Dragonfly and Bee go to Russian club every Friday after school. The festive season is upon us, so they are busy preparing their Christmas / New Year show (Новогодная елка). As usual, there are songs and mini plays to be learned and, this year, this has led to Dragonfly insisting that she didn't want to be a blizzard with the girls, she wanted to be ice with the boys.
Now this is something I notice quite often at this Russian club: in shows and songs etc. the children take on more overtly gendered roles than they would at English schools. So, for instance, last summer, her group danced a rock 'n' roll style routine in boy-girl pairs, and for one dance, when there were too many girls, they made a couple of girls sit out rather than have a girl take on the 'boy' part.
This year, Dragonfly is long past her pink girly phase, so she objects to these overtly feminine roles. Looking at the play with ice and blizzards, language is clearly guiding the role decisions: лед (ice) is a masculine word, while метель (blizzard) is feminine. So if a girl plays the role of ice, she will be 'speaking like a boy' (grammatically). Grammar influences choreography and the routine designed ends up gendered visually too: the blizzards are doing some feminine twirling around while ice is stomping about in masculine way.
Anyway, after the blizzard and ice grump last week, Dragonfly has come to terms with the twirling (and has learnt her part) so we'll be sticking with it and I don't have to discuss grammatical choreography with the teachers. Phew!
Friday 30 November 2012
Monday 26 November 2012
Is trilingualism all about language?
On Sunday, we went to visit our good friends who are also trilingual. He is Brazilian and she is Russian. They speak English to each other. When their first child was born, dad took the decision to speak English to him as he was worried that he wouldn't speak English well otherwise, and in order to avoid confusing him. Mum, on the other hand, spoke Russian.
This arrangement is still in place 10 years and two other children down the line, except that, progressively, Russian seems to be decreasing. During our visit, over 95% of the family conversation we heard was in English, with only a few small comments from mum in Russian. So, on first impressions, the family's trilingualism seems to be declining.
However, interestingly, nowadays mum speaks pretty good Portuguese (though dad's Russian has never really taken off!), so she is becoming trilingual although her children may not be at the moment. And they generally travel once a year to both Brazil and Russia and the children love these holidays. So they function well in those environments despite their lack of fluency and they have positive associations with these countries, which could provide a foundation for developing a later interest in the languages.
In addition, we were interested to see that, while our children may speak better Russian than theirs, in some respects their children have a far greater Russian influence in their lives: for instance, their Russian grandmother had just visited for a week from Russia and so their kitchen was full of traditional Russian foods (although the children didn't particularly want to eat them!). On the other hand, all our grandparents are here in London and are therefore fairly 'anglified' or, more accurately, internationalised when it comes to food: I can't remember the last time my mother-in-law cooked a Russian dish.
They have also recently moved house and have chosen a sparkling new-build. This is definitely a Brazilian influence: no cravings for period features in this family!
'Triculturalism' can take so many different forms - it will be interesting to see how this family continues to evolve: will language suddenly spring out of these influences at some point?
This arrangement is still in place 10 years and two other children down the line, except that, progressively, Russian seems to be decreasing. During our visit, over 95% of the family conversation we heard was in English, with only a few small comments from mum in Russian. So, on first impressions, the family's trilingualism seems to be declining.
However, interestingly, nowadays mum speaks pretty good Portuguese (though dad's Russian has never really taken off!), so she is becoming trilingual although her children may not be at the moment. And they generally travel once a year to both Brazil and Russia and the children love these holidays. So they function well in those environments despite their lack of fluency and they have positive associations with these countries, which could provide a foundation for developing a later interest in the languages.
In addition, we were interested to see that, while our children may speak better Russian than theirs, in some respects their children have a far greater Russian influence in their lives: for instance, their Russian grandmother had just visited for a week from Russia and so their kitchen was full of traditional Russian foods (although the children didn't particularly want to eat them!). On the other hand, all our grandparents are here in London and are therefore fairly 'anglified' or, more accurately, internationalised when it comes to food: I can't remember the last time my mother-in-law cooked a Russian dish.
They have also recently moved house and have chosen a sparkling new-build. This is definitely a Brazilian influence: no cravings for period features in this family!
'Triculturalism' can take so many different forms - it will be interesting to see how this family continues to evolve: will language suddenly spring out of these influences at some point?
Work - the enemy of trilingualism?
On Saturday, I met an Italian lady who lives in London. She and her German husband speak their respective languages to their children but the children (well, the older one, as the younger one is only 18 months old) only answer back in English, though they do understand.
Although her son has a certain degree of trilingualism (he understands 3 languages so could be called a 'passive trilingual'), she sees this situation as a 'lack of success' in getting her son to be trilingual. This is especially the case as she knows of children who speak their three languages beautifully. So we discussed possible reasons for this (relative) failure. She felt these were mainly due to work and her child's personality.
1. Work
The fact that both she and her husband work full-time in demanding jobs could have an impact. They are not around much to pass on their languages and certainly this must make things harder. However, they do employ Italian-speaking nannies ... so, theoretically at least, the son should be exposed to the language as much as he would be if she were at home. Perhaps the nannies don't actually speak Italian to the child? Or perhaps nannies are not as important as parental input?
