Ici, nous parlons francais. Ok, not really, but I am trying. You see, I am trying to speak French to my daughter these days, but I keep forgetting to do so. As a Canadian, I live in a country that is ostensibly bilingual. Really, over here on the West Coast of Canada, we’re rarely bilingual in French and English. However, there is a thriving French immersion program in elementary schools that helps children become competent in French, particularly in oral French.
We’ve had a longstanding debate about schooling around here. I’d love to homeschool our daughter and enroll her in language classes should she have the inclination, which she seems to have. My husband is a public school teacher in an English school. So for the first few years, we have agreed to place my daughter in the local public English school. The problem? There is no language study until she’s nine years old.
I was a child who did so much, and I felt overextended by the time I was twelve. At the moment, my daughter loves to have time to just play, both indoors and out, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want to enroll her in scads of extra classes and lead to a tired twelve-year-old. However, I also want her to learn how to speak another language.
Then it hit me. I am actually fairly competent in French. Why don’t we have French days? Once a week, I can try to speak French and hopefully she’ll get something out of it and eventually understand it herself. To do this, I have to get over my terror of speaking incorrectly, so it’s helpful to me as well. We’re also planning to visit Switzerland for half a year when she is eight or nine, so this will help prepare us for that trip.
What do you think? Are you bilingual? Do you speak both languages to your child? If you’re not bilingual and you value language learning, how do you plan to accomplish this?