Following on the heels on my post from earlier this week reporting the first bilingual expression of our little girl, yesterday I did my first bilingual correction. We were on the phone with my mom. That is to say, I was on the phone with the loudspeaker on, and my daughter was listening. She said […]

I proudly announce that our girl is now officially bilingual: Today she said for the first time a word in French that she already says in German. Which one? Good-bye. That is to say, “aurvoir” (still contracted) after “tschü-tschüß” about two months ago. With the handful of recognisable words she says, it seems to me […]

It’s always nice when the subject gets positive treatment in the mainstream media. Here is a recent article from the NY TImes / International Herald Tribune titled “Why Bilinguals are Smarter – The Benefits of Bilingualism”.

This weekend I discovered that sometimes a lesson in bilingualism doesn’t need more than a little goodwill and basic (and I mean very basic) muscial skills. You see, our little girl is the proud owner of a xylophone – and the only tune I can play on it is “Alle meine Entchen”. There might be […]

Remember our attempts at sign language? I thought it was exciting, but given our lack of using the signs, our little girl has mastered a grand total of two signs: all done and cheese. Today I had a look at the website of Baby Signs® and found an article on signing in a biligual setting […]

“Rotes Licht und Grün, das kann doch jeder leicht verstehn. Bei Rot halt an und rühr dich nicht, bei Grün, da darfst du gehn!” Ich habe vor kurzem damit angefangen, unsere Kleine auf die rote bzw. grüne Ampel aufmerksam zu machen, wenn wir über die Straße gehen, und da kommt mir immer sofort das Lied […]

Do you know the difference between German and French fire-fighters? The German ones drive a big red truck with a blue light and a siren that goes “tatütata”, as any German child will tell you. The French ones drive a big red truck with a blue light and a siren that goes “pim-pom-pim-pom”, as any […]

I knew I’d forgotten some in my list yesterday. And now I’m wondering what counts as a word – does it count if she repeats after us? In which case she said “va” for “vache” (cow in French) today and “go-go-go” when we say it when we want to get going. But this one I’m […]

Over the Christmas holidays at her German granny’s, our little girl (18 months old as of yesterday) has perfected the art of saying “yes” and “no” with her head. We have made some educated guesses at the syllables that she’s been uttering in the past two weeks: “ga-ga” – (rubber) duck – from “quack-quack” (sound […]

We know for sure our girl understands both our languages. Whether Mommy asks “Gib Mama ein Küsschen auf die Wange” or Daddy requests “Donne un bisou à papa”, she knows we are asking for a kiss on the cheek (and we usually get it, unless she’s crying or really occupied). For some reasons, her Dad […]