I’m happy to report that the toddler is doing much better. She seems much less stressed, meaning she doesn’t scream at each and every stranger that says hello to her. Whew!
The click came a couple of weeks ago when she began speaking English outside the home (home being a primarily French-speaking household, if I hadn’t said that yet). In her sweet, heavily accented voice, she has begun saying stuff like, “What is your name?” “Can I play with you?” and “I want to eat.”
It’s funny how we seem to be a really verbal family. Communicating makes us feel better. I remember that when I moved to France 10 years ago, I was stressed for the entire year it took me to speak the language fluently. Lilou got over it in two months. Children are more resilient.
It really helped, I think, that I had been speaking English to her since she was born, so that she could always understand the language, although perhaps not as well as she could French. Pierre also had a couple of talks with her, explaining that if she wanted to go play with other kids, she had to make an effort to speak English to them.
And so she did. Now on to the fabulous job of trying to answer both her “whys” and “pourquois.” She’s at that age.
Hi, I decided not to comment about this at first because I have strong opinions on how to raise children multilingually. One of the main resources I had on how to raise my son multi-lingual was the website multilingualliving.com.
Anyhow, living in a different country is, in my opinion, the best thing one can do for a child, whether it is to learn a new language, or to learn and accept another culture or another part of the child’s heritage.
Thank you for chiming in, Cathy. We ourselves do not have very very strong opinions about it, we just try to make the speaking of the languages interesting. I have always believed that we only really learn a new language if there’s a need for it, which is why Lilou finally speaks.