French Bilingual School off to a great start!
Sept 26, 2017 19:13:44 GMT 9
Post by Marie on Sept 26, 2017 19:13:44 GMT 9
She used to be very shy, which is when I was a little worried that she would never be properly fluent if she didn't use the language. The best thing we did was have the French au pair. That's when she actually would speak French and freely (without me insisting). I explained the au pair doesn't speak a word of English and this worked well (the au pair could speak English, but understood not to). I told my daughter a couple months before how we were getting an au pair for the summer and how fun she would be. I let her be part of the process to select one so she was excited for the au pair to arrive. Then I explained that the au pair doesn't speak English, so I need her to try her best to speak French, or the au pair might feel shy or want to go home because we don't speak her language. From day one, my daughter spoke to her in French and her progress in the two months we had the au pair was huge. After the au pair left we've continued with French support 2 hours on Thursday after school and 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday. We borrow other people's au pairs and they only speak French to my kids. They say my son still does not understand, which is normal as he just started the school, so my daughter has to translate for him sometimes. I am hoping this does not hinder his learning, if she is always translating for him between the au pair! I will give it a year, until I ask her to stop, as he will need a year I think to learn French at school. My daughter seems to be a bit quicker at learning languages.
After the au pair left, my daughter was shy about speaking French to her friend's parents in front of me...but slowly she is starting to not be shy. I think part of the reason she spoke French yesterday was because she ran off ahead to speak to her friend's mom...so she was alone with the mom and I was 20 feet ahead. I assumed she ran off and was speaking English with her, but as I got closer, I was surprised to hear my daughter speaking French and she continued to speak French even in front of me, which I was very happy about! I just smiled at the mom and didn't say a word (we had already spoken earlier while in the park). I didn't want to interrupt the French speaking with my English!
Nellie, you are very lucky you learned French at school! I know you wrote your background somewhere here, I need to find it again to remind myself of the details.
After the au pair left, my daughter was shy about speaking French to her friend's parents in front of me...but slowly she is starting to not be shy. I think part of the reason she spoke French yesterday was because she ran off ahead to speak to her friend's mom...so she was alone with the mom and I was 20 feet ahead. I assumed she ran off and was speaking English with her, but as I got closer, I was surprised to hear my daughter speaking French and she continued to speak French even in front of me, which I was very happy about! I just smiled at the mom and didn't say a word (we had already spoken earlier while in the park). I didn't want to interrupt the French speaking with my English!
Nellie, you are very lucky you learned French at school! I know you wrote your background somewhere here, I need to find it again to remind myself of the details.