Jedes Mal, wenn wir uns das Bilderbuch “Conni am Strand” angucken, fragt meine Tochter mich, wie die Möwe auf der zweiten Seite heißt. Am Anfang habe ich geantwortet “weiß ich nicht”, aber die Frage kam beim nächsten Mal natürlich wieder. So habe ich, unter Berufung auf die traumhaft illustrierten Emma & Max-Bücher von Marlies Kahlsdorf, […]

Our girl is in school now. Her first day was quite memorable in that, as we were early and waiting at the door, she knocked on it and called “Lehrer, aufmachen!” (Teacher, open up!) When I asked her after her first (very short) day what her teacher had said, she told me “alle hinsetzen” (sit […]

Last night, the three of us were sitting together when our daughter started asking me a question: “Pourqu- Warum…?” That was not the first time in recent weeks that I noted her switching languages when addressing herself first to one, then to the other parent. Sometimes she will even repeat the same sentence to each […]

Aujourd’hui, j’ai reçu cet article d’un ami : C’est vrai qu’on se demande comment ils font. Et moi, je me demande aussi, comment font les chercheurs pour obtenir leurs réponses ? Ils doivent trouver des moyens ingénieux, comme nous avons vu nous-mêmes lors de nos diverses participations à des études sur l’acquisition du langage.

We both noticed recently that our little girl (3 years 3 months) builds her mixed sentences with the verb at the end. So while French vocabulary is dominant, in grammar, German seems to rule. Interesting, isn’t it? An example from tonight: Moi veux lieber à la salon dormir. (Notice also that she still uses “la” […]

We finished our holidays with a few days at my mother’s who is a retired school teacher and takes care to speak a lot with our little girl. They both love looking at books together, and one richly illustrated fairy tale book is a perennial favourite. So there they were, looking at a story, and […]

A few days after we returned from our ice cream intensive holiday (see my previous post on the subject), we went to the beach in Normandy and bought an ice cream before heading home. My little girl ordered her cornet of strawberry ice cream and a little plastic spoon all by herself – in German!

Tonight my little girl and I were doing a puzzle when she had to go to the bathroom. Reminding me not to continue without her, she informed me: “Ma-ya tout de suite wieder.” She amended/added immediately to: “Ma-ya komm wieder.” * In case I hadn’t understood, I suppose. 🙂   * “Ma-ya” is her expression […]

My little girl got a balloon on a “stick” today in a big furniture chain store. She waved it around and the balloon half slipped off the stick. My daughter alerted us to this distressing situation with these two consecutive sentences: “Mein Ballon est cassé!” “Ma ballon ist kaputt!” Either case, 50% French, 50% German. […]

Once more I’ve had proof that kids can learn a language very quickly when they want to. My daughter, who until our recent holiday in Germany had yet to say her first full German sentence, learned within the first few days that to get her ice cream after supper at our hotel, she had to […]