2. Personality
Perhaps it's something to do with the child's personality. There may well be children who are more easily coaxed than others into speaking troublesome foreign languages ... I wonder if her second child will be more likely to speak the other languages?
Solutions?
She feels that the only way for her kids to learn their other languages is to send them to an Italian or German school, but which to choose? And that would mean lots of upheaval as they'd have to move her son away from the school where he is settled and probably move house.
We thought that perhaps an after school or Saturday language club could help. But obviously, fitting these all in is a challenge as you'd have to find a club for each language, and they'd have to be at different times. And then weekend clubs eat into the already limited family time that they have. Not an easy task!
Although her son has a certain degree of trilingualism (he understands 3 languages so could be called a 'passive trilingual'), she sees this situation as a 'lack of success' in getting her son to be trilingual. This is especially the case as she knows of children who speak their three languages beautifully. So we discussed possible reasons for this (relative) failure. She felt these were mainly due to work and her child's personality.
1. Work
The fact that both she and her husband work full-time in demanding jobs could have an impact. They are not around much to pass on their languages and certainly this must make things harder. However, they do employ Italian-speaking nannies ... so, theoretically at least, the son should be exposed to the language as much as he would be if she were at home. Perhaps the nannies don't actually speak Italian to the child? Or perhaps nannies are not as important as parental input?
2. Personality
Perhaps it's something to do with the child's personality. There may well be children who are more easily coaxed than others into speaking troublesome foreign languages ... I wonder if her second child will be more likely to speak the other languages?
Solutions?
She feels that the only way for her kids to learn their other languages is to send them to an Italian or German school, but which to choose? And that would mean lots of upheaval as they'd have to move her son away from the school where he is settled and probably move house.
We thought that perhaps an after school or Saturday language club could help. But obviously, fitting these all in is a challenge as you'd have to find a club for each language, and they'd have to be at different times. And then weekend clubs eat into the already limited family time that they have. Not an easy task!
Thursday 22 November 2012
Penpals
We're having a bit of follow up success on the 'finding French children to interact with' front.
This summer, Dragonfly went to a kids' day camp while we were on holiday in France. One of the aims (other than giving her the opportunity to do cool stuff like white water rafting and donkey riding!) was to increase her exposure to French, and in particular to enable her to interact with French kids.
And it seemed to work! Dragonfly came home each afternoon chatting away in a higher pitched voice than usual and using new phrases like 'hyper' ('j'avais hyper peur'). I was expecting the new vocabulary, but was intrigued about the new girly voice. Is it the case that French girls use a higher pitch generally than English girls? Does anyone have this experience with other languages? Something to investigate.
Anyway, to 'return to our sheep' (as the French would say), not only did Dragonfly chat away to French kids, she also made a new friend and we managed to arrange a few playdates. We swapped addresses and returned home ... and this is where the follow up success comes in: Dragonfly liked my suggestion that she might send her new friend a postcard (in French!), so we did that, and a few weeks later got a response! Dragonfly is so excited to be getting her own letters in the post she's already started drafting another letter. There's nothing like making language 'real' to increase motivation!
Tuesday 20 November 2012
Mushroom update
Well - the update is that no ambulance was required, so the purple mushrooms (which have turned brown on cooking - how boring!) will be on offer to all who wish this evening.
There's not much chance of poisoning Bee as he won't touch them, but Dragonfly is quite keen. She's always liked mushrooms and, when she was small, she called them 'champions' instead of 'champignons' in French, which seemed quite an appropriate mispronunciation given her enthusiasm for the things. During this phase, Bee was once called a champion for doing something impressive (running? jumping?), but was totally unimpressed as he thought he was being called a mushroom.
There's not much chance of poisoning Bee as he won't touch them, but Dragonfly is quite keen. She's always liked mushrooms and, when she was small, she called them 'champions' instead of 'champignons' in French, which seemed quite an appropriate mispronunciation given her enthusiasm for the things. During this phase, Bee was once called a champion for doing something impressive (running? jumping?), but was totally unimpressed as he thought he was being called a mushroom.
Monday 19 November 2012
Purple mushrooms!
The hazards of living with a Russian include having purple mushrooms on the menu ...
After some slightly tentative early steps to recreate the походы за грибами (mushroom picking outings) of my husband's childhood, we have gradually built up a certain amount of mushrooming expertise over the years. We have several preferred woods within striking distance of London that we try to visit in the autumn and a selection of known mushroom (ceps, chanterelles and several less-known varieties) that we collect and eat on a regular basis. In particularly good years we have even produced dried and salted mushrooms (pickled without vinegar) for use later in the year like 'proper Russians'.
