Baby Talk
How to raise a child in a two-language home?My sister, who lives in Paris, is married to a pure Frenchman. He only speaks French. The fruit of their love (or sex, should I say) is my nephew. He is a bi-racial, bi-cultural 2 year old kid. How lucky he is to grow up in a multilingual environment you would say. Stop there!! I must interject. My nephew is, to much of my regret, not bilingual. My sister and her husband have decided to raise my nephew in French. Hence, my nephew only understands French. If I tell him: "hey baby, you know I have a bag full of chocolates" he would simply ignore me. (I will test him next time I see him). On occasion, I teach him that French is not the official language on this planet. He can now alternatively use the term "sakana" (fish in Japanese) or "poisson" (fish in French) when referring to his favorite pet. He can also "high five." When I say: "gimme five" (in English), he claps my hand with his small palm while repeatedly yelling: "five, five, five...!!" He knows how to count from one to ten: "owaan, tooo, tree, fo, five, six, sevane, eigh... ten!". Somehow, he always misses the "nine" part. Is it a mistake for bi-cultural parents to raise their kid in a monolingual home in this steadily growing world-wide international communication environment? Is it too demanding for parents to condition their kid in such a young age to switch from one language to another? Will it not put a brake on the child's educational undertaking and language skills? Having grown up in a Japanese home, educated both in an American and French educational system, I must admit my Japanese, French and English drafting skills are not up to the level of the native Japanese, French or English. I know parents who have a totally opposite approach in the way they educate their kids. A francophone couple now living in France (French and Belgian) but both having lived and worked in the U.S. have decided to raise their kids exclusively in English. Is their method over the top weird?
I have the perfect solution for my unborn (unconceived) kids with my future unmet Greek husband for our imaginary household on planet Mars. Our kids will speak Japanese and Greek to us, receive a catholic and greek orthodox religious education (so that they eat the Easter-lamb twice during the Easter season) will master the subtlety of King's English thanks to their education at Oxbridge and will speak French in past-perfect and past-conditional in case they are to marry the offspring of the genealogical line of descent of the no longer existing decapitated King of France. Mom, your grandchildren will be perfect Martians. How cool is that.
Labels: Self derision
posted by The Little Prince's alter ego @ 3:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home