L’émission On est faits pour s’entendre, sur RTL, avait invité, le 02 octobre 2012, Barbara Abdelilah-Bauer, fondatrice du Café Bilingue et généralement spécialiste dans la matière du bilinguisme, pour une discussion sur les enfants bilingues.

Pour l’instant, l’émission qui dure 35 minutes est encore disponible sur le site de RTL ici. (Si le lien ne marche plus, j’ai sauvegardé le fichier audio là.)

Cette émission, plus complète que celle passée récemment sur RFI (“Sa langue maternelle sera le bilinguisme”), comprend notamment les témoignages de deux grands-parents dont les petits-enfants vivent à l’étranger. Pour l’une se pose alors la question de comment préserver la culture française si loin de la France, pour L’autre celle de la sauvegarde des acquis linguistiques suite au retour de la famille en France.

Une blague, mauvaise, certes, mais qui est le reflet d’une triste vérité dans un pays où même le président ne maitrise pas l’anglais, est passée en début d’émission:

– Comment appelle-ton une personne qui parle deux langues ?
– Un bilingue.
– Comment appelle-ton une personne qui parle trois langues ?
– Un trilingue.
– Comment appelle-ton une personne qui parle plusieurs langues ?
– Un plurilingue.
– Comment appelle-ton une personne qui parle une seule langues ?
– Un Français.

Parfois ce sont les petites choses qui font sourire. Deux situations récentes :

Ce soir, en fin de repas

Mama : “Willst du Käse?” (Tu veux du fromage?)

Notre fille (28 mois) : “Non, pas kä!”

Elle court au frigo, visant le camembert.

Papa : “Tu sais, le truc rond [la boîte de camembert], c’est aussi du fromage!”

Elle : “Ah oui?”

Hier soir au lit (plein de peluches), pendant l’histoire de maman.

Maman prend le petit lapin qui était un cadeau de la pharmacie en face de la maternité.

Notre fille fait une phrase impossible de transcrire composé de français (lapin), allemand (da) et son propre langage. Facilement traduit en français “d’adulte”, elle donne ceci :

“Non maman, c’est mon lapin. Toi, ton lapin, il est là !” (Montrant le lapin sur l’étagère, cadeau de naissance que maman a reçu de ses propres grands-parents.)

Yesterday, at almost 29 months, was a good day for talking: two full sentences!

From the shoulders of her dad: “Papa, je veux descendre.” (Daddy, I want to go down.)

Discovering the still too-complicated-to-handle Crayola pens on a higher shelf: “Il est là mon crayon!” (That’s where my pen is!)

I thought it was good fun to introduce my little girl to Pippi Longstocking. Even more so when I discovered there’s a new illustrated editon with the most lovely pictures. Nostalgic as I am, they made me ditch my old copy with the black-and-white drawings. (Besides, the new one has the new German spelling and grammar rules.) How delightful to hear her ask about “Pippi, Tommy, ‘Ika!” And her big smile when she discovered my good old Pippi towel.

Then we started showing her the movies. In small bits, under parental supervision. In German. (Better than those mindless cartoons on the telly…)

Except that last Saturday she undid the hand of a display dummy in the supermarket, and today she tried riding her rocking cow first cross-legged and then standing up.

When does Pippi become too much PippI?

Our little girl has very few words she actively uses in both languages. Usually, when she has one word, whether German or French or an onomatopoeia (such as “wauwau” for “dog”), she sticks with that, even if she understands perfectly well when we say “Hund” or “chien”.

For some strange reason (and to my obvious delight), “cow” is the second word, after “tschüß” / “au revoir” (and “bye-bye” following our holiday in Canada), that she uses in both languages.

Enter the crane. Not the bird, but the construction engine. There are a few in our neighbourhood that she’ll see regularly. So Daddy has told her this big metal beast is a “grue”, and Mommy has told her it’s a “Kran”. And when she says one while she’s with the other, we’ll tell her “yes, that’s right that a grue/kran” (in our respective language). I’ll go even further when she insists “non, grue!”. I’ll tell her “Yes, Daddy says grue, and Mommy says Kran.”

