America; Let's Wake up Bilingual

 

I Want the World to Wake Up Bilingual...or at Least North America

Imagine…if we could understand each other twice as well, if we were always able to see double; both sides to every event, if we could hear and see and speak to each other on more than one level. What if we all dreamed in two languages?

I know you have thought about it; “I wish I spoke French: I would be able to tell the Über driver I need to stop off for a photo op in front of the Palace before we head to the airport. I could order wine like a local, and find the best place for cheese near my Air Bnb in Toulouse.” What other connections could I be making on my next trip?

“I bet the Greek grandmother next door would have insights on gardening to share; have you seen those roses?! And she looks like fun too; I see her laughing uproariously with her son every evening around the table out back. Too bad we can’t communicate.” People flit in and out of our lives every day who speak to us in broken, proficient or even excellent English, but hide profound depths of wealth and fascinating stories in their own tongue. 

As an interpreter, I know from experience how nice it is to exchange greetings in Spanish with my colleagues from Mexico or Peru, but also how I long to read Rumi in Farsi, or not to miss out on the chatter of my Polish colleagues…in Polish.

Language is most fundamentally human. Communication can pass through a gesture, a glance, a word, or all three, but these are person to person moments rich with meaning and intention and human interaction. Language allows us to ask, to answer, to appreciate and to grow. Staring and mumbling into a screen doesn’t quite make the grade, does it? Yes, subtitles are excellent, and language apps bring us one step closer, but speaking to a friend, a child, a lover makes it real. 

And, yes, people of Quebec, I know you are the exception to my dream AND the example we might heed!

Bonne journée, très cher lecteur/lectrice. Have a marvelous day, dearest reader.

Feathers of Frost and a Polar Vortex Kind of Day: Survival Guide and Celebration

                     The Coldest Day of the Year is Here

I went to bed anticipating exactly the sort of day I awoke to, fabulous works of art on my windows, painted in the night by Jack Frost; to the north we have a delightful new feather pattern I have never seen before covering the entire outer windowpane, the inner one left with merely a fancy slope of icing along the bottom edge, just to let me know this is serious stuff. To the west there is a beautiful decor of tiny star bursts dotting the entire field of vision, more thickly bunched to each side. 

Nothing gives me more of a cozy thrill than a day at home when the temperature will not reach 0 degrees. To the poor people who miss this each year when they flee south for three months...my heart goes out to you. 

"It's just not as cold as it used to be," can be heard around here, here being deep in the Midwest. Well, today it is, and we seem to be down to about one week of this each year now, which is just sufficient to put one in the right frame of mind for looking forward to the springtime again. I love these days, and this one is even better, because there is no reason for me to go back out in it. 

How cold is it? Well, let's see...I have been traveling around the state for work since Sunday. Sunday felt cold, but it was 16 degrees F., I believe. Saturday's snow dump had just barely been cleared away as I was departing. An hour before, on the road conditions website, parts of the highway were still marked "covered by snow and/or ice" and "towing not advised per state mandate." My red nose and cheeks can be seen in a quick video I shot to show the pretty, white Iowa landscape. I had been out of the car for all of 30 seconds and I looked like a 17th-century washerwoman at the end of a long week. 

Let's Do What You Love!

The other night, my husband asked if I would like to bike down to our favorite date night spot by the river. It was already 8:00pm, but I said yes...and what a ride. The way down, was, predictably, not too bad. Heading home later in the dark, the Mississippi was beautiful and mysterious. Then we had to climb the hills. I cursed his cute little trim rear end half the way home...until we turned into the woods, and it was magic. The drone of the locusts, the dark, the creek bubbling along the path. There was no one but us and the wild of the forest dwellers.

My husband regularly takes me out of my comfort zone. Without his encouragement, I would maybe not use my bike very often. He opens up new vistas and experiences for me in the same town I have lived in for fifteen years. All it takes from me is a "yes," and a little uphill climbing, to soar.

What is the raison d’etre of this little blog? The reason for everything else I do.  I write and talk and make things happen when someone says;

                          "I wish I could..." 

homeschool? knit? cook? speak another language? Make Waldorf more a part of our lives? find nature, even in the city? YES YOU CAN! Taking a willing participant along on the journey makes my day. I am so very fortunate to have people who take me along on new ventures, literally.

You will have to find your own questions, and your own reason for asking them, but I am absolutely determined that if you ask me, my response will be a resounding...OF COURSE! If you are willing to put in the effort, the rest will follow, people will show up to help you, the universe will open up possibilities and you will paint, dance, cook, sing, knit, homeschool along the Waldorf/Steiner path. You will love life again. This blog is meant for one reason: to empower you, the Waldorf homeschooling mother or father, to confidently say, “yes, I can do this!”

