cute baby stuff

[velvetpage]

Dragonlass is sitting in my lap, poking at the lettering on my sweatshirt and counting, with a fair level of accuracy, in French to about seven. She regularly stops this fascinating pursuit to bang her head against my arm or eat my hair. (Apparently it's yummy - her word, not mine. Is there anything in Alberto mousse that will impede her development if she puts a bit of my hair in her mouth from time to time? )

This just in - Mommy's hair: "I like it." "Nice cheveux." "Yum yum."

Have I mentioned before that I have the world's most wonderful toddler?

Comments

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

Too cute!

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm....I do recall you mentioning something of the sort, yes...... };=8Þ~~~~

[lousy-timing.livejournal.com]

I can agree with you since mine aren't toddlers any longer and that is a super adorable tale. Thanks for sharing.


(Not posting- just lurking.)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Feel free to lurk in my journal all you want. :)

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

We live in Hamilton. Its nickname is Steeltown. A few blocks from my house is the poorest school catchment area in the country. The level of resistance to learning French is one of the hardest parts of my job - most parents and kids simply don't value it.

Not only is it possible to grow up unilingual in Canada, over 75% of Canadians never touch French after they leave school.

That said, the best time to learn a second language is while you're learning the first, as a small child, because the toddler brain is sponge-like in its ability to absorb concepts. Any child with normal levels of brain power should be able to learn two languages from birth, if they're exposed to two. Not to say that Elizabeth isn't brilliant, of course - just that it's not the French that makes her brilliant. It's the discrimination she shows already between languages, the sheer volume of language she's already acquired, the active connections I see her making every day - things that many five-year-olds I know don't do.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

There are advantages to learning a language as an adult (which, btw, is what i did myself.) For example, you'll likely have a much better understanding of grammar than you would, learning it as a small child. You'll also be better able to draw connections between meanings in the two languages, especially if the language you're learning is a Romance or Germanic language. For years, when I wanted to remember the French word for "coat", the only connection that worked for me was "mantle". It is an actual connection - the English word and the French word have the same root. Knowing French has enriched my English in countless small words like that, and I don't think it would have been the same if I'd learned them at the same time. Having the excellent grasp of English first helped me learn French.

As for accent and fluency - those develop with hard work. A few years ago, after some serious study of French phonetics and morphology, I had my accent to the point where a few people in France were surprised to learn I hadn't always been fluent. I'm not quite that good now - it's a use-it-or-lose-it issue - but my accent is still much better than most anglophones with university French.