So yesterday, on a drive where we came past several cranes, after we’d both told or confirmed her the respective term, she’d point them out and say “papa-grue, mama-kran”. 🙂

Our little girl’s active vocabulary still tends to be mainly French, but when she has a word in one language, she usually sticks with it.

The other day, Daddy asked her for the French version of one of her first words in German, namely cheese (Käse/fromage):

Daddy: “Tu sais dire fromage?” (Can you say “cheese”?)

She, cheese in hand, a huge smile on her face: “Oui! Kä!”

I was looking forward to this, or rather, I was curious about it.

Mixing languages is a stage most bilingual kids go through, and normally it sorts itself out with time, once the child realises there are two different sets of vocabulary and how to use them. Correcting is not recommended, at least not in the early stages, mainly for two reasons: a) the child doesn’t make the difference yet but will do so given there is a clear separation between the languages the child hears, and b) being corrected all the time would only frustrate the child and curb his or her desire to communicate. Frankly, how would you like it if someone corrected you as soon as you opening your mouth to say something?

My little girl has been using “pas” (not, French) in abundance recently, notably in sentences like “pas dodo” (I don’t want to sleep, French/baby-French) or more simply “pas ça” (not that, French).

Since I often ask her to choose between things, such as her trousers, for instance, she’ll hear from me “Welche Jeans möchtest du anziehen?” (Which pair of jeans do you want to wear, German) “Die da (pointing to one) oder die da (pointing to the other)?” (This one or that one, German)

Last week she told me which one she didn’t want: “Pas die da!”

Another expression she’ll hear from me is “da lang” (that way, German) when we walk to the nanny’s in the morning.  There are several options, and of course you can often take either sidewalk of a given street. She shows that she knows that when she says “pas da lang” (not that way).

The other day, at the swimming pool, my little girl didn’t want to get dressed. We were in the communal changing rooms reserved for the baby swimming group, and another child her age came in with his dad. At some point I told her “Guck, der Junge zieht sich auch an.” (“Look, the boy is getting dressed too.” ) His father looked at me: “Mais ce n’est pas comme ça tous les jours non plus.” (“It’s not like that every day either.”)

Some situations don’t need translations. 🙂

Last weekend I took my little girl to see her granny (“Oma”) in Germany. It was an occasion to speak and hear only German for a few days, as Daddy stayed home.

Oma doesn’t speak much French, and I had to translate “lait” and “chat”, but also “ouais” which she sometimes says instead of “oui”. (Blame her parents.) Oma was, however, very insistent with new words, and her granddaughter diligently repeated everything after her.

Back home, she doesn’t speak more German, but she speaks more, as Daddy noted half an hour after we arrived (and the nanny confirmed the next day).

Two funny situations in the past few days:

I was running late for training, and she was still at the table, so Daddy suggested I read her the German bedtime story while she was having dessert. When I came with the book, she gave me a scandalised look and said some long sentence which I didn’t understand, but her pointing first to the book and then to her dessert made it clear she meant: “It’ snot story time yet, it’s dessert time!”

And today, her 4½-year-old “future boyfriend” was visiting. At one point, he was telling her that he wanted 3 children later. A conversation ensued with him arguing in favour of 3 kids and her replying something that I’m not sure even he understood, but that went back and forth for a good five minutes. (Parents listening in the doorway.) Then when his mom came in, he called out to her “Mom, she doesn’t want me to have three children!” His mother, trying to keep a straight face, answered: “That’s alright, darling, unless you wan tot have them with her.”

To be continued…

There are so many words and little sentences she says, but just try to switch on the recorder at the right moment!
Whether it’s “papa, la lune” (pointing to the moon) or “pas chat” (not to be confused with “non pas ça”), the recorder is never close at hand.
But last Thursday I handed it over to her on our way to the nanny’s, and she just talked away. Can you tell what she’s saying? Let me know!

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