Planning Lessons and Bilingual Families

I wonder if every parent of bilingual children comes to this point one day or another: to compel or not to compel a reluctant or just not so enthusiastic child to speak, read and write in his second language as well as in the first. 

Pierre and I have decided to pursue a formal level of grammar and composition in French for the children this year (the ones who are 9-14). We have come to the conclusion that since being truly bilingual means the written as well as the spoken language, it is high time the older children knew how to construct a proper sentence in French; spelling, conjugated verbs and all. This is contrary to the way I have watched these same children evolve in English. They are constant readers who are always either reading or listening to a book. Apart from a brief foray into the incredibly uninteresting world of "First Grammar Lessons," in the early years, we have never done any formal language lessons. Yet their writing is fine, rich and varied in vocabulary and expressions. True, there is a need for editing for spelling and some punctuation, but no more than an average child of their age would require.

It's just not the same in French. After years of reading to them in French, some reading on their own and the occasional letter to the relatives over there, we have simply not spent the same amount of time on the written language. They can speak fluently and they think that is pretty cool now, but learning to spell is not quite as fun or cool. 

Yet, it is what must happen. There are opportunities that will only be open to them at certain ages and only if they can read and write French at a high school level. As the adults, we know that these are a privilege. To let them pass by the chance to go to college for free, for example, would simply be negligence, and I think they would resent me later for not being stricter while they were in my care. 

Some part of me though, is wondering if my reasoning is any different than parents who keep their children at baseball or cello practice long after they are bored with it and tired out, under guise of "opportunity". I would argue that language is a natural part of being human and our family's identity is  tied into these two languages that compose our world. My unschooling, trust-your-children mind wants all learning to stem from a true desire to do so, from a place of pure joy and auto-inspiration. I think all the schools in the world would ideally be libraries, the knowledge and people of knowledge there for the seeking, never forced, never a chore.

Ah, but some things in life do not come easily. This will be a year of gentle encouragement and lively teaching as we tackle French grammar, among other things, together. Du gateau?

French with Kids

Our sixth child, our language program, the project we've schemed, dreamed and worked on for over a year, is about to see the light of the computer screen and a real audience. Next week, French with Kids will "go live" as my techie husband calls it.

So, why did I need to go invent another language program for children? I did not intend to, really, I am pretty busy and was not searching for a new project. I was writing a review of the top language programs in an article on language acquisition and bilingual children. I realized that I had really better test the ones I had never set eyes on for myself. That is when I discovered that they were really designed with adults in mind. Learning a language as a child is a different matter than learning one as an adult. The vocabulary you relate to and require in everyday life is so far from the world of newspapers, coffee, market values or taking a taxi. "Put your shoes on" is a more likely candidate for an expression you will hear each day.

Even the programs written for children are lacking in good, practical, usable vocabulary. Some are funny, some are sophisticated, some are written with the classroom and international travel in mind. In every high school French book you will learn to say "My name is Gerard. I am Dutch. Let's go to the beach," and then on to "The teacher's desk is next to the chalkboard," all very useful expressions in your home in Florida or Saskatchewan. I felt there was a better way to go about this.

I have been teaching foreign languages for over twenty years. I began teaching English in Spain when I was in college. The thrill of a student who is finally conversing, reading and writing in their new chosen language is wonderful. The excitement of hearing my own children speak first English after moving to America, then French upon returning to France, is even greater. I love learning to communicate with other peoples and other cultures in their own language and I love helping other people do so too.

As a homeschooler, I had something else in mind. Homeschooling or not, involved parents can tell you that whatever it is that a child is learning, the parent learns right along with them. Why not learn together using the words you already use each day together? It is a simple idea; daily exchanges with your child translated into another language. All of the exchanges are requests that will elicit a response; either an action or a dialog. Both are guaranteed to promote memory.

Learning together as a family is more fun than sitting at a computer screen alone, too. The questions and answers of the daily lessons work together, both parent and child make an effort to communicate, Both may be rolling on the floor laughing at the other's attempts, or singing the song of the week together.

Will there be grammar, reading, writing? Yes, but in time. Complex grammatical structures are used every day painlessly and naturally. Learning about them is necessary, but not right away. I see that my own children, who have been encouraged to read every day in French these past three months, are writing with more ease and less mistakes. My dd and I sat down the other day with a Latin teacher for a lesson. I discovered that she understood not only the basics of sentence structure, but also concepts like object complements and predicate adjectives with a minimum of explanations. She could also write the French translations correctly.

So, the first step is to integrate and have fun with the language. Let it become part of your day, part of your family. Go ahead and challenge yourself to learn just one useful expression a day and let your children answer back for once; as long as it is in French!

I will post as soon as things are up and running (I can't wait!) The first week's lesson will be available for free at the web site. A bientot!