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Notes on how my daughter acquires three languages at the same time: French is the home language, Spanish is the caregiver's language, and English is the daycare and country's language.

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Qualités

At the dinner table, we each shared two things we liked about one another, including oneself. Her response:

Papa est drôle. Il m'aime beaucoup

Maman est gentille. Elle prépare des activités amusantes.

J’aime passer du temps avec ma famille. J'aime le bricolage.

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Guère

She figured out from songs and books that you can negate a verb in French by replacing “pas” with “guère”. So formal! 

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Premier de tout

O has no problem calquing phrases, like “premier de tout”, which is a literal translation of “first of all”.

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Rêves

Recently O told me about a couple of bad dreams she had. In one, a witch had vacuumed me and J up along with some other people. O managed to distract her and whisper to us “vite, sortez!” (quick, come out). In another dream, her Elsa barbie doll had shrunk, except for one arm that remained normal (i.e. big), which made her cry.

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Traduction

Oriana is able to read basic words in English in her head and translate them directly to French out loud for me.

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Pyjama

O and J bought me new pajamas but they were slightly too big. O suggested I put the pajamas away in my closet and wait until they fit me. She was serious and then I reminded her that I am done growing, to which she smiled and replied “j’avais oublié” (I had forgotten).

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Retour vers le futur

For some reason, after watching the first part of “Back to the Future”, she called Doc “Bernard”.

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猫

Oriana play with her Japanese friend at our house this evening. They both went in while the parents stayed outside, but then Oriana came to warn us that her friend "is afraid of the neko”. We didn’t get it at first because we didn’t know she had a Japanese word in there. But finally it made sense.

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Voirras

She figured out that future is built with infinitive + future endings, but she hasn’t figured out yet that “voir” is an irregular verb. I’m sure she will soon, so I am enjoying her little “mistakes” for now.

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Lait de maman

She still fondly remembers breastfeeding and comments about it every now and then. So funny. The other days she said that “le lait de maman sent le parfum des fleurs, du temps et du bonheur” (mommy’s milk smells like flowers, time, and happiness).

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Alsace

O is aware that her English is different from her peers’, which makes her a little nervous to start Kindergarten this week. When she expressed some worries a few weeks ago, I explained that everyone has an accent. I pointed out some examples involving her friends and myself. I explained that I have an Alsatian accent when I speak French. Today she was on a playground and told me that some boys didn’t seem to understand her very well. She shrugged it off and said it was because of her Alsatian and French accent. She didn’t seem worried at all; it’s just a fact now :-)

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Ambidextre

Josh was reminding Oriana that it’s good to practice using her weaker hand (in her case, the left hand). He went to get a pen and paper. She turned to me and said: “mais je veux pas être ambidextre!”.

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Diphthongs

She was randomly comparing the [o] sound in French with the English [ow] and told me how it was more difficult to pronounce in English. I explained to her that her impression was logical since there are two sounds in one in English, and told her it was called a diphthong. Was that too much info?

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Little monkeys

She likes to translate the “5 little monkeys” rhyme in French. She says “tomber bas” for ‘fall down’.

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Hein

She often uses a little end-of-sentence “hein” inflection, which I do too and is pretty typical in French. I was impressed that she noticed that tendency, but also seemed to find it annoying as she commented that “je n’arrive pas à résister à dire ‘hein’” (I can’t resist saying “hein”).

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Comme moi

After I complimented her on being a nice child she declared “Quand j’aurai un enfant je veux qu’il soit comme moi” (when I have a child I want him/her to be like me). She thinks highly of herself.

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Hypercorrection

She has gotten so much better with her /k/ and /g/, but still has a tendency to hypercorrect. I heard her say “sangale” instead of “sandale” and “couvercure” instead of “couverture”.