School in other languages

Tracer, just to get you started, the French call the computer "l'ordinateur" and the computer science "l'informatique."

Sweet, nothing can stop me now!

Allez, Tracer! Du courage!

Now that I think of it, I had some friends who were Americans who moved to France as kids, but all I can remember them telling me is some stories about corporal punishment (this was back in the 70s) and something about a different way of structuring essays, an "hourglass" or "reverse hourglass" structure particular-to-general-back-to-particular or vice versa.

Christmas break ends this weekend, so it's a good time to assess how things are going. In brief: my kids have been going to school in France, just outside of Paris, this academic year. They knew only a little French before the year started. My 8 year old and 6 year old have been in a French-as-a-second-language class, while my 3 year old is in half-day preschool. The 3 year old hasn't made lots of verbal progress, though I suspect her brain has been, and will continue to be, seeded to be receptive to French should we return for school here later. But my 8 and 6 year olds have come along tremendously. As I write my 8 year old is playing with a friend from our apartment complex, and they are speaking only French together and it's going just fine. About a month ago my 8 year old told me a story in French---it took her about 15 minutes to tell it, and she didn't drop into English at all. Plus it was no struggle, and she was animated and clearly adding flourishes to it, in French, the whole time. So in 3 months she went from no spontaneous French ability, to very good ability. My 6 year old has done just as well---in some ways, better, as his accent is better than hers (oh, to make the French "r" sound as well as he does)---in fact, his English is taking on a bit of a French accent! And now he's walking around the flat singing some song in French. It's quite remarkable!

Over the break the two of them have had lots of conversations together in French: they're typically silly, but then again, so is much of what they say in English. So far, then, I'd say this has been extremely successfully. I'd hoped in this year they'd reach this point of development, and they reached it in only 3 months. In the next 6 months I'm starting to think they'll reach pretty much full fluency. They're in school so they also do math and reading and so on, and that's all going well too. I'm proud of them: none of this experience has phased them at all; if anything, it's made them kinda cocky (they know they're kicking ass).

I want to add: they're in a French-as-a-second-language class in a normal public school, and they attend math class each day with the regular students in their grades. We have friends here who are paying for fancy private bilingual schools, to ease the transition for their kids, and they're not making anything like the progress my kids are making.

Well done.

One last report for now, as our kids begin school in the USA again tomorrow. As a recap, my kids went to school in France last year, in an ordinary French public school. They didn't know much French going in---they'd done some computer exercises for learning French, but nothing rigorous. After a year of ordinary French public schooling, in a French as a second language program that the schools offer for new immigrants to France, my two oldest kids (now ten & seven) are conversationally fluent in French (speaking & listening), read excellently, and write French well also. They were cleared to enter the ordinary French classes in the next school year, which sadly they won't do as we had to go back to the USA. But we hope to be back in France again very soon, so now the challenge is to work on preserving their linguistic competency.

My littlest one (now four) spent the year in half-days in French public preschool (that is, not a class for immigrants only). She seems to understand French as well as English, & has taken to singing in French. But it's hard to know how much exactly she learned. I suspect a lot, but I think it will only come out when she's immersed in French next time.

I think this was an astonishingly successful thing for our children to have done: in addition to the sheer practical value of speaking two languages at native levels, they have the confidence of navigating a foreign culture from scratch. They've gained a great deal of self-confidence, & awareness of possibilities. It was a wonderful

I suggest you find some american cartoon dvds w/ foreign language options and have them watch the french versions. I used to do this w/ the simpsons - I imagine they're too young for that, but in 2010 it's pretty easy to get french content in america. (esp via the internet)

one nice thing is learning the language at that age, even if they have to relearn stuff, they're gonna have fantastic accents.

Yeah, we should get on that---we have a bunch of Disney dvds we were given as gifts that have French tracks in addition to English. I need to talk to the schools here to see if there's anything they can do. I have colleagues in other places in the USA who've persuaded their school districts to let their kids enroll in high school or even university French courses, despite their being in elementary school. Since I work at the university I can probably arrange the university part w/o the participation of the school district but I'm wondering if there's some way they can do this as part of their ordinary schooling (since they're in school here in the USA a ridiculous amount of time each day, without breaks, daily time is scarce).

xp yeah their accents make me weep, they're so good; my two younger kids actually say their English "R"s like French "R"s sometimes. Relatedly, my oldest was talking to me about muscular "bras" the other day, & I recognized that she was blurring French & English rather than talking about lingerie, but I didn't say anything b/c she'd be self-conscious & b/c I like seeing that she's thinking in French un-self-consciously.

ehh I dunno if I were 10 or 7 I would be intimidated as hell in a hs or college class. maybe find some tutor for an hour or something? my college french classes pretty regularly hit on subject matter that wouldn't be appropriate for a 10 year old.

That's a good point---at this point I just want to sort out what's possible, which might be nothing more than a tutor. I would like to find a "native" tutor rather than just a college major, if possible---since it's a university town there might be exchange students---anyway I'm just thinking out loud as it were.

Have you got an Alliance Francaise near you? They do kids' clubs, film screenings, summer activities etc.