The fourth language is passive: dad and mum speak...English to each other!
I had a lot of doubt when the baby was born, but I found a lot of supportive research and fellow multilingual families online to encourage us in this advantures. It is important to be consistent though: in one of the early entries of my blog I wrote about the importance of choosing a Family Language Strategy, and sticking to it. In your case, if you stay in the UK english will be opicked up by the kid from the environment (school, TV etc.). If your g-friend feels comfortable, she can decide to speak Spanish to the aby, while you speak French, this way you can be sure he/she will grow up trilingual. But it has to come naturally...


Kazana, thanks for your testimonial! Very impressive! I recently posted about Multicultural Patriotism, and would be curious to know if you have any patriotic feelings for Germany or for your native country, or neither. In fact, while there si abundant research on the linguistic development of multilingual/multicxultural kids, I rarely find anything on "emotional affiliation"...

Ciao,

I am just wondering how old is your chid ?
You said that he started to talk (he should have about 1 year...), what was his first word and in which language ??
I think it is a very good idea !! And I would like my baby (when I will have one...) start to "learn" at least english as soon as possible (because I'm french!).

I have a final question, until what age will you speak to him in a different language than your husband ?? I mean when you, all three, will have a conversation all together... what language will you use (maybe three!) ??

Laurent

Salut Laurent,

my son is now 22 months. his first detectable word was pronounced at about 12 months and it was :"dutch"! We still have no idea whay and what he meant! for about one week he went on and on saying dutch dutch dutch dutch!

Apart from the usual mamma, papa, he shortly after started saying words in Italian and Dutch almost simultaneously, and slightly later in French.  He's currently slight ahead with French, already making sentences, while in Italian and Dutch it's mostly words here and there.

As per the common family language, it's the topic of my very first post on the blog! To be honest with you, I have no idea! I wonder if English will eventually prevail or if we will continue in this "schizofrenic"constant change mode. This seems to be the case in several multilingual families we know! Kids after a while seem to prefer the environmental language, especially once they start going to school and having friends...that's why it's important at home to reinforce the use of the other languages...stay tuned, if you have the patience to read my blog for another couple of years, I'll let you know!!!!

Multi Tongue Kids wrote:

Kazana, thanks for your testimonial! Very impressive! I recently posted about Multicultural Patriotism, and would be curious to know if you have any patriotic feelings for Germany or for your native country, or neither. In fact, while there si abundant research on the linguistic development of multilingual/multicxultural kids, I rarely find anything on "emotional affiliation"...

Patriotic feelings... hmm... I don't feel patriotic for any of the two countries. But, then again, I guess that's due to the "brain washing" you get in German schools. In Germany it is considered naziist, to display any sign of patriotism, and trust me, you do not want to be associated with the neo-nazies.
Furthermore, most of the teachers being left-winged, if you ever had any form of patriotism, it was beaten out of you in school.

I always had a strong desire to return to South Africa, not really because I felt that I belong there, but simply because the climate over there is so much better than in Germany. On top of that, Germans tend to be very negative and complaining about everybody and everything - quite the opposite of the typical South African.
After having spent my last 3 years in South Africa (finishing my studies there), I definitely satisfied the desire for a better climate for a while. Whenever someone asks me to put my foot down, and decide whether I consider me rather German or South Africa, I would pick German, though. Simply because I spent the most important years of my youth (9 to over 20) in Germany.

Sheesh, this reply turned out far longer than I intended. Enough said for now.

Cheers,

Kazana

Julien, I'm note sure it's a good idea to speak spanish to your future child unless spanish is your mother longue. As long as I know, multilinguism is not an goal, but a fact.
In my family, almost everybody speak french, which is easier for the partys.

My cousin in Austria lives with a french-speaking guy. He speaks italian too, and they both speak english (but not so well). With her former boyfriend, she spoke german all the time. Now, they speak in french at home (depends on the subject). Their kids will speak german and french naturally, and should learn english like everyone.
I have another cousin who met her husband in London. They used to speak english at home, but they now speak french since they moved to Paris. Their two sons are totally bilingual, but the method is different. They speak in the language of the environment: in France, they speak french, in England they speak english.
My last cousin's husband is American and speaks english only. They speak english at home and the environment is english-speaking only... My cousin does want her girl to speak french as well (at least to be able to speak with the french part of the family).
So... Dad speaks english, Mom speaks french, Mom and Dad sometimes mix but speak english most of the time...

My opinion on this: each family has its own history and no method is better. The main point: this must be natural.

Salut Olivier,

I loved your reply: you have an amazing collection of cousins married with foreigners, your family alone can be the base of some great linguistics/multicultural doctorate research!!!

I agree with your conclusion, there is no winning formula to achieve multilingualism, each family needs to find its own method , depending upon its location, number of languages and nationalities involved, and, last but not least, confidence level in any given language.

I wrote a post on choosing the right Family Language Strategy at the following link:
http://multitonguekids.blogspot.com/200 … ategy.html

However, I think that multilingualism can be a goal as well, and a value, which intrisically carries a meaning of opennes and understanding for diversity.