This year, however, was a terrible mushroom year. Or perhaps it was simply a very late or very early mushroom year, but the result was that, when we went out in search of mushrooms at our usual time, we found none. And the pressures of family life mean that we can't simply pop out every weekend to check on our fungi friends. Result? A frustrated and desperate mushroom picker who, on a walk in Epping Forest this weekend, decided that that anything that wasn't clearly poisonous was worth a go. Hence this evening's offering: several pale purple mushrooms (Wood Blewitts, apparently), one skinny bright purple one (an 'Amethyst Deceiver', I am told) and a floppy tattered orange one (simply a 'Deceiver'). The deceiving fungi sound pretty dodgy to me, so we've adopted our usual tactic in these circumstances: we cook the mushrooms - dear husband tries them - if he's alive and well tomorrow, others can try them too.
Update tomorrow.
After some slightly tentative early steps to recreate the походы за грибами (mushroom picking outings) of my husband's childhood, we have gradually built up a certain amount of mushrooming expertise over the years. We have several preferred woods within striking distance of London that we try to visit in the autumn and a selection of known mushroom (ceps, chanterelles and several less-known varieties) that we collect and eat on a regular basis. In particularly good years we have even produced dried and salted mushrooms (pickled without vinegar) for use later in the year like 'proper Russians'.
This year, however, was a terrible mushroom year. Or perhaps it was simply a very late or very early mushroom year, but the result was that, when we went out in search of mushrooms at our usual time, we found none. And the pressures of family life mean that we can't simply pop out every weekend to check on our fungi friends. Result? A frustrated and desperate mushroom picker who, on a walk in Epping Forest this weekend, decided that that anything that wasn't clearly poisonous was worth a go. Hence this evening's offering: several pale purple mushrooms (Wood Blewitts, apparently), one skinny bright purple one (an 'Amethyst Deceiver', I am told) and a floppy tattered orange one (simply a 'Deceiver'). The deceiving fungi sound pretty dodgy to me, so we've adopted our usual tactic in these circumstances: we cook the mushrooms - dear husband tries them - if he's alive and well tomorrow, others can try them too.
Update tomorrow.
Bayard / Milan addicts
I took out my first subscription (to Popi) for Dragonfly when she was about 1. She mainly chewed and tore her magazine at the beginning, but we persevered and she grew big enough to engage with the book in less physical ways. We've subscribed to a magazine for her ever since and then added a suitable subscription for Bee when he was old enough. Soon we'll have tried them all!
Bayard has now merged with Milan Jeunesse, so they now have an even more bewildering choice of magazines on offer (see the whole list here: http://www.frenchmagforkids.com/collection_mag.html).
This choice, combined with two imperfectly coordinated subscription sources (my mother and myself!), means that we now have 4 of these magazines landing on our doormat every month! That's on top of the entire back collection of 'J'Aime Lire' books from when we were small ... But I can't complain: the magazines are great. Bee loves his animal magazine Wakou and enjoys seeing how he is now too big for Babar. Both Dragonfly and Bee enjoy Youpi (a Grandma gift). And J'aime Lire is Dragonfly's favourite and one of the main reasons she has managed to transfer most of her reading skills from English to French and can now read in French for pleasure. Hooray!
In addition, much to Bee-the-technology-addict's delight, these subscriptions also come with a web-based subscription to 'BayaM' with games, little films etc. so there is even an interactive element for demanding 21st Century children.
So I'm sure we'll be taking out a subscription for Butterfly when the time comes ...
Do you have any favourite French resources?
Saturday 17 November 2012
Propisnye bukvy!
Much to my surprise, despite not being particularly known for beautiful handwriting in English, and despite writing in Russian exclusively in rather wobbly capitals until very recently, Dragonfly (aged 9) is now suddenly writing pretty impressive 'propisnye bukvy' (joined up writing) in her Russian club notebook, even managing the required slant for most of the letters. Wow! I didn't expect that! I wonder whether it will impact on her handwriting generally (if she keeps it up) - you can often recognise Russian people's handwriting by this characteristic slanting pattern.
Bee's Russian went on holiday to New Zealand
Yesterday, the children went to their Friday afternoon Russian club. My competitive Bee (aged 5), came out feeling rather despondent mainly because he hadn't won any of the games they had played. This prompted a Russian rejection moment: apparently Bee's Russian had flown away to New Zealand. But when asked when/whether it might return, we were informed that it would be back at midnight - at least it hadn't permanently emigrated.
This morning, we tried a fully Russian-speaking breakfast. We try to do this once a week or so to boost the amount of Russian spoken at home as Dad is out at work and not around so much when the bugs are awake ... but it turned out that Bee's Russian was still stuck on a plane. Luckily, as Bee told us that it was now hovering over Kent he was informed that it would most likely be back imminently, landing at the private airport in the garden - so we welcomed Bee's Russian back this morning and had a nice family chat.
Friday 16 November 2012
5 year old spelling
Yesterday, Bee (aged 5) sat with his dad and wrote a list of country names - can you recognise them?
We were debating whether his 'eea' endings for 'indeea' and 'ostraileea' are particularly elongated (eea instead of 'ia' or even 'ya') because of his dad's Russian pronunciation of these country names. We might try it again next week with me discussing the countries to see whether the spelling comes out different.
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