Going with the flow or not : the fight for multilingualism

 Monday morning. Coffee machine. Small talk with one of my colleagues. The type of colleague you only meet now and then because you worked on a project together a couple of years ago. Multiculturalism is one of our favorite topic. He is Lebanese, settled in Australia for quite some time now. He is mentionning an interesting fact : his wife is Chinese.

Could it be his kids can speak English, Arabic and Chinese? Maybe even French since he is a fluent speaker just like 40% of his fellow countrymen, legacy of the mandate France had received over Lebanon after WWI?

Unfortunately his kids are speaking only English. A little bit of Chinese, but they started to forget it when they started primary school and spent less time at home with their Mum. I was sipping my coffee placidly but felt sad inside.

And then he declares : "you can't go against the flow. Speaking another language than English is too hard." This sentence really stayed with me : you can't go against the flow.  Can you?

With so many resources available now, books, websites, apps, videos, of course you can. You just need to make the concious decision that having more than one language is right for your family. And as a famous sports brand said : "just do it". The fight for multilingualism is now on. 

Speaking skills : communication vs beauty

It is that time of the year again. My French kids hate it. It is the annual public speaking competition at school.

Learning how to become a confident, eloquent and engaging public speaker is an important part of education in Australia. It is also a major differentation point with French education.

In France, children do listen a lot. They do write a lot (running writing with a beautiful fountain pen). But they are not encouraged to speak.

In primary school, speaking is mostly about learning by heart poems from classic writers such as Jean de Lafontaine, Victor Hugo, Prevert... Poems are a great way to teach about the music of the language, the mystery of meaning and the beauty around us.

Are poems sufficient enough to prepare French kids for their adult life in the 21st century? I am afraid the answer in no.
I wish my French kids raised in Australia will take the best of both worlds. And be as convincing and entertaining as French street artist JR in this TED talk.

Raising bilingual kids

Since we relocated Down Under we went through several phases with bilingualism.

Australian primary school oblige, English is now the kids favorite language. I came across this compelling interview of Eowyn Crisfield, bilingual expert and mother of three children. Her main ideas echo our own experience of a French family living in Australia for 4 years:

1. Parents should build a plan from infancy to adulthood. Even if the children learn a language quickly at a very young age, in the case of an expatriate for example, they will forgt it if they do not practice once they return to the country of origin.

2. Children are not "little sponges". Maintaining bilingualism requires effort, time and resources.

3. Sometimes one must also be forgiving with yourself. And with your children. 20 times per day I found myself screaming "Les enfants, parlez fraaaançaaais! " and then I burst into laugh. I understand that it requires a lot of effort for them to recount their day in French when they have experienced it in English.

4. Each child is unique. Even within a family, each child will react differently to bilingualism (or multilingualism for the matter).

Are you rasing bilingual kids? What is your experience here?

This was inspired by a previous post on my French blog. 

Review of the book Bringing Up Bébé/French Children Don’t Throw Food

American journalist and Mum Pamela Druckerman wrote a hilairous book about her experience of raising kids in France called "French children don't throw food". It belongs to this category of books we could call WISFAIF - what is so fascinating and irritating about the French. Yes, it is a book category of its own with lots of best-sellers such as A year in Provence by Peter Mayle or Almost French by Aussie writer Sarah Turnbulll.

I must admit I had a great time reading this book. Pamela put words on things I was doing without even knowing such as the "pause" and the "framework". And she describes at length the strategies to make kids eat ANY food, even blue cheese or zucchini.

There are a few data points and statistics in this book, but it is not a scientific research at all. It is a nice story wrote to entertain.

The perfect reading by the fireplace during the school holidays (for readers in the Northern hemesphere : by the pool during the summer holidays).

And you, did you like this book?

And do you have a favorite book on parenting?

Why Raising French Kids Down Under?

G'day Aussie parents ! and welcome to my new blog. In January 2009 we moved from France to Australia with our two kids then 2 and 4 years old. I naturally started to write about our new Antipodean life on the blog www.LaVieDownUnder.blogspot.com.au. But of course, the blog is all in French. Sacrebleu* !

As we settled down in Australia and built up our local friendships I noticed my Aussie friends were curious about my blog in French. Was there an English version? Instead of translating existing content in English, I thought it would be more meaningful and fun to start a new blog.

This blog is a perspective of a French parent trying to raise 2 kids in Sydney. All those words are carefully choosen. It is a perspective. It is not "The" truth. So what you will find here is a personal point of view, not a step-by-step how to guide kind of blog. And like everybody else, I try to raise kids, so I don't pretend to have all the answers or that one way of parenting is better than another. Just like you I am trying to do my best.

Happy reading ! Bonne lecture !

* sacrebleu is a very old word used to express anger or astonishment. Don't use it when travelling to France, it is completely out of fashion. Nobody is ever saying it.