Best,

MTK

Very interesting post MTK remind me to add a link somewhere in the Resources

Wow, what an interesting discussion! I feel right at home here.
Rearing your children in several languages will always benefit them, I believe, even if the outcome is not  -grammatically speaking- perfect. And I doubt it can with many languages involved. As we all know, mastering languages takes a great amount of time. Children just seem to learn more easily than adults, since they have all day to do so. 

I am certain that knowing there are different languages out there and realizing that we communicate in different ways opens up new horizons for children. And as long as their caregivers feel comfortable with languages around them, which they might not understand themselves, it most certainly  is a very enriching experience and, yes, that overall experience lets you learn more languages more easily. I completely agree.

I grew up in a family with English as Lingua Franca in Germany, but met regularly gazillions of relatives from all over the globe at my grandmother's place in Paris. Our dinners there seem to me now as if they had taken place  right at the foot of the tower of Babel. Being surrounded by people speaking all these unintelligible languages but being so kind and generous to us children instilled a great trust in anything "foreign".

My own children have moved quite a bit (Germany-Japan-US-Canada/UK) as well and we generally find they usually connect more easily with kids with similar experiences. They don't have a concept of a home country, really. I am not sure it is due to the observations Kazana related or just due to the fact, they don't find this important.

Where is "home" for you? Any of you.

Oops. This posting has evolved  into a longish bit ...

Kids, and adults, learning other languages will learn about other cultures in a way that can't be done without the language.  It's one thing to learn "how to say that in French" but another to learn that, while you may be able to do a literal translation (which may no make sense), the concept you want to express is not a concept that the French culture understands.  Or the German...Or the (insert country here).  We have all run into words that 'don't translate'. 
When I lived in Andorra I met a lot of young 'British' people who grew up in Andorra and spoke English, Catalan, French and Spanish.  What a wide world is open to these lucky kids!  The amazing thing was how much they appreciated their mulit-lingual childhoods - even at the ripe old age of 23.  And it's handy for the parents to have the kids around to translate.   One of these kids is now working as a Simultaneous Translator in French/English and is getting certified in Spanish/English.

I agree with katie regarding language and culture going hand in hand.

In the case of my 10 year old, I would say he's an accidental linguist. Right now, he has learned to speak 5 languages, 3 fluent, 2 conversational and soon will be forced to learn 1 more. He speaks fluent danish, being half danish and going to school in Denmark, fluent tagalog as he's half Filipino - I make sure he speaks it fluently and english as everytime we get posted he goes to Int'l school (that offers IB). While in Int'l school, he has to choose an elective, either French or Spanish, so we all agreed on French. We were posted in Kenya, therefore, we all had to learn Kiswahili and 6 months from now we'll be moving to Nicaragua for a new post, ergo this time, Spanish.

Only once did I hear him complain about "why the world just don't speak 1 language", but we don't think about it really, especially him. He grew up knowing that everytime we move, it's imperative to know the language of that country in order for us to enjoy our stay better. I have a feeling he likes it too because even visiting a country as tourists, he would try to learn how to count from 1-100 in the local language. I thought it was cute when he learned to count up to 100 in Amharic while in Ethiopia.

I love this thread!
I am an Angolan raised in Cuba. So it was there I first learned how to walk and how to speak. By the age of three, I was speaking Portuguese (mother tongue), Spanish (environment) and French (we were at the French school).
I've learned recently that from the moment a child is confronted to more than a language at a very early age, the brain is developped in a way learning other languages is a "piece of cake" (cf. Kazana's post).
When I was 14, I went to the USA for holidays and I didn't speak a word of English. It really was hard. Could only understand the meaning, not the words told. After one month, I went back to Angola, it seemed I didn't learn much... :")
I moved to South Africa when I was 16, not speaking English (yet). But it came to change as I had to communicate anyway. I spoke Portuguese at home, French at school. If I wanted to buy my own bread or even watch the TV, I had to learn how to speak English! And so, here I am.
I can read Greek and Arabic (make the difference between reading and actually understanding!!), I can understand Italian, I learned German at school. And I'm always eager to know more. I catch easily, which doesn't make me current, does it?

Sorry for not replying, haven't been around for a while...

Pia, it must have been great for your growing up surrounded by such a multilingual family, no wonder your own kids have also developed such large horizons. I'm intrigued by your comment on the fact thtat they don't have a speciifc place they consider home, or roots; I fear this a lot with my child. I became mulltilingual after the age of 19, and for me having clear and solid roots (I'm from northern Italy) has been an empowering element in my life. I would like to pass him the same sense of security...but perhaps, it is not something vital. Can you tell me a little bit more about your kids attitude toward this topic?


Katie, thanks for your input. It's true that certain countries or palces are also particularly favourable to develop multilinguistically. Belgium, Canada, Switzerland...but Andorra as well, as you mention it.

Deedee, what a lucky life your son has and will have! how often are you posted in a anew country? And is it hard for him to leave behind friends and acquanintaces, or is he looking forward to the new surrouindings?

Jo Ann, you are also a great case study of multilingualism, thanks for sharing your linguistic journey. What brought you from South Africa to France?

Hi again Clo!

Well, nothing really links South Africa to France in my story
As I've always been in French schools, I wanted to go to university in French and in France. So, it was all natural because our files were sent from the school to the university directly.