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Glossographia - Bilingualism on the cheap
forthright
[info]forthright
Bilingualism on the cheap
Arthur (counting the salad bowls he has just 'helpfully' brought to the supper table): One, two, three, four.
Me: Can you count them in French?
Arthur (pauses): Uno ... dos ... tres ... cuatro ... Just like Handy Manny!

So in conclusion, we have been sending Arthur to a French-only daycare for six months now, to no effect, but a few hours of watching a TV show (and its accompanying website) have taught him to count in Spanish.

In other news, his pre-literacy skills proceed apace. He now has pretty good whole word recognition for a wide variety of words and especially the names of his favourite web sites and shows, and words from his favourite stories, which he identifies even when out of context / not in their original font - e.g., on the satellite TV channel listing. He knows how to use Google well enough to type in the first letter of whatever site he wants and then pick the right one from the list that pops up, and then click the search button. I have no idea what else he can do ... should I be worried? :)

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velvetpage From: [info]velvetpage Date: February 27th, 2008 11:38 pm (UTC) (Link)
That's pretty impressive.

Elizabeth can count to twenty in French and Spanish (thanks to Dora the Explorer) and to one hundred in English. Next year she starts French Immersion, so we'll see how things progress then.
blackbuffet From: [info]blackbuffet Date: February 28th, 2008 04:18 am (UTC) (Link)

No need to be worried...

I learned French when I was in Fifth Grade and it was "supposed to be" my Mother Tongue. I am sure Arthur has picked up a lot more French that you can imagine already... he is just not ready to cave in to Law 101 yet. (I said it... I dared.) French is much harder to pick up and just speak than English or Spanish but one of these days, you will have a perfectly swearing Quebecer! (Blame it on the French Academy and l'Office de la Langue Française.)
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